robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

Our final weekend was spent in one of our favourite cities of our trip – Austin, Texas. Matt and Lauren (who we met earlier on our travels) invited us to stay the weekend and see some of the nightlife of Austin.

First up was a bit of sight-seeing at Mount Bonnell – kind of like the Kings Park equivalent of Austin. We got there just at the right time too to watch as the sun set. The river is lined with mansions and we were forever trying to spot Matthew McConaughey or Lance Armstrong – but alas, no luck.

How's the serenity

Robster and I

Matt and Lozza

After some dinner we headed out to the Warehouse District of the city. Since we hadn’t been to that part of town before it was great to see what else Austin had to offer. First up was a bar with 100’s of beers available – and even an Australian beer besides Fosters woohoo!

Rob seems to be a magnet for bums bumming money. And this night was no exception. We somehow managed to have a bum serenading us – and he just would not shut up. Finally Rob flipped him a buck and told him to work on his pitch.

Awkward moment with the bum

The next night we were lucky enough to go to Lauren’s dad’s place for a premature birthday celebration for Matt. The food was incredible and we had air hockey and pool to entertain us. We had so many laughs it was ridiculous – Laurens brother in particular was pretty hilarious.

Me being schooled at air hockey

Doubles

Linda, Matt, Lauren and Marty

A big thanks to Matt and Lauren for letting us intrude for the weekend. We had a great time and would love to repay the favour sometime.

So we are off to Japan tomorrow – should be a bit of a cultural change. Lets hope we don’t get lost straight away.

Leeane

PS> I bought an iPod touch (an early birthday present from Rob) and it is awesome!

Tags: austin, texas

We got to scratch off another thing from our ‘things to do in America list’ the other day, which of course means we fired a handgun in a dry creek bed. It feels really strange and highly illegal firing off rounds in the backyard but that feeling disappeared as quick as my hearing after the first shot.

bang!

bang bang!

bang bang bang!

We also managed to drag Clydester away from his endless grazing to pose with us in some pictures. I had a slightly bad feeling that he’d charge off and trample us horribly, but thankfully he just stood there and slept instead.

blazing saddles

giddy up

A couple days later we decided a German food fix in near by Fredericksburg was in order. Conveniently on the way is an old train tunnel which since it’s demise in the 1940s has since become inhabited by tens of thousands of bats. Consequently the bat’s have made it there own by infusing the tunnel with guano, more technically known as bat shit in these parts. The smell is undescribable, to the point where even Duffy was overwhelmed.

the bat cave

The picture doesn’t really do the scene justice as if you look at the far entrance of the tunnel you’ll see black specks darting around everywhere against the stark white contrast of the sunlight. The tunnel also has nightly viewings of the bats leaving the tunnel at sunset for their nightly feed of crickets and moths, unfortunately we were a couple hours early for that one and we had a feed of our own to hunt for.

An outstanding German feast at the Fredericksburg Brewery was in order, topped off with a few fine, german pilsners. Curiosity got the better of Uncle Bob and myself and we ordered a sample of their ‘finest’ bitter…. my oath it was the bitterest thing I’ve ever tasted! For the beer lovers out there, the IBU (bitterness rating) was 100 which may not mean anything to you but compare it to say Little Creatures Pale Ale which I find quite bitter and around 25-30 IBU and you’ll get the picture.

die shintzel ein rueben!

Unfortunately our stay with Uncle Bob and the various critters had to come to an end sometime, I think it was harder to say goodbye the second time but he’ll be in Australia next year so knowing that makes it easier.

Rob

Tags: texas

The challenge of eating a supersized McDonalds meal has been completed. And let’s cut to the chase… I failed.

There could be many excuses – the heat, the fact that we at at 5pm (hardly dinner time!!) or the fact I had stuffed myself with Reeses Butter Cups already etc. But in the end there are no excuses – it was a heck of a lot of food and drink.

Mmmm doesnt that just look delicious!

