Elepent

The lack of boondocking love in Dallas didn’t hurt our feelings too badly; we had planned to head out of town before too long anyway.  And we did just that, hooking up the AEV and heading south to Austin.  Though it’s a short-ish hop–only 195 miles or so–the cultural landscape undergoes a light-year’s worth of change.  Where Dallas is very Texan Big Business, Austin leans more toward the cultural-mecca end of the spectrum.  The money in Austin isn’t as big (though it’s definitely there: regular spotting of Ferraris and Lamborghinis on the road attest to this), and the focus is on entertainment and lifestyle rather than being the biggest and brightest.

Austin’s unique for its social makeup, in which seasoned hippies rub elbows with college-age hipsters, new-money industrialists, hardworking laborers and an army of musicians.  Oh, yes, Nashville calls itself the Music City, but Austin’s got a great deal more to interest us tune-wise, because its music scene’s a lot more diverse.  We arrived in town just in time for the annual South by Southwest music festival, which we’ll talk about later.

While you’re downtown getting a feel for the college-y Sixth Street bar district, or its more mature counterpart over on Fourth, be sure to arrive before dusk to check out the bats.  The South Congress bridge, over what looks like a river but is actually called Lady Bird Lake or Town Lake, depending on which end of it you’re at, is the summer home of the largest urban colony of Mexican freetailed bats in North America.  Over 1.5 million of these tiny midnight fliers roost under the bridge, and at sunset they head out to take care of business.  The daily exodus is something to see, as the masses of bats take to the air in a steady flow lasting forty minutes or more.  Don’t be afraid; a large crowd gathers nightly to see them take off, and the bats don’t pose any threat to humans.   These little guys eat insects–up to 10,000 to 20,000 pounds a night, which helps to keep the mosquito population down–and aren’t interested in getting tangled in your hair.

This diverse town also offers many places to eat, of course.  It would take years to visit them all, but we can recommend Banzai and Ichiban for sushi and excellent Japanese fare, the tree-themed Woodland for a fantastic breakfast or elegant supper, Curra’s Grill for outstanding Tex-Mex and local favorite Threadgill’s for homestyle American cuisine.  If you want it, you can probably find it.  Looking for Thai?  Try Thai Passion, downtown.  How about Romanian?  Austin’s got you covered; head up to the tiny, family-owned Drakula.  Austin’s also home to the Alamo Drafthouse, a premier dinner-and-a-movie joint.

It seems as though even the “regular” businesses in Austin are somehow cooler.  Why bother with Blockbuster when you’ve got I Luv Video, whose shelves are stocked with just about every obscure and cult DVD you could ask for?  Where most video stores are hard-pressed to offer a full selection of anything but the newest releases, I Luv Video has sections devoted to specific directors’ entire catalogs.  There’s a row containing nothing but classic silent films.  The knowledgeable staff is also well-versed in cinematic trivia, and stickers with commentary on the films at hand are common throughout the store.  Thumbnail reviews by the staff are also found at Book People.  This massive independent bookstore is a great place for browsing.

Speaking of browsing, the South Congress Street antique shopping district is also worth a weekend walk.  You’re guaranteed to find something you didn’t know you needed at Uncommon Objects, to see an awesome rat rod or a flotilla of Vespa scooters parked or on the road, and don’t forget to hit the carnival goodness that is the Big Top candy shop.

RV camping is a bit spendy in downtown Austin (unless you’re coming from California).  The Pecan Grove RV park is a quaint, retro-style park that’s literally right in the heart of downtown, within walking or biking distance to most of the stuff we just talked about as well as the lovely Zilker Park and Barton Creek Springs.  We stayed at Pecan Grove for a few days, then moved farther out of town to save money.  If you’re willing to trek ten or fifteen miles out of town, the prices are more reasonable.  We pulled into the Highway 71 RV Park expecting to stay for a week or two, and wound up settling in for quite a while.  Highway 71 has a decent mix of vacationers and long-term residents, extremely clean facilities, free wi-fi and a friendly staff.   If you stay near the man-made pond, the resident ducks will come to your door begging for handouts and heedless of the fact that bread isn’t particularly good for them (we gave them cat food).

More on Austin shortly…