Jazz Fest Trip - Day 21

(The Blogger Application has been off-line so we are getting caught-up from yesterday)

We arrived in Austin, Texas on Thursday, May 12 about 3:30 pm. We got an early start, leaving Lafayette, LA about 7:30 am after stopping at Prejeans restaurant again and picking-up an order of beignets and coffee to go.

We headed west on I-IO to Houston, then northwest towards Austin. The weather forecast called for scattered severe thunderstorms so we were on the lookout for severe weather en-route which we hit about 2:00 pm. The sky turned black and the thunder, lightning and heavy rain came. Luckily, we were near a gas station, so we pulled over, had lunch and waited for the line of thunderstorms to go through. The main part of the storm moved on in about 30 minutes and we resumed the trip in steadily diminishing rain. When we arrived in Austin the skies were clear and noticeably cooler (65 degrees) than Lafayette.

We are staying at the Oak Forest RV Park about 7 miles east of town. The park is O.K. and like several we have stayed in, has a number of long term residents. The sites are close together, but paved, and it was very quiet last night.

 After resting a little, we headed downtown for dinner at Stubbs BBQ, a popular local restaurant and music venue, also the origin of Stubbs BBQ sauce that is available in stores nationwide. The BBQ and the other food was excellent. As in many other restaurants in town, there was a small band setting up to play later on in the evening called “The Bi-Polar Bears.” Despite the strange name, the band members looked like fairly normal college students and the music sounded fairly normal for that age group.

Austin has six distinct entertainment districts, mostly focusing on music, shops, and restaurants. It is also the state capitol and home to the University of Texas main campus. Needless to say, there is a lot going on here. There is also a lake (Lady Bird Lake) separating sections of town which appears to be a popular water recreation spot; there is a hiking/running/biking trail circling the lake.

There is also a famous bridge across the lake (Congress Street Bridge) that is the focal point for a rather unusual daily event involving thousands of bats. The mammals have taken up residence under the bridge in narrow slots beneath the concrete road bed. The slots, each about 16”deep and 2” wide, are perfect homes for the bats who favor closeness over open space. They fly out from under the bridge at sundown and feed on mosquitoes and agricultural pests all night, so their presence is a definite benefit to the human population of the area. For this reason, they are protected, even revered, and the bridge site is on the “things to do in Austin” list. We went there after dinner, along with hundreds of other people, to watch the event. As if on cue, as soon as it was almost dark, the bats started flying out in huge numbers – it was amazing to watch. We only had our cell phone cameras with us, so I hope the pictures come out.

 After that, we came back to the RV to read, work on the blog and go to bed.

Thursday Pictures - Lafayette, LA - Austin, TX