Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Cowboy Christmas Day 4

Morning came too quickly. All these days in a row of drinking were taking their toll on me. We headed to Jo's again for a quick pick-me-up and then showered. Today we were going to Threadgill's for the Gospel brunch. I was excited about some home cookin'!


We were seated immediately and told to help ourselves to the buffet. I did not want the breakfast buffet and the really cute waitress told us if we waited 10 minutes, they would be serving off the menu. Today's special was turkey and dressing! I was going to have my Christmas dinner after all! Check this out!


Almost as soon as the food came out, the music started. The Gospel Silvertones were performing. We were immediately filled with the spirit and started clapping.


Here is a shot of me enjoying lunch and the music.


The Gospel Silvertones were so good. I cannot tell you how much we did not want to leave.


After lunch, it was still raining. We decided to go see Lake Travis. Several of our friends have been to Austin and told us about the lake. We drove and drove. It was further than we thought. We finally found The Oasis.

Upon arriving, we found out there had been a devastating fire and the only thing opened was the top floor. It was like a big banquet room at a hotel and sort of stupid. We ordered a margarita. Might as well not pass up an opportunity for another tequila drink.


We finished our drinks and headed back into town. It was about time to head for the event we'd been looking forward to all week. Chicken Shit Sunday. Here is where you are going to call me a liar. You are going to think I made this all up. But I have pictures. This all goes down at Ginny's Little Longhorn Saloon.


As you can see, it's tiny. When you walk in, there's a pool table. On top, is a big piece of flat wood and a chicken coop on top.


On the flat piece of wood, there are squares with numbers in them. We looked around and it was pretty dead. Mooey looked at me and said "I think this is going to be a bust." We ordered beers. Mooey got a Lone Star and I got a Bud Light. The whole tab was $3.75. Things were looking up.

We grabbed two seat at the bar very close to the coop. Within 30 minutes, the bar was packed. We became chummy with the bartender. We got her to explain how to play. That's Ginny on the right.


Everyone lines up and gets a number for $2. There are 57 numbers. I was starting to worry there were more than 57 people in the bar so when they announced to line up, Mooey and I were among the first ones in line.


Billy Dee was playing that day. They were really good. His guitar player was Pete Mitchell that played with Ernest Tubb for 25 years. He was incredible.


We'd had about 5 or 6 beers when they brought the chicken out. See, they put the chicken in the coop and whichever square she shits on, that's who wins.


The chicken shit on number 14! I had 13. Bastard. As you can see, the chicken is gigantic. Her name is Red and when we arrived she was in someone's car taking a nap.

We were pretty buzzy by now and decided we needed to go before another round started. We called several Mexican restaurants but they were all closed. It was Sunday and Christmas Eve. I finally saw an ad for an Indonesian place. They were open!

We let our primo seats go and headed to eat.


We were starving. We both ordered beers and appetizers. I got ribs and Mooey got some kind of shrimp rolls (balls).


The ribs were delicious! Then I ordered Ayam Goreng Balado which is deep fried boneless chicken in a spicy red sauce and yellow onion. I didn't notice it was fried. I would've rather had it without the batter but it was still really good.


Mooey ordered Ikan Goreng Bumbu Kare which is fried fish fillet in coconut red curry sauce. She loved it.

It was 8:30 and I couldn't finish my beer. I was partied out. All we wanted to do was go back and lay down and watch TV. We had a big night out planned but neither one of us could muster the energy. We were losers!

The next morning was Christmas Day. We headed to the airport. I was looking forward to seeing Weenie! Our flights were great but we didn't know where we parked the GD car at the Little Rock Airport. The wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour and it was in the 30's. I finally walked to the toll booth. She felt so bad for us, she called the shuttle to come get us. The driver basically said we were morons and then found our car in about 3 minutes. Oh well, sometimes you are excited about your trip and forget to look where you parked. Sue me.

Another fabulous Christmas trip was over. Austin is a fun city! It nearly beat me.

