Austin, TX

Tuesday Nov 15: Finally made it to Austin..  before leaving the state park this morning we seen a roadrunner!  our first..  we did not hit rain until around Waco.  It was a light rain and not too much traffic, so not too bad.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel for a quick bite, pancakes for me (yummy) and meatloaf for Eric.. 

we are at McKinney Falls State Park just south of Austin.  we were going to stay at Perdernales Falls SP but changed at the last minute.  McKinney is closer to downtown Austin.  weather is humid and about 69!  Had a sub sandwich from a local place,, very good and Mexican beer.  my favorite Victoria and Eric tried a Corona Familiar, which was pretty good too..   No fires allowed here in Austin so it was an NCIS night.

Wednesday Nov 16:

friends came by for a quick visit.. 

After a quick run through the park we went to explore.. (ny second run since leaving WI!)

this is a 500 year old Bald Cypress..  some might remember from last years blog all the bald cypress we seen in South Carolina..

this is an old homestead... or whats left of it.. note the covered porch... just like our new house!!!

after lunch at the campsite,  we headed into Austin to the 3M complex to meet up with friend Andy L. and for a tour of the campus.  as expected we had a great tour and visit.

we headed to Driftwood to the Salt Lick BBQ
but first we stopped for a 6 pack of Shiner Hefeweizen beer (this is a byob place)

the meat...

we decided on the pork ribs, beef brisket, sausage and turkey..

the ribs were wonderfully tender and moist, same with the beef brisket (Texas might make a brisket lover out of me yet!), the turkey was perfect and the sausage was great.  all the meat was moist and very smoky..  did not care for the sauce, in fact we asked for no sauce..  the beans were very good, forget the potato's and cole slaw.  it was a bit of a drive but the meat was worth it!