Austin is one of the cities we were most looking forward to visiting on our trip. We had heard really good things, and of course it’s home to Franklin BBQ, and that had Billy really excited. We had a pretty long drive from Crystal Beach, and we added to the length by throwing in a stop at the Houston IKEA.
We only had to ask one car to move in order to get out of the parking lot
It was HOT. Ellie had stayed in the bus with Karlee (the dog), so as soon as we checked out, Billy took the boys and our stuff back, while I stayed behind to get the ice cream cones. You have to get ice cream when you finish at IKEA! I’ll always remember this trip, because I had my receipt and debit card in between my teeth, and an ice cream cone in each hand. Well, the bus was parked at the BACK of the parking lot, so it was quite the walk. Did I mention it was hot? The ice cream dripped profusely down each arm the whole way. I was actually laughing at the halfway point because it was just that ridiculous. My arms were COVERED in ice cream all the way down to my elbows, and there was barely anything left on the cones when I finally reached the bus. At least I had immediate access to my kitchen! Ah, the benefits of driving your house right into the IKEA parking lot.
This is how we roll
This is also how we roll
We weren’t able to snag one of the (very few) RV spots directly in the city, so we stayed a little on the outskirts, but it was less than fifteen minutes from downtown.
Thanks to a cancellation, we got a waterfront spot! The sites were made for fifth wheels, so they were all back-ins, but we realized that just wouldn’t do and we turned around. The view was so cool from the bus, because it felt like we were on a houseboat!!
This spot gave us some of the most spectacular sunsets we’ve ever seen.
First up was finding one of the food trucks Austin is so famous for. We usually use Road Food or Yelp to find good spots, but the first place we tried was closed so we just wandered down the streets and stopped when something smelled good!
We ended up at Rollin’ Smoke and oh man. The food was outstanding. The brisket was insanely good, and even the vegetarian tacos we got for Ellie were out of this world.
Give it to meeee!
No food truck for dessert though – I know it’s criminal to eat fast food in a town that’s famous for its foodie scene – but I wait ALL YEAR for the chocolate peppermint milkshake to come out for the holidays at Chick-fil-A and I just had to have one! I do tend to go a little overboard knowing I won’t have it for the remaining ten months out of the year.
So good
I hardly slept at all that night, because 1) it was incredibly windy (like, the dog bowl blew away), and 2) the campground warned us that RATTLESNAKES liked to come out and warm themselves on the pavement at this time of year. Thankfully we didn’t encounter any during the week, but it didn’t stop me from worrying about it! I kept imagining one slithering up next to the dog while she slept and biting her, or hiding in one of the bays for warmth and surprising us later. Surely I’m not the only one in the world who loses sleep over irrational fears?! Ugh!
We also lost our outdoor trashcan. At first we thought Deacon had just failed to do his job, which is setting it up, but bless his heart he swore he did it.
Two days later, we found it.