Cowboy Christmas Day 3

We woke up and headed to Jo's for coffee. It was right next to the hotel. We brought back the $4 coffees and showered. Today we were shopping.

Congress has tons of neat little shops. We had seen a boot store that we had to go to. We both wanted cowboy boots. But first we went into this jewelry store.




They had tons of turquoise jewelry. We must've tried on every ring in the store. I walked out with this one.


It was raining so we headed to the boot store to kill some time. We both bought boots. Oh well! Mooey's are on the right.


After pretty much spending all my money on the boots, plus the rain, we decided it was time to go have margaritas. Guero's was within walking distance of the hotel so we found seats at the bar and ordered drinks. The first margarita we had was called The Purest. It had Patron Silver, Cointreau and fresh squeezed lime juice. The only problem is that the juice is barely there. They shake them up forever and then pour them in a small glass.


After we downed that drink, we ordered the El Magnifico. It contained Herradura AƱejo, Cointreau, and fresh squeezed lime juice. Then onto The Don that had Don Julio, Cointreau and fresh squeezed lime juice. They did give us some salsa and we ordered queso. It was good. Our bartender, Chrissy, was the highlight however. She was such a delight. We finally got her to pose for a picture. Have you ever seen such great earrings?


She was so disappointed when we left. Mooey had made friends with a guy at the bar and he told us in order to really have a Texas experience we had to go to the Broken Spoke. He told us that Asleep at the Wheel were playing and it was not to be missed. So, we left Chrissy and headed back to the hotel to don our cowboy boots.

It was only around 7:00 and we were really buzzy. We got to the Broken Spoke and it wasn't crowded. We entered and there was a line already. The cover was $20. Mooey had left her wallet at the hotel but happened to have some cash in her pocket. We got in and got a table right in front. What luck. What sucked was it was so early and the band would not be playing for a couple of hours. Also, no smoking. Oh, and it was pouring rain.

So, to pass the time, we ordered the world famous chicken fried steak. It took about 20 minutes to arrive but it was worth waiting for. In Texas, the meat is actual sirloin steak, not like here with the gristle in the minute steak. It's so tender you can cut it with a fork.

After going out the back door and smoking in the rain, the opening act finally started. I've been racking my brain to remember the band that opened but it has left me. They were really, really good. The lead singer was a cutey. Anyway, Asleep at the Wheel finally took the stage and the dance floor was flooded. People were two-stepping so fast it was an amazing sight to see.

Here is a picture taken of us by the people that decided they could sit at our table.


We left around midnight. Asleep at the Wheel were fantastic. No more beers for me. We went to the hotel only to discover we were hungry again. So, we got back in the car and went here. Luckily it was 3 blocks from the hotel. We'd heard people rave about this place as a late night eatery.


There was a tiny wait but we were seated at the bar pretty quickly. I asked the waitress if I should get an omelet or a sandwich. She convinced me to get eggs. Mooey ordered pancakes. They were giant!


My omelet, also giant.


We paid the bill and then fell face first into the bed!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Hill Country - Cowboy Christmas Day 2

Mooey and I awoke and quickly packed our clothes and checked out of the Crockett. We had a full day. Mooey had really done her research and found some interesting sites to see between San Antonio and Austin.

The first stop was the Natural Bridge Caverns.


These caverns are kept at a temperature of 70 degrees with the relative humidity of 99%. We went down 180 feet and then had to walk back up. Needless to say, there was some sweating involved. I won't bore you with the hundreds of pictures we took of stalagmites because most of them did not come out because it was so dark. Here are a few of the formations and then a couple of Mooey and I for your enjoyment.


Here is Mooey enjoying the cave.

Keep in mind this cave tour lasted 75 minutes. Straight down and straight back up. Here's a picture at about 5 minutes in. Very happy.

10 minutes. Still happy.


20 minutes. Not as happy.

