#airbnbftw

Y’all. We really haven’t done much here in Austin. I know there are a million beautiful places to see, lakes to walk around, music to listen to, bars to visit, etc. in this fine city, but we just haven’t been motivated to leave our perfect little airbnb much at all. I mean, look at it again. Would you want to leave?

Here’s a view of the whole length of the place from the lamp side of the bed, but you’ll have to excuse all of our stuff all over it.

For the record, there’s a TON of shabby chic decor in here, so we’re ever so slightly less messy than you think. But anyway, our gracious and perfect hostess left us this:

Notice the handwritten note on flowery stationary making sure we know that there are chilled beer mugs in the freezer. And the little bottle of half and half. In the eternal words of Bette Midler when she discovered swan-shaped soap in the bathroom of her Plaza hotel room in Big Business, “Could you die?” You’ll have to imagine the thick southern drawl. Now that I’m thinking of it, that’s a pretty random movie to have been one of my favorites growing up. I can quote the whole thing. Bring me a higher love, doo-doo-doo-doo-doodoo! Please text me if you have any idea what I’m talking about.

Last night we had a nice dinner at a place called Fabi + Rosi, where I finally got a lovely salad – not much fresh food on the road – and some fried green tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, basil, and lemon olive oil. Eric had schnitzel, which was actually quite good. I had always thought schnitzel was a sausage of some sort, but Eric sorted me out last night. Well, sort of. He told me schnitzel actually meant “fried.” That’s absolutely untrue, if Google is to be believed. It means “slice.” Either way, it’s a slice of fried meat.

We had another lazy morning today, watching not one, but TWO bad movies – really, Matt Damon? A white guy saved the Chinese in The Great Wall? And that’s not even the worst part. I almost find the whole green-monsters-attacking-China plot to be more offensive than the whole white savior thing. It’s bad. The second bad movie wasn’t AS bad…some CIA action thing that doesn’t really need to have its own title because it’s just like all the others that you’ve seen.

We spent some time out in the giant yard letting Waffles & Addie run around and play with the kids. The mother of our hostess was out with the kids, and we got some background from her. She is Norwegian – hence all the beautiful blonde children running around – and has four adult children. Three of the four have each had four children of their own. The daughter that doesn’t already live here is moving here tomorrow, so then there will be even MORE cousins around! It’s been cool to see how this house seems to be the meeting point for a ton of kids, from age 5 up through high school. It seems like lots of fun, especially with lots of room to run around, half of a bball court with some cool kind of rubber floor, multiple swings and rope ladders hanging from trees, a pond (albeit a gross one), a playhouse, and tons of patio furniture.

When we finally got going for the day (afternoon), we headed to Covert Park at Mount Bonnell. A short hike up maybe 200 steps leads you to some beautiful views of the Colorado River (who knew that went through TX? Jeez, geography was not important at my schools!) and of the Austin skyline.

After that, we headed over to the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, which is a huge…um…I guess the remains of some oddly designed building? It’s lots of walls on multiple levels, and anyone can spraypaint whatever they want on it. It’s pretty cool because it’s constantly changing. Today was beautiful, so there were a ton of kids all over the place – painting, hanging out, taking and posing for photos. Seems like a great idea for a city to have.

Eric told me “I’m done with pictures” after I took the above one of him, so I knew it was time to find food. We walked down the street to this little walk-up window of a Mexican restaurant called Fresa’s (why strawberries, I don’t know…) and ordered bowls of rice, adobe lime chicken, avocado, kale, black beans, and queso fresco. Eric ordered the chips and salsa, and it was not your mama’s salsa. This stuff REAKED of garlic. Generally a good thing for me, but I wasn’t so sure about it in this context. It was a brown salsa too. Definitely different. I enjoyed a sandía/watermelon water that was fabulous and refreshing.

We then drove past the big “Greetings from Austin” wall – photo at top of this post.