We were lucky enough to find a McDonalds that actually does the supersizing still. Supersizing seems to be a bit of a dirty word since the movie came out. Of course, everything is bigger in Texas so we were in the right state to find a supersized-enabled Macca’s.

I started off with the fries – did most of them.. then did the burger… started to hit the wall right about there. After downing half the Coke I tried to go back to the fries to finish them off, but I just couldn’t face any more. I could have taken the drink and fries with me to finish later (after all I had 45 minutes to complete the challenge) but at that stage I didn’t want to be within a 10-foot pole of any food so had to admit failing the challenge.

Stuffing my cheeks - this was before I hit the wall

Big fries and coke. Note Uncle Bobs face in the background.

Of course, 20 minutes later I was feeling better and wished I had kept the food so I could finish it.

The leftover fries that stood between me an victory. Damn them!

Oh well. Next time!!  Not.
Leeane

Tags: mcdonalds, texas

We have been spending the last few days at Uncle Bob’s place having a good relaxation session and feasting on all things bad for us. We have also been working on our tans (or lack thereof) and Rob has been counting the blisters on his hands after chopping up trees with an axe for Uncle Bob.

After spending the day listening to Average White Band on my iPod to gear up for the gig we are going to next Tuesday, I thought I would check my email. And lo-and-behold… an email from Ticketmaster saying the one and only gig in San Francisco has been CANCELLED!

Needless to say, we are absolutely devasted. The only way we could see them is to make a mad rush up to Seattle – but I don’t think thats gonna happen.

We went to an IHOP which stands for International House of Pancakes. So those that know me, know that… well… pretty much heaven. The food was certainly bigger and better than the diner meals we have had, and still very cheap. I wish I had taken a photo!! But maybe we will go back there before our time is up.

Next on our list is to go to McDonalds before we leave Texas. Because I have to get that pesky “Macca’s Challenge” out of the way – else I will never hear the end of it!!

Leeane

Tags: texas

We spent the last few days up at Lake Buchanan at Aunt Chris and her husband Martin’s place. It is a good couple hours North East of Kerrville but the trip was well worth it – we all had an absolute ball!

So first of all we have to show off the trailer/caravan – no camping here – this thing is all luxury inside with air-conditioning, shower, toilet and a fully equipped kitchen. The mid-section of the trailer also slides out which gives you a good meter or two of extra room in the middle. You will be glad to know that Uncle Bob has had this trailer for years and years and this is the first time he has actually taken it away and used it himself.

On the road again...

After a few false starts we eventually got on the road and arrived at Lake Buchanan in the early evening. Just enough time to set up and level the trailer and head down to the balcony by the lake to kick off what was to become a drinking marathon of a weekend. This is about where an unusual obsession with saying the Aussie word “dodgy” arose – something Martin in particular just couldn’t say quite right no matter how hard he tried – or how much beer he consumed.

Here are some photos of Aunt Chris’ place – it is really beautiful.

The balcony and the boat. The lake level is quite low at the moment.

View of the lake from the back room

Inside the house, looking down towards the lake

View of the front of the house

The next day we headed out on the boat for a day of swimming and sunshine. The lake is absolutely huge and there are lots of little islands spread around which have some good swimming beaches.

Cap'n Chris Daenzer

Rob on the tag-along

Robinson Crusoe

Left to right: Duffy, Uncle Bob, Leeane, Rob, Aunt Chris, Martin

The Daenzers also have two Gold Retrievers just like Duffy so the dogs had an absolute ball playing in the water. Although, all the excitement proved a bit too much for Duffy eventually.

Too tired to swim anymore

"I'm SO tired Dad"

Martin’s son (Matt) and his wife (Lauren) rocked up to join in the drinking marathon. They are about the same ages as us and we had a great time getting to know them. If we have a spare week at the end of our USA trip we will try to come back to Austin to hang out with them a bit more.

Posing up a storm..