70 minutes. Delirious. This is right before I passed the fuck out. I'm not even looking at the camera. The humidity was smothering. 75 minutes = way too fucking long.

We emerged from the cavern around 1:30 and not a minute too soon. They had snapped a photo of us in anticipation of us purchasing it. Here is ours.

Of course we bought it. It's hysterical.

We blasted out of that place and headed to Wimberly. There is a glass store there that you can watch them actually blowing the glass. This chandelier was spectacular.



We went in the back where the demostration was taking place.


They guy was in love with himself and a total jerk to his assistant. Mooey talked me into buying a stupid glass ball and then we left.

Onto the winery!


That's right. You are looking at the wine tasting center. We went in a tasted 6 wines. I really liked 2 of them and Mooey bought 2 bottles.


Mooey snapped this picture of the view.


Here we are after the tasting.


My hair never recovered after the cave incident.

The ladies at the winery gave us a tiny map to our next destination. It was time to eat! We were early to the restaurant and got seated immediately.


We both ordered family style which means all you can eat.


That folks is brisket, ribs and sausage on the plate plus pickles, slaw, potato salad, ranch style beans, bread and extra sauce. Sweet Jesus!

Look at that pink smoke ring around that brisket! It was heavenly. They sure could give Memphis BBQ a run for their money. Needless to say, we made ourselves sick. Jake, the waiter, sat down and drew us a map on a napkin to get to our hotel. He showed us a backway so we could skip Interstate 35. He was right on the money and we were at our hotel in 20 minutes.

We checked in and changed clothes. We needed margaritas. Next to the hotel is this restaurant. We stopped in for a quick drink while we devised our plan.

We decided to take the car down to 6th Street. It has tons of bars and we wanted to bar hop. Mooey was telling me she couldn't get buzzy because of all the BBQ she ate at the Salt Lick. I told her she needed to do a shooter. Mooey turned up her nose and said she didn't like those fruity shooters that I always do but she would consider shooting tequila. It was my turn to snarl but Mooey convinced me by saying "We're in Texas."

As we were walking down 6th Street trying to pick a bar I saw this bar and knew it was the place to get a tequila shot.



We entered the bar and it was empty. It was a little early for the bars apparently. No one gets out until midnight. Anyway, we bellied up to the bar and saw the two bartenders. Both were very good looking and their breasts were about to fall out of their shirts. We had picked the right place! I ordered two Bud Lights and 2 shots of Patron chilled.

The bartender shook our Patron and began filling the cups for the shots. I expected the cup to be about half full, but when her arm got tired of pouring and the tequila was to the rim, I knew we were in trouble. The picture doesn't really do the amount of tequila justice. It was 4 giant gulps. Even the bartender looked at it and said "Oh, those are really big. Oh well.", shrugged, turned on her heel and left us to shoot them.

So, we shot them. About 30 seconds later we were giggling. I turned to Mooey and said, "Boy, that Patron sure can get a party started." We thought that was the funniest thing ever.

Then we were trying to figure out a way to get the bartender's picture. So, Mooey called her over and had her take this picture of us.

Then Mooey grabbed the camera and turned it on the bartender.

We had a couple of beers here but finally pulled ourselves away and headed to the next bar.

We ordered Black & Tans here. It was real frat boyish in here so we only had one beer. Onto the next bar.

This place was kind of crowded but we were able to snag 2 seats at the bar. There was also cute bartenders here. Mooey snapped this one. Too bad that cup is in the way.

We had not had enough to drink so we bought jello shooters.


We decided we needed to head back to the hotel area before we couldn't drive. We bid adieu to 6th Street. We'd done it proud.

We parked the Aveo and walked across the street to this bar. It was packed and there was an $8 cover but we could hear the music and it sounded awesome. This band was playing. They were fantastic. They reminded me a little bit of Dwight Yoakam. The fiddle player was unbelievable.

We watched them for about 45 minutes and left. We'd finally had enough.

We fell into bed. We'd had a full day!