Howdy partners! Kate here, coming to you from Cedar Park in the gigantic state of Texas. We’re moving on today, lingering just long enough to get this blog post typed up for your reading pleasure. So let’s get to it!

I’m sitting at the very same table that Brian finished his blog post at last week – a very rare occurrence – at his moms’ house in Cedar Park, just outside of Round Rock and a little ways from Austin. Not much more of note happened that evening after our delicious TexMex meal at Serrano’s with the moms and Tyler, Brian’s brother. I think we all fell into a food coma when we got home. The next morning we hung out at the house for a while and Brian did some tinkering with our solar panel. We’d noticed it hadn’t been charging my phone on the way into Cedar Park so it was time to find out why. After moving it around, tightening things here, adjusting things there, and taking some suggestions from Tyler, he decided that the situation is… not so great. We may not be able to use it much, if at all, for the remainder of the trip. Luckily we’d only been using it to power electric toothbrushes (which will just become manual toothbrushes!) and to charge our phones overnight. When we’re driving we’ll be able to plug our phones in to the car’s power outlet and charge them up that way. Crisis averted! Brian has some ideas for how to make it work again once we’re home, but until then it’ll stay on the roof dutifully soaking up the sun and doing nothing with it. So it goes.

While Brian was working on this, I took the opportunity to plan some of our camping spots for the last couple of weeks of our journey. Before now, we had everything scheduled up until our arrival here. I occasionally got distracted by the Twilight Zone and Dr T., Lone Star Vet playing on the TV but I found us lots of places! Now we have a plan for every night until we’re back in Vegas. Then it was time to figure out what the heck we were going to do here in town. We’re pretty close to Austin, which was a place that Brian and I both were very much looking forward to exploring. I made a tentative list and discussed some options with him. After that, we played a few rounds of Pass the Pigs with Tyler. It was an adorable and simple game that ended up being much more exciting than I’d expected! The first round gave Tyler and Brian a bit of a hard time as I accrued points slowly but surely. Toward the end of the game, Brian caught a second wind and he and I were soon tied at 99 points (needing 100 to win). His turn came first. He stole my victory! We played again and I had a very rough round, with Tyler gaining and gaining and eventually winning easily. Curses! By then it was time for dinner. The afternoon had flown by. We took a look at the map on our phones to see what kind of food was in the area. There were several chains that we were familiar with and one in particular that we’d never been to before – Whataburger.

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Now a lot of you reading this will know (as you’re mostly West Coasters) that we have the best regional burger chain in the country: In-N-Out. However, there are lots of other regions in the US that foolishly believe their own regional burger chain is superior. Whataburger is highly praised throughout the Southern states, a place that out-of-towners just have to try, it’s the best burger ever, etc etc…apparently. Knowing this, and having been advised that we simply MUST try it by family and friends, we decided that’d be our dinner destination for the evening. (Fun fact, Texas is an interesting place because they just so happen to have BOTH In-N-Out and Whataburger within their borders.) We took orders for the moms, piled into the car with Tyler and were on our way.

If nothing else, I’ll give Whataburger this praise over In-N-Out – their menu options are MUCH more diverse. Though it could be said that In-N-Out’s very limited menu (expanded slightly by their not-so-secret “secret menu“) is actually part of their fame and appeal with fans – they do a few things and they do them really well. Despite the amount of things to choose from at Whataburger, our party all stuck to the classic #1 Whataburger meal (with slight alterations of sauces and cheese). It certainly was a tasty burger. They were bigger than In-N-Out’s burgers, but also pricier. The bun and meat and toppings themselves are mostly of equal quality, I’d say. The standard Whataburger comes with just mustard, though, versus In-N-Out’s delicious burger sauce. I think this was the main swayer for me. Though I like mustard, I’m a saucy gal and I lo0o0o0ove me some In-N-Out sauce! I added mayo and ketchup to my Whataburger and it still wasn’t quite right. All in all, I’d say it was indeed a great burger and I really had no complaints…but I’d still opt for In-N-Out given the choice. After all, there are no animal fries at Whataburger!