That night while trying to sleep in the trailer, we were woken at an ungodly hour by the gas alarm in the trailer. It was pretty much the most annoying and loud noise ever. After eventually finding the mute button and going back to our beds the alarm went on again and again and again. After double checking the gas tank was turned off and that we weren’t about to die of gas poisoning, we concluded that the alarm must be faulty and in the absence of a hammer to destroy the alarm then set about some MacGyver style fix where we sticky taped the mute button down. Thankfully we didn’t hear a peep from the alarm for the rest of the night. And by the next morning we almost started to find it funny…

On our final day after a healthy breakfast of breakfast tacos (yum yum) and tamales we headed out on the boat again with Matt and Lauren where the boys did some cliff diving, rope swinging and fire-fighting (yes.. fire fighting). We also managed to sail by a wedding and then later a family spreading the ashes of someone into the lake – we had to speed up to get out of the down-wind ash storm heading our way.

Contemplating the plunge

Rob plunging to the water

Matt on the rope-swing of death

Of course, being the Aussie ambassadors that we are, we tried to teach these folks a few things about Australia (besides the word “dodgy”). So we also taught them that Aboriginals are black, “Shrimp on the barbie” is not something we say – we have prawns instead, that we DO have satellites in Australia and that we have the Queen on our money. I am sure you will agree these are important lessons to learn.

The only sad news to report is that we left Duffy there. Uncle Bob has been trying to find a good place to leave Duffy while he goes to Chicago with us (leave on Wednesday). After seeing how well he gets along with the other dogs it was quite obvious that Aunt Chris’ place would be doggie heaven for him. But it meant we had to say goodbye to him a few days earlier than expected.

In case Aunt Chris or Martin are reading this post, thank you so much for having us for the weekend. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know y’all.

Rob and Leeane

Tags: lake buchanan

Uncle Bob was kind enough to pick us up from Austin and spare us a seat-kicking, greyhound bus journey. This had an added bonus that he could take us on a more scenic route on the way back to Kerrville and as an extra super bonus he mentioned that he had recently discovered that a international bar called, ‘The Tap Room’ with scores of different tap beers was ‘mostly’ on the route back .

Unfortunately our thirsts were open for business but the bar wasn’t– at least for another hour. Instead, we kicked around the Texas State University campus and watched Duffy chase after squirrels . We were really hoping that the Tap Room would be everything that we hoped it would and like almost everything in America, it didn’t disappoint. The bar had over 40 international beers on tap, including a nice Scottish beer and a couple of nice imported German beers, which we of course consumed. There was notably no Australian beers on tap, which was kind of a good thing since all we ever see here is Fosters and as the bar tender said, ‘It’s not very good’. Well put I thought, especially since there are 40 infinitely better beers on tap.

The Wall Of Beer

Of course, we had a few and Uncle Bob wanted to strike a few poses…

After settling in back at the ranch, I was put to work doing hard yakka. Of course, physical labour always looks manliest when shirtless so naturally….

The Hulk of Hunk

The photo is actually quite a nice one, the dead oak tree in the background makes it look really cool. Well done Leels!

As a reward we were treated to a little chunk of Vegas right in downtown Kerrville, a Mexican joint called, ‘Mama Citas’ ( pronounced: mama see tahs). It has the old “outside-in” feel with a starry night in the roof and a life-size replica of the Alamo and David Crockett. Ofcourse, the food is pretty good as well.

Mama Cita's spectacular

Next we went into the local hardware/everything store called Gibson’s. The motto for the store is “If Gibson’s don’t have it, you don’t need it” and I reckon that’s about true. Naturally we headed straight to the gun area where we found a rather scary but incredibly friendly gun mad Texan salesman. He was telling us all about his time as a paratrooper and how if the USA tried to implement similar gun laws that we have in Australia, that they would have to pry his guns out of his “cold dead hands”. He also was bringing out lots of guns (including pink guns – for the girls of course) and kept asking if we wanted to hold them for some photos. We politely declined as we didn’t want our prints on anything handled by that guy. Another thing which was a bit crazy was 20″ long machetes for sale for $6 – all in a rubbish bin type thing on the floor of the store – and packaged with just cable ties holding them to a thin cardboard backing.

