Day 6: Royse City to Austin

We woke up at 10 am in a dumpy hotel in Royse City, TX, just about 20 miles east of Dallas. We hustled to get out of there. For the record, this place still used actual keys to get in the door. Our doorknob had its guts removed in a handyman accident, so we had to use the deadbolt to lock the door. Sketchy! Anyhow, when we were ready to go, I took the key to the office where I was greeted with a sign that read, "Please drop key here. Please have free coffee. Have a good day." Nice. So I dropped my key and hightailed it out of there.

On the drive through Dallas, we were fortunate enough to pass a yellow taxi cab labeled as Karaoke Yellow Cab Co.. That was weird enough, but when I looked at the driver, he was singing into a big microphone in his right hand! Wow! If only we'd had more time.... Unfortunately, I was not able to get my camera out in time to get a picture.

We also passed what appeared to be a geodesic dome village. One of the domes was designed to look like some kind of Starship Enterprise-type vehicle.


Another series of buildings resembled a caterpillar.


Outside a town called "Carl's Corner," we found this wacky sign.


No, that is not a truck; it's just a sign made to look like a truck. I don't know who Carl is, but I'll bet he's a hell of a guy!

After a while, I was starting to get a bit hangry, so we stopped at a Jack-in-the-Box. I'd never been to one that I recall, so we thought we'd test it out. Burgers, fries, sodas, no big deal, but yummy. (I'll refrain from showing those food photos as they are less than interesting.)

Aah, here's where I need to back up in the story a little bit. A friend of mine from grade school and high school, Michelle B., lives outside Austin now, and when she saw that I was going to be passing through, she sent me a message on Facebook to see if I needed a place to stay. What a Godsend! We were happy to take her up on her generous offer, especially when she mentioned that she had two kitties. Yay! When we reached her town, Georgetown, TX, we sat in her great duplex and got reacquainted. You see, I haven't seen Michelle since 1991 or so! We had a LOT of catching up to do! It was a lot of fun.

For dinner, we decided to go to a place called Threadgill's. It is apparently a restaurant where Janis Joplin once waited tables. Michelle recommended it, but so did our guide book. (I hope Aaron approves!)


After many days of ultra-meaty meals, Dave and I both felt that it was time for some vegetables, so we each ordered the 5-veg plates. I chose a Caesar salad, steamed broccoli, San Antonio squash (yellow squash and cheese casserole), corn off the cob (with hot peppers and onions), and mac and cheese. An excellent choice, I must say. Dave had, well, his own food. He had butter beans, scalloped potatoes, collard greens, garlic cheese grits, and broccoli casserole. We ate like horses, I tell ya. But then, THEN, we heard the sweetest words spill from our server's mouth:

Would you care for seconds?

I'm sorry, what? Did you really just ask me that? She apprised us of the reality that there were free seconds on vegetables. Oh, Lord, we have found the Promised Land, and it is Threadgill's!

BEFORE:


AFTER:


This...THIS is an amazing place.

We followed that up with desserts that were almost too much. Dave had the chocolate icebox pie: like almost-cooked fudge with whipped cream and kept in the fridge. Damn good!


I had the buttermilk pie. Whoa. It was like a coconut cream pie without the coconut. Delicious!


Once that insanity was over, we headed downtown to the Congress Ave. bridge that goes over Lady Bird Lake. This bridge is billed as the world's largest urban bat colony. However, because of the overgrowth, the sign looks like it says, "World's Largest Urban Bat Colon."


By the time we were through, I think it definitely smelled like a bat's colon out there. However, we clearly showed up on the right night because tonight was the Austin American-Statesman BAT JAM!


What does that mean, my mother is asking. Well, Mom, it means that you stand near the underside of a highway bridge, and at dusk, you watch over a million bats fly out from the underside of the bridge to go eat bugs for a few hours. It looks a little bit like this:


or this:


but mostly, it looks like this:



and this:



It was super cool. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was totally worth it. Dave remarked that this was the second time in two days that someone asked us if we were coming to see some weird display of animals (ducks, then bats).

Here are some other random shots from that event:


Is there a name for these things?


He looks frightened, doesn't he? And rightly so.


My friend Michelle showing her bat pride!

This child was wearing her tiny white puppy in a Baby Bjorn-style carrier on her chest. The dog? Nonplussed.


After sitting in traffic for a while, we made it back to a town called Round Rock, where we had really delicious shaved ice. Not quite a NOLA snowball, but it was still good. Once we got home, Michelle horrified and entertained me by busting out our old yearbooks and class pictures. Holy cow, was I a mess! Ugh!

Now, to bed. Sooooo tired. Tomorrow: the Alamo, and perhaps a bit more Austin.