After our hearty dinners, it was time to relax with the family. We looked into some interactive games that could be cast to the TV and found a couple that the group approved of. My favorite was Doodlecast, which is basically virtual Pictionary. Each member takes turns getting 3 different word choices and picking one to draw on their phone. The image is cast on the screen in real time and the rest of the players have to figure out the word. It has no timer and gives the guessers a selection of letters to choose from, as well as blank spaces with the number of letters in the word, on their own devices. This made it a little too easy in some instances, but we all agreed not to look at our letters until the draw-er had time to make a pretty picture. We also played a castable version of Cards Against Humanity with resultant giggles galore. We were up into the wee hours of the morning guessing silly drawings and choosing lewd responses until we collectively decided to call it a night.

On Tuesday, Brian, Tyler and I made our way into Austin proper. Our first stop was The Picnic, a cute little “food truck trailer park”. By the time we arrived in the early afternoon, a good number of the trucks were closed. We’re not sure if they’re only open on certain days or if they perhaps take a break between lunch and dinner…nonetheless, we all found something tasty to satisfy us. Tyler got some tacos and Brian and I both got arepas. Everything was great! Just the fuel we needed for our upcoming hike. The next stop was Zilker Park, where we had no specific goals except wandering and exploring. We ended up finding a nice little trail that lead to a lookout point with an amazing view of the city. Everyone took turns getting pictures as the light started to fade, then we hurried back down the trail before darkness fully surrounded us.

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Next stop – Spider House Village! This cute little spot was farther north on the way (ish) back up to Cedar Park, so we figured it’d be a good place to wrap up our explorations for the day. The “village” is comprised of a small indoor bar, an events venue, a huge outdoor patio and seating area, and a collection of food trucks scattered around the property. The bar had a quaint old pub feel to it and the outdoor area, though large, was cozy and welcoming. We ordered some drinks and found a booth outside. On our way we noticed a cabinet of board games so we grabbed Jenga and proceeded to play. There was some discrepancy as far as rules went, so we changed things up a couple of times to make things interesting. In the end we forgot the traditional game and ended up building alternative Jenga towers. When the wooden blocks had lost their allure, we traded them out for some BONES! ☠️ Not real bones, just dominoes. Brian taught us a new dominoes game and we were all very civil and not sore losers and definitely didn’t throw any pieces out of rage…!!!!

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We loved Spider House and could’ve spent much more time there, but eventually we had to leave and move on to our last stop before heading home – HEB. We’d discussed this local grocery store chain with Jada a few days prior, and it seemed like an adequate place to go and pick up a few Thanksgiving necessities (namely pies). We’d assumed we’d be avoiding the craziness this evening by not going to the store on the day before Thanksgiving. Apparently lots of others had the same idea. It was pretty crazy. By the time it was our turn to check out I noticed something about this chain that I very much approve of – HEB charges for plastic bags in an effort to reduce plastic waste and encourage shoppers to use reusable bags! Way to go, HEB. Unfortunately, we had completely blanked on the shopping part of our adventure and left all 4 of our reusable bags at home. Dang it! Oh well, the bags they charge for are sturdy and we only needed 2. Surely they’ll get used again. We carted all of our things out to the car, opened the trunk, and discovered a big ol’ pile of about 6 HEB reusable bags.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We arrived late and made a quick dinner of some veggie chili and rice from our traveling supplies. The rest of the evening was spent playing with the one cat in the house who would brave our presence (cute little Sweetpea) and watching two guys get themselves into extreme survival situations for entertainment and education purposes – one of whom refuses to wear shoes (what a ninny…IMHO). Soon enough it was time for sleeps.