We are heading up to Lake Buchannan to see Aunt Chris and co tomorrow so we will be sure to get plenty of photos and will report back on the weekend.

Over and out,

Rob

Tags: texas

We decided to take a Greyhound bus to get to Austin from San Antonio which was a 2 hour bus ride of kids kicking the back of our seats and people talking overly loud on cell phones. For 2 hours though, it was easily bearable and gave us a chance to see the intercity landscape. Turns out there wasn’t that much ‘landscape’ as there’s always a fast food outlet in sight.

After arriving in Austin and catching a taxi to our hotel, we went for a bite to eat down the infamous 6th Street area. The street is lined with pubs and eateries and has a young, alternative feel to it which is not surprising considering the University of Texas in the vicinity. I had the pleasure of trying a local burger called ‘The Coronary’ which lived up its name with its deep-fried pickle filling and general artery clogging goodness.

The following day after doubling my cholesterol medication we took a tour through the Capitol Building

Capitol Couple

It’s a deceptively big building that also contains an extensive underground section.

View from outside

Looking up at the dome

Looking down from the top of the dome

After checking out the capitol building we moved onto the University of Texas campus and the main drag of shops that line the campus perimeter. The campus itself is more like a smallish city and although we spent about an hour within the campus we only saw about a quarter of it.

UT Tower and me

Leeane pointing to where the tower is in case you don't see it

We also checked out the UT Coop shop which is basically a shop that has everything branded with the ‘Longhorns’ logo. Garden gnomes, ashtrays, wedding bands, hammers (yes, longhorn hammers!) and even shoes. It’s crazy, but for some reason I would really like a Longhorns hammer!

While we were checking out some largely abandoned foodhalls on the strip of UT, we passed by an Army Recruiting office, when we passed by again on the way out I told Leeane that if we loiter around long enough then I guy will come out and try to recruit us. Sure enough, within about 5 seconds a grunt came out of the door and introduced himself and tried to persuade me to enlist. Attempting to get out of it I mentioned that we were Australian and he shouldn’t waste his time, instead he said that we could enlist as ‘registered aliens’ if we wished. The guy was pretty persistent but we were able to get away with just a business card that we promised to pass onto someone that looked like a promising recruit. Although I didn’t enlist, I passed on Braden’s details and signed some blank document on his behalf which the recruiter said he would type up later…. don’t know what that is all about.

We met some local friends at the park behind the Capital and we managed to snap a few shots. This is the first time we’ve seen squirrels up close since we’ve been here, we should have seen some at Uncle Bobs but apparently Duffy has chased them all away.

peek a boo!

scratching his butt against a tree....

We also finally got around to trying out the Subway alternative Quiznos and just like Uncle Bob said, it is loads better than Subway. We’ll definitely be hitting that up again a couple times before we leave.

Also we bumped into some Aussies staying at our hotel, they are the first Australians we’ve seen so far and likewise for them. They told us that they came over from Iceland flying Iceland Air and they had an engine explode and catch fire just after take off! Note to self, don’t fly Iceland Air!

Rob

Tags: austin

We have spent the last couple days in San Antonio – to get out of Uncle Bob’s hair a bit 🙂 And tomorrow we will be heading up to Austin for another few days before joining Uncle Bob again in Kerrville for some more Texas fun.

Our hotel here in San Antonio is in a great location – walking distance to all the attractions. But it is on the wrong side of the tracks – literally. They supply earplugs next to the bible in the top bedside drawer because people often complain about the noise from the Amtrak station (train provider) across the street. Rob and I haven’t heard a peep from the trains though – must be because we are exhausted from walking around all day or perhaps it is from the hearing damage we suffered from the Wiley House Jam!