Next, it was on to this crazy antique store called “Uncommon Objects.” Dude, it was…A LOT. We saw dead animals of every kind: elk, wolf, warthog, bees, alligator…I just asked Eric what else, and he just replied “Yep.” OH! A bear!! A big bear! They kinda grouped things by color because there just didn’t seem to be any other way to organize all of this junk. Oh, and the belt buckles! This is Texas, so you can imagine. Old furniture of every kind that had long passed the shabby chic decades of its life, old photos of who-know’s-whose grandfather in his army uniform, a painting of a family sitting in a living room looking out the window at a triceratops, gross gross gross old plush rocking horses, oh jeez….the horror. Most everything in there grossed me out a little. On the other hand, it would be a great way to work on your memory. Go in and look around for ten minutes, then list as many weird things that you could remember seeing. I think I’ve already blocked it out a bit.

We loaded up the car when we got back home. The plan is to leave “stupid early” (an Eric quote….like I really have to explain) because we have a long day ahead of ourselves tomorrow. We’ll drive an hour or so to San Antonio, see the Alamo and Riverwalk, then drive another eight hours across the rest of Texas before stopping for the night just on the New Mexico side of El Paso. And there is NOTHING between San Antonio and El Paso. As in, not a single town that Google thinks is worth naming. Okay, maybe a single town. But it’s bad. We did, however, find a website that lists all of the restaurants, gas stations, and hotels at each exit on Interstate 10, so there’s that.

I’d like to take one minute to point out that when we entered Texas the other day, we were at something like Exit 880. As in, we are driving a total of 880 miles across this state. Highest exit number on any interstate in Northern America. It’s HUGE!

And it’s so true what they say, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” The Anthropologie is palatial. We stressed out over how big the Whole Foods was. At one point Eric put his hand on my shoulder and was shocked at how tense I was. I just wanted to find yogurt! Y’all, the olive bar was probably 25 feet long. I’m in heaven. Also, we just learned that when we were driving into Houston the other day, we were on a road that had 26 lanes. 26! Apparently, there’s a wider one in China at a toll plaza, but oh my gosh. I tried to take a picture for y’all, but the iphone just couldn’t do it justice. And everyone is driving a giant truck. At 85 miles per hour. Seriously, Eric was on a road to his BBQ place where the speed limit was 85 mph. We looked it up, and this is the only place in the country with that high of a limit. Crazy.

So yeah, after talking about how huge this place is, we’re going to attempt to drive out of it tomorrow. Wish us luck. Hopefully by nightfall, my dogs will be running around in their very own corral!

New Orleans, Houston, Austin

Coming to you this morning from beautiful Austin. At least, I assume it’s beautiful. We got here after dark last night and our Airbnb is so amazing and cozy that I’ve given myself permission to sleep in and blog from bed. I’m a happy girl.

One housekeeping note: I think I say this every year when I start the blog again, but WordPress makes it impossible (for me) to determine whether it’s going to post the pics sideways or right-side-up. So I’m just going to stop stressing about it…since they all came out normally in the last post once I published it. If some end up sideways, I imagine you’ll be okay.

I last left you in Watumpka, Alabama, at this charming cabin.

Beautiful, right? It was. Lots of room for Waffles to run around. Addie has to stay on the leash because she’s a jerk and will just plain leave us for hours at a time. Incredible windows. That whole front panel of windows is hinged at the top and can be opened outward in nice weather! Amazing. However, it was 40 degrees at best while we were there. We were a little chilly. The bathroom, I believe I already told you, was outside, so that added an extra bit of invigoration to the experience. The morning we left, a plumber arrived, unannounced, while I was in the outhouse, as I’m calling it. I was super lucky that I had locked the bathroom door for the first time because he just walked right up and tried to open the door. And a few minutes later, the owner came up and did the same thing. Nice relaxing retreat, right?

No, it was lovely and would be a great place in fall or spring. I can’t imagine the heat and the bugs in the summer, and it’s too cold for this girl in winter!

Eric in our cozy little bedroom.