Wednesday was a lazy day. We woke up late, having stayed up pretty late the night before, and proceeded to hang out, drink coffee and watch some movies. I think some members of the group had been watching stuff before, but by the time we all congregated our official pick was The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Brian and I had seen it before, but the rest of our crew hadn’t. It’s great. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend it! We decided that evening that we’d head out and get some Texas BBQ. At the moms’ recommendation, we made our way to Rudy’s. Rudy’s is a country store/BBQ pit attached to a gas station…not your typical restaurant locale. The BBQ pit side of the establishment was a huge dining hall style area with a walk-up counter in one corner and a drinks/condiment counter in the other. Most of the parties present were families or groups of friends chowing down on some big shared platters of grub. We decided it’d make the most sense to order some larger things and share them out rather than each getting individual items. It was a great decision because we all got to try a little bit of everything, and everything was delicious! They also give you bread – in our case, an entire loaf – to mop up all that saucy goodness. It was very satisfactory Texas style BBQ. Brian even said that his ribs might be the best ones he’s ever had. That’s pretty high praise for a BBQ fiend like Brian!

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When we returned to the house (with a bag of leftovers and half a loaf of bread) we decided to play some more group games. Instead of downloading a bunch of new apps, Brian rigged up our Jackbox games to play on the TV. We played a couple of games from Party pack #3, one of our faves from many nights of playing with our friends back in Vegas. Shout out to Alison for bringing this game into our lives! ❤️ We had a great time playing a handful of games with the family, making silly t shirt designs and evading trivia murder. A good evening was had by all.

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The next day was Thanksgiving! By the time I made it out of bed, Brian had a ham and a turkey roast cooking in the oven. I’d promised to help out cooking as I was insistent on having a green bean casserole included in this dinner, despite everyone else’s disinterest. I love me some greebees! I’d never really helped much in cooking Thanksgiving dinner, but I was prepped with an online recipe that I’d found the day before. Brian and I had cooked together plenty back home and got into a good rhythm in the kitchen without getting under each other’s feet too much. June, aka Mom II, had invited a friend named Anne over for dinner and she arrived whilst the cooking was going on. She asked a few times if we needed any help, but we had it all under control. After a couple of hours, the food was all ready to be dished up!

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We were pretty proud of the end result and our party all seemed to enjoy the food. Hooray! A successful Thanksgiving. I’m so glad we were able to spend the holiday here with some family, as we’ve become accustomed to always having a great Thanksgiving back home with my family. There were no devils on horseback on our menu (😭) but we made do. After eating and cleaning up, it was time to check in with my fammies. We had secret santa names to draw and good tidings to exchange! It was great to call and see everyone, love you guys! Anne had to leave before nightfall so she wouldn’t get lost in the neighborhood. Afterward we relaxed, drank some booze, ate some pie, and watched another movie together – this time we went with June’s suggestion of The House With a Clock in Its Walls. It was pretty cute and had a great cast. After a little scrolling through movie streaming subscriptions we decided to watch ANOTHER movie. This time, Deja Vu at Sheila (aka Mom I)’s suggestion. Also a great choice with another great cast! Eventually it was time to call it a night and collapse into bed.

Perhaps it was an extended food coma but we slept in laaaate on Friday morning… And a little way into Friday afternoon. We ate some leftovers for breakfast and contemplated the day’s activities while peering out the window at the misty fogginess that had settled around us. Despite the gloomy look of the weather, it was still decently warm. Tyler, Brian and I headed out to Mayfield Park to check out some peacocks. Yes, you read that right. PEACOCKS! Wandering around in the park! We walked around the nature center building admiring the dazzling birds and pretty koi ponds. The park had several nature trails to explore so we headed into some wilderness to see what it had to offer. There were lovely spots along the way to explore and lots of lovely autumn colors still clinging to the trees.

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When we’d had our fill of nature trails, we headed farther into Downtown Austin for a fun activity that I’d been excited to see for days – BATS! The Congress Ave Bridge in Austin is home to 1.5 million Mexican Free-Tailed Bats who explode out from under the bridge around sunset every night. It’s an awesome experience. When we first read about it we thought we might have come to visit too late, as it’s widely noted that the bats are a seasonal visitor and are usually gone by fall. Luckily we weren’t too late after all! We arrived near the bridge a few minutes after sunset, but the clouds and fog made it impossible to discern exactly when the sun had gone down. Maybe this confused the bats a little too, as we heard a cacophony of squeaks from under the bridge but didn’t see anything for a good 15-20 minutes after our arrival. Lots of kids and families nearby were getting disgruntled and impatient and a few even left before the bats began their flight. Thankfully we stuck it out. The first sign of movement was some flitting around in the struts under the bridge. Eventually a few started escaping over our heads, one at a time. Brian and Tyler walked to a spot closer to the river and motioned me over. This was the place to be. There was a steady stream of bats flying out in little bursts, making their way out down the river for the night. We stood gazing upward in awe of these cute little creatures. The crowd thinned and eventually disappeared, leaving us there under the bridge watching as the bats just kept coming. We attempted taking pictures and were mostly unsuccessful – too dark, and the bats were just too quick! After about an hour we figured it was time to leave the bats and head into town to check out some night life.