Texas is feeling the aftermath of Hurricane Eduardo at the moment, which makes for very hot/cloudy/humid conditions. Give us the dry heat of Las Vegas anyday!

The main attractions in San Antonio seem to be the Alamo and the RiverWalk. We spent today doing both.

The Alamo is an old building from the 1700’s which was part of a fortification during a last stand battle with the Mexicans in the 1800’s. After being outnumbered 200 Texans to an eventual 6000 Mexicans, the Texans were eventually overpowered and after a 13 day struggle and final 2 hour hand to hand battle everyone inside was either killed or executed. So, it is a bit of a shrine to American history and the bravery of some of the soldiers (Davy Crockett and co). They don’t allow photo’s inside…. but I managed to snap a few whilst the armed guards weren’t looking. Yes… armed guards called ‘Alamo Rangers’  guarding the shrine of liberty… only in Texas.

Rob out the front of the Alamo building

Me out the front of the Alamo

inside the fort is a big garden area

Next up was the River Walk which is right next door. It is a long river system – which is lined by overpriced restaurants ofcourse! It is actually quite picturesque and we opted to jump on one of the little tourist boat cruises to save some walking around.

rob on the river boat cruise

i am trying to copy the pose of the hooters girls (at rob's request)... i think i have to do more practice.

After that we headed up to Market Square – which we heard was a bit of a Mexican shopping area. After making the long walk in the sweltering sun, it wasn’t worth the effort at all. But we did stop in a little cafe where we grabbed a quick bite to eat.

rob eating his manly ceasar salad. this is about the 100th ceasar salad he has had in america.

my chicken sandwhich.. in croissant bread. when she asked if i wanted chips.. i didnt think she meant chips of this type :S

Leeane

Tags: texas

The other night ( after the Wallabies game ) we went over to Wiley’s again to gorge ourselves silly on gen-u-ine Texan food such as baked beans, pork brisket, beef butt, beef / pork / veal sausage and bread rolls – possibly with meat in it, I can’t remember for sure. Of course all of this is done Wiley style, that is to say, from scratch and in Texas proportions. Needless to say I was again uncomfortably full for a few hours and not much good for anything, apart from hydrating myself in true Texas style.

Tonight was the night I was going to meet a bass player named Randy who used to play for Willy Nelson’s band a while back. My plan was to pick his brain about where to buy a bass in Texas since I am currently in the market and I can save thousands by buying it over here and then lugging it around with me. Unfortunately for me, Randy called in sick tonight!! And tonight is jam night!!!

Word got around pretty fast that I am a bass player ( thanks to Uncle Bob ) and despite mustering up all my weaseling powers, they madly phoned around and got a replacement bass delivered for me. No escape.

The guitarist, Ron led me over to the jam room to warm up and I have to say, this jam room is probably one of the nicest I’ve been in. Plenty of space, a nice P.A , 5 foot tall amps and pornographic artwork tell me that this jam room is home to one style of music – Rock! Sadly Chuck Berry is not in my repitoire but I soon noticed that most of the old time songs are standard 12 bar blues patterns so I was able to wing it enough, that and Ron likes his guitar ‘beyond loud’ so I don’t think anyone could really hear me anyway.

Me and Rockin' Ron

Ron and his can of liquid rock

Ron is quite the showman and loves a good solo or two during a song and the lighting in the room makes for some interesting photos…

Rock on!

Rockin' so hard you can see the blues

Wiley suppied the tambourine for most of the songs and lended very authentic vocals for ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’  – complete with ciggy in hand.

sharing a laugh with Wiley (left)

The Wiley House Band.... and Duff's head

Steve, the drummer

All in all It was actually a really enjoyable jam and well worth the ear damage and second hand smoke. The only real blemish on the night was that the Wallabies lost in a game laden with reffing errors making it really unbearable to watch and not the most ideal game for Uncle Bob’s introduction to world of rugby… ah well, there is always next weekend!

