That's Right (You're not from Texas)

There's supposed to be a buzz when you get back from the trip. Sometimes it lasts a day. Sometimes it lasts a week. If you're lucky, it can last even longer. We weren't so lucky when we got back from Texas. The Tech shooting happened the day after we came home, and that buzz wore off even before we'd fully digested the last migas taco from Maria's. Still, late as it is, I wanted to mention a few highlights from the trip.

1. The bats at the Congress Street Bridge: It wasn't like batman, with bats flying in every which way. These squeaky guys, part of the largest urban bat colony in the U.S., flew out in one long, steady stream, a ribbon of bats trailing into the night sky. They're more impressive when you stand underneath them and watch them fly overhead. The ribbon never seems to end. That's because there are as many as 1.5 million bats under that bridge at any given time. Just as impressive is the pr campaign conducted by one Mervin Tuttle, who convinced Austin that hosting all of these bats was a good thing.

2. Maria's Taco Xpress. Our pictures of Texas appear to be largely of food, giving me new insight into the split panel of ZZ Top's Tres Hombres album. We ate at Maria's three times and recommend the breakfast taco with chorizo and potatoes and the migas taco, along with the vinegar and cilantro salsa.



3. Grackles. Yikes. These guys are everywhere in Austin and they'll eat your migas taco if you leave it sitting on your plate for too long.

4. South Austin Jugband: They're getting a jam band reputation, apparently (Willie, the guitarist, has white-guy dreads) but they are amazing musicians and they're super-exciting to watch.

5. Miss Leslie and her Juke Boxers: Think Patsy Cline or Loretta Lynne. Low voice, with lots of huevos. We caught her at Miss Jenny's Little Bighorn.

6. The Broken Spoke. An old-school honky tonk that's extremely well known but not all that touristy. The back room shows pictures of the owner with Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and more. It's all about dancing here, with couples in matching cowboy outfits (some as old as 80) twirling around the floor. We saw fiddler Alvin Crow. Owner James White made the rounds in his cowboy hat and spangled shirt. He led these people to the table next to us and I was gawking a bit, ticked off that they were getting the royal treatment and we weren't. I fingered my Lone Star Beer and sulked, so I missed it when my husband muttered something through the side of his mouth. Two hours later I learned that he'd muttered "Willem Dafoe."

7. Linkletter fans, we had to take a short dazed and confused tour. Sadly, most of the stuff from Dazed is gone now, but we did visit a moontower (as in "party at the moontower" and Top Notch burger (though we ate at Huts). The moontowers were used to light the city ages ago, before the town fathers were ready to spring for street lights.



8. Speaking of western shirts, my husband bought an amazing one. Will try to put in a detail shot of that, too, in time.

9. The chain gang wasn't present here, at least in the downtown. We didn't see Starbucks, we saw Spiders and Joe's. Even the airport has mostly indy restaurants (Salt Lick BBQ and Amy's Ice Cream are local chains, not national ones.)

10. Polvo's restaurant: The best fish I've ever eaten. Name of fish to come when I consult my journal.

11. Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center. Filled with bluebonnets and cactuses, it's a nice refuge not far from the city. Biggest revelation: LADYBIRD JOHNSON IS STILL ALIVE. She's 94.