We left Livingston!

Today we left Lake Livingston State Park. We had a great week there and made friends with Mike and Patty from Oklahoma. It was nice hanging with them over the fire, playing guitar and solving all the worlds woes, yet again.
















We headed toward Austin via the back roads on the Piney Woods and into the Lakes and Prairies section that brought us through Huntsville, Texas. The blooming wild flowers all along the way were spectacular and made the trip more beautiful and also longer in duration.
We also stopped briefly to eat our lunch and to see the statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville. It is huge and supposedly the "largest statue of an American hero in the world" according to local legend. He was quite an important guy in the world of Texas during its time of its own sovereign country hood and his importance continued after they became an admitted state of the union.





For our supper that evening we stopped along the Barbeque Trail at the renowned Taylor Cafe in Taylor Texas. This is a True Honky Tonk that has been in existence for 52+ years and owned and operated by Mister Vencil who is now 84 (42 twice as he says it) and still comes in every day and prepares the brisket, beef, chicken and sausage meat in the pit . He graciously took a picture with us and gave us a copy of his newspaper write up and then allowed us to tour (which he directed without leaving his chair)his office and the pit area of his establishement after being prompted by one of the locals sititing across from him at the bar. What a sweet guy this Vencil is. While we were eating our supper, after a rousing game of pool between Jasper and me, we watched Mister Vencil fall gently asleep sitting behind the bar. Amongst all the beer bottles clanking and people talking and coming and going, he drifted off as if there was no one else in the place. He welcomed us personally and thanked us for coming and asked us to come back and visit him again.










back out on the highway we saw some bones in the road (who gladly posed and waited for my digital camera to get the shot before heading off).











We pulled into Hwy 71 campground just 20 miles outside and to the East of Austin at around 7PM. We set up and jumped in the car to head to the city. Before getting there though we stopped in to see the McKinney Falls State Park campground that we were going to stay at but decided to go private this time. It is directly within the city limits but it appears as though you are in the Big Thicket National Preserve. If you didn't leave the grounds, you would never know that you were in the city. There were masses of deer, everywhere and we even saw an Owl up close sitting on a speed limit sign right in front of our car. Spinning his/her head around, a couple of times, to check us out before flying away.

Austin is a great looking city and it seems to be completely safe. This assessment was made by us based on talking to folks who live there and by the number of single people walking and jogging thru the parks alone at night. The latter prompted the former. It is also a beautifully clean city and once again we find the people to be very friendly and welcoming. We found that "Shadow Kissing" is definitely encouraged!! What a nice City!









The Capitol building and grounds are the quality of the White House but you are free to walk around and view the place even at 10 at night. While there I went up to one of the State Police stationed at a gate in his car to ask him directions to the music clubs. He spent 10 minutes talking to me asking where we were from, welcoming us to Texas and explaining which clubs he thought would be best for a more mature crowd (he was doing real good up till that moment) and giving me directions and naming the clubs, before he wished us well and thanked us for coming to visit Texas. So, when was the last time you were formally and pleasantly welcomed to CT but one of our esteemed state troopers (sans citation)?

















Before leaving for the night, although we tried to have Pizza at Home Slice on Congress Ave.,it was 10:02 when we got there and they told us that they stop letting people in at 10. So we put it off until tomorrow and went up the road just a bit to have cupcakes from an airstream RV turned cupcake kiosk named "Hey Cupcake" we spotted coming in. The name and the Airstream RV are real attention grabbers on the corner where they are parked.



There we made the acquaintance of Katie who was working that night who had just recently returned home to Austin from LA, CA. She was extremely nice to us and extremely friendly. She couldn't welcome us enough or take care of us enough. She told us all the great things about what she called the small town city of Austin, where everybody knows everybody.We ordered two decedent cupcakes and she gave us six. She made sure we didn't leave without our very own "Hey Cupcakes" fridge magnet and then as a final over the top gift she gave us three logo screened T shirts as well. katie told us that the business has only be up and running for 6 months. When they started out the were selling around 200 cupcakes per week. Last week they sold 7000. Funny, people don't look FAT!
There are just great people every where we go.
We headed home at around 11:30 PM.
Another very cool day in the life on the road!