Rob

Tags: food, music

Question. What is the most American thing that we could do coming to America? Buy a gun! So guess what we did yesterday? Well, you have to wait for the answer to that since I need to tell you about something bigger than the American Dream….. Walmart.

We’ve been telling Uncle Bob since we got here that one of the big attractions of coming to the states was to visit a Walmart. Yesterday he dropped us at one whilst he went to run some errands but not before we saw something utterly strange to our Australian eyes, a drive through bank. I’m not sure if we were meant to take photos of this attraction but it sure was taking photos of us so I guess fair’s fair.

 

Then it was onto the big-boy. Walmart is like our equivalent in size to Bunnings but it in terms of content it’s like Coles, K-mart, Big W and Maccas all smooshed together. It’s awesome!

Straight away, after checking the vending machines out front for any bizarre drinks ( cherry coke-zero anyone? ) we headed straight for the gun section. Alarm bells are probably ringing at the moment so you’ll be happy to know they are only air rifles, potentially lethal none-the-less and suitably labelled with a 16+ age restriction. Ours was only $30 too! Bargain!

After picking out a suitable firearm and some booze amongst other supplies, we took our cart to the checkout. I laid out the items on the checkout and the lady behind the counter asked me for ID, at first I thought it was because of the air-rifle but after quizzing her it was because of the 12-pack of Miller Genuine Draft – makes sense to me!

I have to admit I felt a little uneasy pushing a shopping trolley through the car park with a scoped air-rifle jutting out of it, however no one seemed to bat an eye lid so we just rolled with it.

Uncle Bob took us to a pub on the way back called, ‘The Back Porch’. This was a more ‘standard’ pub in terms of layout, however it had a view to match Ol’ Dave’s.

View from the back porch

Two times the view

Here we got to meet Uncle Bob’s ex, Kathy Lou – Kat for short. Let me tell you she is an utter crack up and has the best authentic Texas accent. She says all the things we came to Texas for like ‘Gol Leeeee’ and ‘Sweet Mary Jane’. She’s a fun lady and loved hearing our accents just as much as we loved hearing hers.

Gol-Lee!

We sat around at the Back Porch for a few hours enjoying the view and the suds and thinking this is a great place to kill some time and brain cells. Uncle Bob told us previously that he hates posing for photos, it turns out after about two or three beers he loves it as we managed to snap this one – which he initiated.

Four Millers

After a couple hours at the Back Porch, Uncle Bob told us we were ready to go see his good friend ( and Kat’s brother ) Wiley for a real Texas experience. We’ve heard he and his wife are great cooks and they certainly lived up to their reputation and were very hospitable which seems to be great Texas trait.

Their hospitality also extends to animals it seems as they have a pet racoon that they rescued three months ago when it was just born. They’ve been bottle feeding it ever since and it seems to be quite a handful, especially when it burrows through the furniture!

The Coon

We ate and drank for a few hours more with Wiley and his kids and their friends and they quizzed us about Australia and we quizzed them about America, in particular guns. Turns out some of the kids here own thirty plus firearms for both hunting and protection. I think we’ll just stick to our air-rifle for the time being.

Speaking of which, the next morning after a big breakfast we started setting up cans around the ranch and testing our aim. The scope needed to be bore-sited so we spent most of the day zeroing it in and now it’s pretty accurate.

Bore-siting the rifle

The target

The plan is to use the air-rifle to scare off wild deer that feed on the horse’s feed. We’ve tested it out a bit so far, when they get close you can send a round into the feed tin and the ‘PITANG!’ sound is enough to startle them and send them bounding away. Uncle Bob should be able to patrol his property more effectively now and keep Clyde’s food safe.

Crack Shot Robinson

Good ol' boy

Redneck Rob

Our parents are probably pretty worried about seeing us holding firearms ( apart from Dad who probably thinks it’s neat) so let me end this post with a nice calming picture of Bert the puppy who lives up the road and looks to be the same breed as Lilly.

Shooo Cute

Rob

Tags: texas