Confession time: Austin, I
love you… ahhh, I do indeed love you so very much. I’ll never claim you as my
own, but I’d like to say we have a mutual admiration for each other. Shhh, we
were introduced via an ex, but that is neither here nor there. Sometimes love
blossoms in the strangest of places. And now everyone knows. EVERYONE. All six
people who read this.
Unfortunately, our stop in
Austin was a brief one & we didn’t have time to play a show (because we’re
coming back soon!). This means we didn’t have as much time as I would have
liked to partake in some of my favorite things:
- Swimmin holes – Barton Springs or Hamilton Pool
- East Austin - good tex mex & bars that aren't found on 6th st (although, those are fun for people watching)
- Tacos tacos tacos (keep reading for our mistake on this)
Oddly, RP and I were craving
Indian, so we went to the highest rated Indian restaurant in Austin – The Clay Pit. Umm, wouldn’t recommend. Not bad, but definitely not worth writing
about. I guess that’s what we get
for craving Indian in a Mexican-centric town!
 |
| Salt Lick BBQ & RP with his ever present phone |
At least we did not miss one
MAJOR thing: a stop at Salt Lick BBQ. It’s about 20 min outside of the city,
but well worth the trek. RP and I both classify it as the best we’ve ever had.
So, we popped in, put our name on the list and got a couple buckets of beer for
everyone but the driver to drink. We were set. One slight problem: my recent
vegetarianism! Yikes, forgot about that little situation. I was persuaded by my
fellow travelers to put it on hold… I didn’t want to miss an experience right?
Plus, as I was kindly reminded, my reasons behind the diet change are varied,
but do not involve me thinking that we, as human beings, SHOULDN’T eat meat (I
won’t go into my reasoning here, but if you’d like a post about it, throw it in
the comments). SO, I did it. I ate meat AGAIN! This is proving to be trickier
and trickier the further away I get from NYC. Any vegetarian readers care to give
me some support or words of wisdom of how you got through the first hurdles?
I’ve been doing it for about 6 months & it’s been a breeze until these last
couple of weeks.
Anyway, back to the meat. The boys decided to get "All You Can Eat"... which is not just a cute saying here, but a threat. Each plate they bring gets bigger and bigger until you have to fold and admit that you can no longer consume BBQ of any variety.
Unfortunately, it was delicious. Too delicious. So delicious, in fact, that when we put our full bellies back into the van, IT WOULDN’T MOVE! No matter how much Cousin Carl pushed the trailer, it just stayed put. Just kidding, but that would have been a better ending to the story. What am I saying?? That would have been horrible. Knock on wood. Instead of that, Josiah ran around like a maniac (like he tends to do), Ron picked me a very small flower for the van, and we traveled down the street to pick out Hank, Jr., who now graces the front of the van with his presence...
… but that’s a story for next time.
See you later!
Any change to diet can be difficult. Throw yourself in a van on the road with a bunch of people who don't follow the same diet and it can be near impossible. I follow a mostly-vegetarian diet. The majority of my meals are meat-free, and while I could switch to total vegetarianism, I still enjoy a good steak on occassion. At first I decided that I was absolutely not going to consume any more meat until the day I died. And then I went out and really wanted French Onion Soup and was riddled with guilt for having a soup with a beef-broth base.
ReplyDeleteMy reasons for consuming less meat have more to do with health benefits of a plant-based diet and questionable food processing practices than a stance against eating animals. In my case, I found that consuming less was better than eating none. I've given myself a number of "cheat" days each month (usually 3-6 depending on what's going on). On those days if I eat chicken or have ribs, it's fine. I don't designate the day and that frees me up to unplanned barbeques or dinners out with friends.
Thanks for posting this! I'm still wrestling with whether I'm going to completely give up meat or not. My reasons seem to be the same as yours - so it's a difficult situation. Either way - thanks for this! Glad to know I'm not alone in feeling this way.
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