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A recommended spot and item at the top of lots of “things to do in Austin” lists was 6th Street. It was the downtown spot for night life and touristy fun. Having lived in Vegas for years and visited Nashville and New Orleans recently, we saw lots of similarities with this area. It was a nice pedestrian-friendly strip with decorations strung across most street corners and a distinctly Austin vibe. There were lots of cute little bars and a few places playing live music, but nothing particularly stood out to us as a must-visit place of business. It was also teeming with tourists who were probably in town for Thanksgiving and most of the bars had folks outside trying to lure in customers. After walking up one side and down the other, we decided we’d seen enough to get the idea. It was a nice place to see and I’m glad we went, but our wallets felt vulnerable! We headed back across the bridge to go home…and eat some leftover pie.

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Our initial plan had us leaving Saturday, but we discovered that Tyler wasn’t leaving until Sunday and we couldn’t have him staying longer than us! Just kidding. We looked at the next few places on our list and thought we’d probably allotted too many days to places like Arkansas and Oklahoma. Plus, we didn’t want to leave just yet. We decided to add another night to our stay. The first half of Saturday was spent hanging out and chatting with the moms while Brian and Tyler helped them with a couple of little jobs around the house. What good are sons if you don’t put them to work every now and then? That afternoon we went to see ANOTHER movie – this time Knives Out. I had heard of it but probably wouldn’t have gone to see it in theatres of my own volition. But I’m so glad we did! I was very pleasantly surprised. We were unpleasantly surprised when we left, though. It turns out the theatre’s closed captioning display device was terrible and gave Tyler really awful subtitles. He ended up leaving the movie because it was impossible to follow along only being able to understand half of the dialogue! Not so great. We met up with him later and found out what had happened. He had been sitting behind Brian and me in the theatre so we hadn’t noticed him leave. He had been to eat in the meantime so we all headed back to the house. Brian and I stopped on the way to grab some pasta for the rest of us.

Tyler headed out for the evening to meet an old college friend who now also lives in the Cedar Park area. The rest of us looked at houses and apartments in Las Vegas that we may want to live in later, as well as some especially cute places we’ve seen in maybe-we’ll-move-here towns from our trip. So many cute places! Of course, more kitty pets were also in order for miss Sweet Pea. We were even blessed by the presence of the other kitty of the home, Little Bit! She kept her distance but at least we saw her. After that it was time for an episode of Graham Norton, which made me feel very much at home. Brian and I retired for the evening soon after, but didn’t go to sleep just yet. We discovered that The Torture Report is available on Amazon video! Another great movie. We didn’t realize what a week of movies this would be but we enjoyed them all.

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That takes us to Sunday, December 1. The end of this portion of the trip and the beginning of our last month of travel. How time has flown! It’s been so lovely to stay with family in our own room and with some more cute cat photos to add to our collection. Brian and Tyler haven’t seen each other very often over the past few years, so we’re so happy he came to meet us here to see us a second time on the trip. It was great seeing you again, Tyler! Sheila and June, thank you so much for everything. It’s been wonderful catching up with you both and spending Thanksgiving in your loving home with your sweet kitties. We love you and we can’t wait to come visit you again soon!

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Next we’ll be headed up toward Arkansas to make a big weird loop through Hot Springs before heading through Oklahoma and dipping back into Texas. Texas is huge. We’ll have some great opportunities to camp and hopefully we’ll see some more cute wildlife – maybe even an armadillo!?

Smell ya later! ❤️