Last weekend I took a trip to Austin because the walls were starting to close in on me. I highly recommend getting out of town when you can. I feel so relaxed and recharged.
I think I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve stayed in Austin since I moved to Houston in 1989. Boy, has it ever changed. I stayed at the Holiday
I stayed at the Holiday Inn at IH-35 and 290 in the shadow of what used to be Highland Mall but is now Austin Community College.
In what used to be the huge mall parking lot there are a lot of apartments and condos going up. So many, in fact, that it is hard to see the old mall. I did drive around to look and finally did catch a glimpse of it. Parts of it have not yet been developed by ACC and you can still see the faded beauty of its early 1970s architecture.
And that neighborhood is in an odd state of transition. I could see the median of 290 from my balcony. It is now a tent city. I’m assuming they are homeless but they all had tents. Very strange to see.
I found an Austin radio station I liked called “Bob” and was referred to as “he” because Austin is still keeping it weird. Some of the music was from the mid-1980s, a time when I lived there in a house behind Capital Plaza. I decided to go find my house and, oddly, I couldn’t find it. I remembered Cloverleaf Street but not the numbers. Guess I’ve been gone too long.
I did, however, find the Whataburger at the end of Cameron Road where my roommates and I ate many meals after late nights clubbing. The three of us went there so often that we’d just say “it’s us” in the drive through line and the people inside knew who we were and exactly what we wanted.
On Saturday I decided to drive around and look at old haunts but everything has changed so much that I didn’t recognize most of it.
Downtown was totally changed and a mystery to me. I walked a little around Lady Bird Lake which was known as Town Lake back in my day.
I expected to see lots of hippies but I mostly saw families with kids. But I know hippies still live there because my nephew lives there, and he’s a big hippy now.
There’s a new bridge across the river that is only for walking and running. I’m fairly certain that wasn’t there before. There were so many kayakers that it didn’t look like any fun to me. Way too crowded for my taste.
The hotel cost $99 per night but I liked the location and it was near a few places I wanted to go. And for those of you with significant others and/or children, the room was very large and there was a sectional sofa which would sleep two not very tall children. And enough space between it and the bed to make a pallet for bigger kids.
I only had one expensive meal out and I enjoyed every bite of it. And the main reason it was expensive was because they thought much too highly of their margaritas. I’m glad to be back in Rockdale where margaritas are much more affordable.
I went to HEB to get hotel snacks to save on eating out. My room had a nice sized mini fridge. The HEB I went to was in a Hispanic neighborhood and that was a nice experience. There were a lot of things available that I’ve never seen in another HEB. Even on the snack aisle. I’d like to go back there when I have more time. I’ll bet the meat market was different too.
I also went to an Asian food grocery store and spent an hour in there looking at all kinds of different foods.
So I left town and our Tigers won the bell. Go Tigers! I hope they don’t ask me to leave every Friday so I won’t be a jinx.
Or do I?
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