Going to Texas
In a couple of days Wonder Woman will be dropping me off at the airport so I can fly to Austin for a four-day visit with my son who has now lived there longer than he did in his co-called hometown. No one likes to fly, so I won't belly ache too much about how much that part will suck. I'm just going to wear comfortable clothes and try to use my sleep anywhere superpower to make the flights seem shorter. I have to change planes in Atlanta, a city I hope is getting fired up to vote for Harris/Walz.
My son is a competent cook, but he knows I like to eat out, especially in a city as food friendly as ATX. One thing they have there that we don't have here are readily available breakfast tacos. I don't know why we don't have them because we have Mexican restaurants aplenty. Aside from breakfast tacos, there is another Mexican breakfast dish I really enjoy. It's called migas and it's got scrambled eggs, onions, jalapeños garlic, cheese and crumbled tortilla chips topped with salsa. I make it at home once in a while, but I don't have the touch that a professional cook does.
I will also undoubtably have some Texas barbecue. That means brisket. In North Carolina barbecue means pork cooked low and slow. I enjoy both traditions. There are a couple of places in town that I like. One of them, Stiles Switch Barbecue, not only serves great smoked meats, it was also used in the filming of that classic movie about younger boomer teenagers, Dazed and Confused starring Austin's native son, Matthew McConaughey.
We will also make a pilgrimage to Half Priced Books. I've been going to used books stores for 50 years and my son had been going his entire life. It's the only kind of shopping I do for entertainment. There's just something challenging to me about finding just the right cheap paperback to devote hours of my life to. I'm partial to science fiction, hard science fiction preferably. I also like books about British cops and detectives. If I venture into non-fiction, it will be some form of military history or a biography of someone interesting.
We will probably also go to Zilker Metropolitan Park, a 350-acre section of greenery right in the middle of town at the juncture of Barton Creek and Lady Bird Lake. It's full of walking paths, a Botanical Garden, athletic facilities and even has space for large scale events like the concert series Austin City Limits.
There is a great grocery store chain in Texas that's better than anything we have in North Carolina. It's called HEB and I'll probably go two or three times while I'm there because I'm just funny that way. I love a good grocery store and every department at HEB is special from the cheese counter to the butcher to the produce.
I have two other relatives who live in town, a 19-year-old grandson who is going through a stage of asserting his independence. I hope I get to see him while I'm their but if I don't, I'll just chalk it up to him being 19 like I was once. My first cousin is also a native Austin resident and he's joining us for a minor-league baseball game during the weekend. I love spending time with him. He's a sports encyclopedia with journalism degree and he has an eye for detail. He's from the branch of my family with good politics and can always be relied on to give me the low down on whether Ted Cruz can be beaten by his latest challenger.
I'm not the kind who has to be entertained 24/7 so hopefully there will be some quiet time in my son's pink stucco central-Austin bungalow just hanging out so I can get some writing done. We will probably visit a couple of art galleries that he's scouted out so he can show my what he's into these days. I'll be exhausted and happy at the end of the trip but ready to come home to Wonder Woman, who is running a 40-mile race on the Iron Mountain Trail in SW Virginia while I am gone.
Enjoyed it? Please upvote 👇