Cruising Texas Hill Country

This week I have left Indiana to spend some time with a friend in Texas. He wants to revisit some old haunts and that's much better done with company. So I'm seeing parts of Texas through his memories. It's fun.

Thanks to some very attractive fares, we flew into Austin, then made our way into a couple of northwestern suburbs.

I Like My Music Strait

You can be forgiven if you see this sign and think, "Why that must be George." 

Strait Music Store

Right idea, wrong Strait. I thought the same thing, then looked up the history of the store. With more than 50 years of history serving Austin, clearly there are two Strait families with strong ties to music and to Texas. 

Our base of operations is Towneplace Suites by Marriott. That puts us within fairly easy reach of friends to visit, old haunts, and Texas Hill Country.

Barbecue

Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q, Austin, TX

My friend is no more a Barbecue Snob than I am a Bourbon Snob. But we both know what we like. He is particularly partial to  Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q. Rudy's is a chain that has grown since it opened in 1989 and has now spread well beyond Texas. Austin was my first official visit to this popular restaurant.

Rudy's and Its Famous Barb-B-Q Sause

During our visit, we sampled sausage, moist brisket, dry brisket, and baby back ribs with cole slaw, pickles, onions, white bread, and sweet tea.

The serving staff were very accommodating. No matter what you ordered, they first presented it to you and asked if it looked okay. Then they weighed it and put it into your "basket," a large, deep, plastic tray lined with coated butcher paper. "Plates" were folded pieces of butcher paper added to the tray and each item ordered was served on waxed paper, keeping all the flavors separate.

Seating was at thick tables flanked by benches. Just swing a leg over, hunker down, and get to eatin'.

Baby Back Ribs

Cole Slaw

Maybe someone can explain to me this pest deterrent system. Throughout the porch area where we were dining, plastic bags of water are suspended from the rafters. Apparently, flies do not care for bags of water and this proves successful in limiting the number of incursions into patrons' meals.

No-Fly Zone

Black's Barbecue, San Marcos, TX

Because one meal of brisket is never enough, we also met a friend at Black's Barbecue in San Marcos the next day. This is one of four locations for this outfit.

The exterior of the San Marcos location is fairly nondescript. It is on a side street near an industrial pipe supplier and what looked like an old cotton exchange. The intersection of Grove and Hull was flooded from the rains the area has been having. We pulled into the gravel lot, walked past the cornhole boards and beneath the hanging lights, and found the secret to Black's success was on the inside.

Black's Barbecue Outdoor Seating

Very little can compete with staff who are totally sold on their product. From the time we arrived at Black's, we were treated like family. A lady came up and talked with us. She got us samples of the smoked turkey. I decided that would be my meal. She brought us a sample of the mashed potatoes and showed us that creamed corn as a topping is superior to gravy. I decided that would be one of my sides. As we ordered, we were given sample slices of fatty brisket and pork belly. Each staff member was enthusiastic and truly seemed intent on making certain we fully appreciated their work and enjoyed our visit.

They also had an eye for the competition. My friend was wearing a Salt Lick tee shirt, a competing restaurant. Folks brought him a Black's Barbecue tee shirt and gave it to him. They hoped he'd exchange the Salt Lick shirt, or at least cover it. But they didn't push. Much.

Three very contented men left that restaurant with good memories, an excellent impression of the place, and absolutely no reason to offer anything but praise to family and friends. I would love to return again soon.

Hill Country

When you adopt a place as your own, you want to share it. My friend came to Texas several years ago, met his wife, started a family, and continued to enjoy so much that Texas has to offer. Part of that is food. So we have tried the barbecue here and he continually shows me excellent sources of Latin American food where we live in Indiana.

He also came to love the natural beauty of Texas, so our next destination was not a place, but a region. Texas Hill Country.
br />Like Austin and San Antonio, San Marcos was settled at the base of the Balcones Escarpment and is known as one of the major entry points to the greater Hill Country area. We began from there and soon were climbing into the hills toward Wimberley, Blanco, Johnson City, and Marble Falls, then returning to Austin by way of Lago Vista.

I've read often about this part of the country. Louis L'Amour used it as the setting for several of his books and writes of cowboys brush popping, riding through the all but impenetrable thickets to gather and drive cattle back to the roundup area.