The only other minor issue in Alabama concerned Waffles. We didn’t realize just how spoiled our little boy was! He was baffled when he didn’t have his bed to lay on and the only thing available was a hardwood floor. He just would not lay down. Not even in front of the big wood stove, where Addie made herself comfortable. Poor guy. He just walked around and whined at us. Once we all closed ourselves into the tiny bedroom – with two heaters taking up a decent portion of the floor space – it took him a while to settle down. Luckily, he survived the ordeal and went on to bark another day.

When we arrived in New Orleans, he quickly claimed my lumpy bag filled with shampoo, toiletries, and shoes for a bed. Strange guy.

Our place in New Orleans was in Tremé – otherwise known as the neighborhood that is the focus of HBO’s show Treme. The neighborhood was interesting in that our block had something like 12 airbnbs on it, but the rest of the area appeared to be folks who had lived there forever. Some folks are pretty upset that people are buying up all the real estate to rent out.

The house was a mini shotgun – the style of house you see a lot in New Orleans (and Charleston, I think?) that is narrow in the front, but is rather deep. This one had a small courtyard with Addie-proof fences – a definite plus for us. Waffles finally was able to relax outside a little bit…poor stressed out doggie.

Inside, the place was decorated with bright colors and had lamps made of trombones and trumpets. Very cute, very clean, well-appointed. Only problem I had with it was the water temperature – the shower only got to lukewarm at best. But yes, I showered. Twice, believe it or not, which is more than I can say for Eric. Come to think of it, he still hasn’t showered in a few days…

We grabbed po’boys and gumbo on Bourbon Street the first night, but brought it back to our cute little house. SO GOOD! It’s like they just decided it was okay to eat gravy by itself. I love it.

The next morning we ventured out on foot to Café du Monde – the place to get beignets, apparently. I was amused at just how much powdered sugar this place must go through. Employees were covered in it, the waitstaff wore white fleeces to avoid showing just how much was all over them, the floors were covered. I mean, do you really need a cup of sugar on three beignets? The answer, I discovered, is that absolutely you do. So amazing.

We continued our tour down to Canal Street, all the way up Royal – where we saw some awesome brass street bands and beautiful art galleries – then back up Bourbon Street b/c you’re just supposed to do that. For lunch, Eric had his second po’boy, and I enjoyed a Whiskey Grilled Cheese. Oh my goodness.

That evening, we had a chance to stop by and see our friends, the Goulds, who moved down there a few years ago. Kris was my classmate of mine at UNC Law, and Sarah ended up living with Addie and me for a year or two. They now have two cute kiddos who let us hang out with them while they ate dinner. A quick visit, but great to see them for the first time in years!

We spent one more night, then headed out the next morning for Austin. I was a bit anxious about getting back in the car for the 7-8 hour drive, but luckily Eric just powers through stuff like that and was able to get me going. We left by 9 am and made it to Houston around 2:30. Once there, we found the Beer Can House, which I had discovered on a roadtrip app. Pretty random. It’s a house that’s entirely covered in beer cans that have been cut open and unrolled. It’s apparently been there for several decades and stands in the middle of what is otherwise a quite posh neighborhood. So weird.

Yep, beer can house. Our next stop was at a Greek cafe just off the interstate to meet up with an author I’ve been working with for the past year or so. Actually, it was my first time meeting him at all. It’s so strange to know his book so well, to know his dark sense of humor, but to never have met him in person. Anyway, check out Ches Smith’s blog here. He has a particularly hilarious post on a time in a coffee shop when the barista forgot to give him the chocolate pastry he had ordered and all the anxiety he experiences as a result. Should I ask about it? Gosh, I’m going to look really stupid if I do, now that it’s been a good 25 minutes. Good stuff. Also, watch for his book, The Author is Dead, to come out in the next few months. It’s brilliant. I read it at least 5 times during the editing process and seriously laughed out loud each time. I love it.

