Austin – Oh, How We Love You!

If I had to claim anywhere as my hometown, I’d have to go with Austin.

I lived here from the time I was 4 until I moved out on my own at 19. Unfortunately, at age 19 I was not yet cool enough to realize just how unique of a city Austin is.  I’m blessed that my brother moved back here as an adult, giving me ample excuse to keep Austin in my life and continue to grow with it.

Each time I visit, I realize just how much Austin is in my blood and soul. And this visit has been no exception.

Coming into town, we weren’t able to secure a reservation for more than a couple nights and thought we’d be commuting in from Gonzales. But when we pulled into the fantastically awesome Pecan Grove RV Park, they’ve graciously been able to extend our stay out to now nearly 3 weeks.

Pecan Grove is the perfect RV Park and base camp for Austin.  (Well, ok not as perfect as our friends Yair & Ayo have scored – by finding driveway surfing nearby for a fraction of the cost.)

Not only is it nestled in an actual pecan grove – it’s an old-school park that the city grew up around.  It’s right along the Town Lake Trail (ok ok… now renamed Lady Bird Lake), next to Zilker Park and within walking distance of just about everything cool in Austin.  We can walk to downtown, shopping, ample food and even the popular SoCo (South Congress) district. It’s been a perfect 78704 base camp for us while we’re working so many hours.

Sadly, Pecan Grove is probably not long for this world.  Its neighboring RV Park, Mobile Manor, down the road is being shut down at the end of this month – to be bulldozed to put up a 5 story condo building. It’s been sad watching and talking with the long term residents pull out and put their belongs on the side of the road.

In talking with some of them, we learned that Pecan Grove has already been surveyed and the trees marked for which will go, and which will stay, when it too is bulldozed (best guess is within 2 years).

This saddens us greatly.  Simply put, the tax basis in this area of Austin has exceeded the capacity of an RV Park to make ends meet.

Ok, enough of the depressing stuff.

So, what cool stuff have we been up to in Austin… aside from pulling some epic long work days in the 20 hour per day range?

Food

Austin is a mecca for foodies, or really – anyone who likes food.

There’s of course the amazing Tex-Mex, and we’ve indulged in many of them – Chuy’s. Torchy’s. Tres Amigos. Trudy’s. Polvo’s.

I can declare – as a gluten free semi-vegatarian (I don’t eat mammal), I’ve just about had my fill of enchiladas, migas, corn tortilla tacos and nachos.

Aside from Tex-Mex, Austin now has over 1500 food carts scattered through out the city.  Two such populations of them are within easy walking distance of us – from Flip Happy Crepes, MamboBerry, Jesse St Trailers and more.  We’ve been enjoying Vietnamese sandwiches, gluten free vegan tamales and decadent fruit cups.

There’s also amazing BBQ – from the Green Mesquite and Billy’s right next door, to the Salt Lick outside of town.

And all around town you can easily find a wide variety of food – and I’ve not had a problem finding gluten free options everywhere we go. Heck, I can even get gluten free pizza delivery to our bus!! And P. Terry’s nearby makes a killer veggie or chicken burger on a lettuce wrap for just $3.80. It’s become a favorite of ours.

There’s also the raw food cafe, Beet’s, nearby, vegan training school Casa De Luz behind us and Mr. Naturals up the road.

Cool Events

Austin always has stuff happening. If you’re bored in Austin, you’re just not trying at all.

In the short time we’ve been here – we have experienced:

Acroyoga Circus Meet-Up

Hula Hoop Jam (I even had a custom made hoop delivered to me at Chuy’s Happy Hour!)

Bollywood Shakespeare in the Park

Blues on the Greens

Movie themed symphony orchestra

QueerBomb Pride procession

Full moon spring swim party

Did I mention that all of the above were FREE????

Every day we either learn about or literally stumble upon some awesome nearby event taking place.  Over this past weekend we literally flitted non-stop between social event after social event. I’m sure if we actually made effort to look into what was going on, we could fill every waking moment of our time here (which is why we avoid looking.)

Community

It’s easy to make and feel part of community in Austin as a transient. There’s quite a number of travelers who pass through the town – making it quite accustomed to nomads.

It seems nearly everyone we encounter in Austin – from restaurant owners to fellow symphony goers – who we tell our story to can relate or even dream about a similar lifestyle.  The meet-up we hosted before heading off to Flipside was heavily attended – so much so, that we weren’t able to breakaway to snap a single picture. It was just full of awesome people.

And it’s quite likely while you’re in town, other nomads will be as well.

We’ve been enjoying the deliciousness of exploring Austin with friends, fellow nomads and Camp Nomadians – Yair & Ayo of Our Take On Freedom and Erica & Shaun of Over Yonderlust.  And we’ve also been able to experience the launching of a new nomad, our friend Brice of Fruitiny launched his intentional housesitting lifestyle while we were in town.

There’s been random meet-ups with other nomads as well – it’s just so common place here, moreso than most any other city we’ve frequented thus far. Anyplace we walk into, we’re just instantly made to feel welcomed…. and normal.

We Just Couldn’t Leave

We had every intention of leaving yesterday morning – when our reservation ended. We intended to take several days to head up to the Summertime Bus Rally in Dixon, MO this coming weekend.

But when we looked at the miles we needed to make and the work load we had ahead of us this week to complete this custom iPad app we’re working on- we looked at each other and said:

‘We’re not leaving, are we?’

And thankfully, Pecan Grove was able to extend our stay through Friday.  Which is perfect.  We can concentrate on polishing up the app for our client while balancing it with more yumminess of community and the amazingness that is Austin for a few more days.

Unfortunately, we’ll miss the rally in Dixon, which seems like few had registered for anyway.

Later this week, we’ll actually hit the road once our project is delivered – and head towards making the St. Louis regional burn.

Then on to St. Louis for a couple weeks as we celebrate Chris’ grandma’s 90th birthday. Our road forward from there is quite unclear.

Until we leave, we’ll be relishing every moment of Austin that we can.