We saw cattle and sheep herds in open areas along the drive and we also saw dense thickets. The thickets looked like they'd be no fun at all to ride a horse through. And even less fun to meet a large, angry animal in and have little room for evasive maneuvers.

The topography changes as we see roadways climb and we peer off into valleys on either side of the highway.

Live oaks fill the areas beside the highway. Brush is cleared way around some. For others, brush and scrub choke the area, limiting sight lines and passage.

Many of the roadways were relatively straight lines between towns, but we also encountered curving, twisting roads that seemed tailor-made for sports cars or motorcycles. With temperatures in the high 50s in mid-February, central Texas seemed just the place to be.

Andalusia Whiskey, Blanco, TX

Outside Blanco, we passed a blue building with the name Andalusia Whiskey Co. prominently displayed on the front. It was a distillery. I've never visited a distillery and had hoped to see one during this trip, so we turned around and went inside. Andalusia proudly creates several varieties of Texas whiskey, which notably differs from Midwestern whiskies.

Andalusia Whiskey Flight

We tried a flight of the Triple Distilled, Revenant Oak, and Stryker.

• Triple Distilled is like an Irish whiskey. It is smooth with vanilla notes. Very pleasant. 
• Revenant Oak is peaty and more like a single-malt Scotch, but distinctly American, aged in used American bourbon barrels. 
• Stryker, as the co-owner pointed out, is unabashedly "smoke-forward" and is smoked with oak, mesquite, and apple woods, then aged in new, charred barrels. 

Each was good in its own way, but the budget was unforgiving. So only the Stryker will be making an appearance at the end of the trip.

Zoom into those labels or look at them on the Andalusia website. The work was done by a good friend of the owner. It's hand-drawn, including the lettering, and is beautiful. It's wonderful to see that level of craftsmanship.

The attention to detail carries through to the tasting room, the lounge at the back of the building, and the whole feel of Andalusia's enterprise. Viewing windows allow visitors to see the distilling process as it's underway. The smoke house is visible from the lounge. An outdoor covered patio area accommodates a number of people, so gather your crowd, visit Blanco, and make an outing of it.

Having sampled the flight and made our purchase, we continued our trip north to Marble Falls. It was mid-afternoon and beyond time for a cup of coffee. Google Maps is a godsend. And it sent us to Numinous.

Numinous Coffee Roasters, Marble Falls, TX

If, like me, you know you've heard the word numinous but you're not recalling what it means, let's let them explain.

As centerpieces go, this one is impressive:

That's right. Just build the room around it.

Numinous has that special feeling that comes from environment and attitude. The person at the register was kind, welcoming, and helpful. She led me to a gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie, which I felt was honoring to my wife's concern for my health. And also to my sweet tooth. My friend was skeptical, but was quickly converted to the marvelous possibilities offered by gluten-free foods.

The interior was inviting, with ample seating for small groups.

Drink fixings area

Menu and cold drink selections

Numinous Specials Board

There was more seating available outside, which was particularly appealing to us on a mild day in the middle of February.

Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata) is a small epiphyte commonly found clinging to limbs of live oaks and other trees in southwest Texas. Ball Moss is not a moss, but a true plant with flowers and seeds. It is a member of the Bromeliad family, which also contains Spanish moss and pineapple.

We made short work of our coffees and cookie, then headed east to Austin via Lago Vista.

As we neared Lago Vista, we saw more and more structures perched advantageously on hilltops to make the most of the views.

As you see below, the views above Lake Travis are spectacular. This is a part of Texas I could happily live in. It doesn't have the crowds of Austin and its nearest surrounding communities. It offers a number of access points to the water. Both Austin and San Antonio are within easy driving distance.

Having double-dipped on the barbecue experience and gotten, as our friend Billie offered, "full as a tick," we weren't ready for a heavy meal. But we were also not ready to give up on the Texas experience.

Whataburger

That left Whataburger. We must have made room, because we got Whataburger Jrs. AND chocolate shakes. Because, Whataburger. It may be an imperative.

That's our adventure for now. There's more week, so this may continue. There's a much more serious purpose for this visit, but I wanted to share the lighthearted side. The serious and weighty stuff will always be there, but it's not the sum total of life and often not where the better memories are made. Please grab a friend or loved one. Make and share some memories of your own. It's good for the soul.