We drove (well, Eric drove) for three more hours, and we arrived in Austin. Our airbnb is, I imagine, a converted three-car garage behind a huge and beautiful white house on a ton of land – considering that it’s still a traditionally laid out neighborhood. There are strings of lights all over the backyard and there was a campfire going. A really nice welcome. We met our hostess who immediately offered to close the gate for the weekend to allow our dogs to run wild all over her yard. I found an Addie-sized hole under one gate, so she hasn’t been let loose, but Waffles is reveling in his newfound freedom.

And I am here:

The little apartment has windows all along the tops of each wall, plus large windows in, well, places where windows normally go, so the light is fantastic. Add the adorable notes all over about how there are beer mugs in the freezer, plus the hazelnut chocolate and salt & vinegar chips left out for us, and I am in heaven.

So where’s Eric this morning? Well, he started his 48th shower-free hour by heading out in search of barbeque! As you may or may not know, TX bbq is all about the meat. Ribs, brisket, sausage, whatever, but NO SAUCE. I’m so confused. What do you dip it in?

The part of the menu that cracked me up? They offer NC style bbq! I love it!

On the docket: visit to UT, a hike to a beautiful view of the city, a quirky antique stop, and a graffiti wall. There are so many amazing looking hikes nearby, and we have so little time to take advantage of them all! There’s a chance of rain today, but tomorrow looks beautiful.

Thanks so much to all of you who have texted and emailed and called asking about our trip. We feel very loved! Dustin, Eric said you were eager for the next chapter, so here you go!

Days 1 and 2 – Asheville and Watumpka, Alabama

Y’all. We made it to Alabama.

So we decided to leave a day early and make a stop in Asheville to see my folks and break up the drive a bit more. I took the first driving shift…and made it as far as Hickory before ceding control to Eric. I suppose it doesn’t bode well that I started to get tired of driving after 3 hours. Hmm.

Before we left Raleigh, we borrowed a soft-sided rooftop case thing for the car from some friends. I asked Eric within the first hour or so if the bag was waterproof. “Yep!” he said, then followed up with a “well, I think they call it water resistant.” Now I remember from my days with my first little Timex watch that water resistant and waterproof are NOT the same thing, but I kept my mouth shut b/c there was nothing we could do about it right then. Sure enough, it started to rain just outside of Asheville.

You see where this is going, I’m sure. The bag and some of the things in it were soaked…but no harm done. Eric was sweet enough to get everything out of it in the pouring rain, and after taking my dad up on his offer of a beer and laying down with his puppies for a bit, he determined that our first stop this morning would be to REI to invest in a hardcover cargo box.

So this was us this morning:

Nothing like a nice walk by the Chick-fil-A

Eric drove the five or so hours to Auburn, making stops along the way for the dogs. Neither of us had been to Alabama prior to today, so it was kinda cool to experience a new state together…the first of many to come. We first drove by the house my mom lived in during high school and where my parents had their wedding reception. Kinda cool to see after seeing all those OLD pictures.

My parents were driving down to Florida today to see my sister’s family, so we texted back and forth throughout the day, updating each other on our locations. It was cool to hear her stories from her days in Auburn.

Just one hour further down the road, we made our stop for the night in…not Montgomery…but Watumpka, Alabama. Where? Exactly. We got here just after sunset, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for better pictures. It’s a cool place though a tad…rustic. I mean, I can’t say much – it has a Keurig for goodness sakes – but it’s pretty chilly while we wait for the wood stove to heat this giant open room enclosed on 3 sides with windows. But beautiful! The one thing that I’m not too keen on is the fact that the bathroom is OUTSIDE. I mean, it’s sorta attached-ish to the house, but we’ll definitely have to venture outside in the cold to get to the facilities. Luckily, there’s a space heater in there, but gosh, those things make me nervous, especially when I’m staying inside a large wooden structure.

So sorry for the sideways pics, but gosh – I’ve been fighting with WordPress for 30 minutes on them and finally decided that y’all can manage turning your head or phone or whatever.