Destination: San Antonio, Texas

Destination: San Antonio, Texas

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March 18-21, 2016

Day 1
The drive from NOLA to SATX was supposed to be around 8 hours, our shortest leg of the entire road trip. We were pretty psyched that it was only 8. At this point, that’s nothing. The plan was to leave NOLA by 8, get there around 4 or 5pm and then explore the Riverwalk for some dinner.

Once again, things didn’t go as planned. Right when we departed NOLA we saw signs for the closure of the highway we were taking at exit 4. We didn’t really put thought into why there was a closure, although I did remember my mom warning me about some flooding. She told me to double check to see if our drive would be affected, and I laughed it off telling her that a highway can’t be flooded…We looked at our GPS and thought we were lucky to avoid the closure because it directed us to get off at exit 4 anyways. 4 hours into the drive, we get off at exit 4 and begin to see army men allover. Turns out, the highway was flooded. Mom was right again. We follow the GPS only to find out that the detour that it directed us to was also flooded. Our only option was to drive about an hour east again, about an hour north, and then an hour southwest to bypass the flooding. Such a horrible feeling to be halfway through your 8 hour drive only to find out you actually have 7 hours left.

Closures along TX/LA border

It was such a relief to finally arrive in San Antonio. Our hosts were extremely welcoming and some of the most dog friendly people I’ve ever met. Jennifer actually fosters dog so she had no problem with Duke at all. After some chatting, we followed their recommendation to get dinner at a restaurant called The Granary.

Duke inside of our Airbnb

As we started driving, the sky filled with lightning. Then it started to pour. Luckily the outdoor seating area at The Granary ‘Cue & Brew is covered. We were able to sit outside with Duke and it was pretty cool to be outdoors as a huge thunderstorm was rolling by.

The Granary

The food and waitstaff were amazing. The kind of place where they bring your food and describe the dish, the ingredients, and how it was cooked. I was shivering from the 25 degree drop in temperature and settled on getting the smoked shoyu brisket ramen with brown ale noodles pretty quickly. Corey got a 12 hour smoked brisket with quinoa that was cooked in coffee served with aerated corn bread. Delicious. And relatively cheap. I like broth that is really light and flavorful. I found Santouka in Boston to be wayyy too flavorful and sickening after a while. This ramen was perfect! And very reminiscent of when Corey used to make ramen using kombu and bonito flakes!

Delicious fancy meal

Day 2
Corey and I decided to spend our second day exploring SXSW. Knowing that, we both wished that we had more time in San Antonio to just chill and catch up on rest/laundry/work. We contacted our current hosts in SATX who were totally fine with us stay another night. And then contacted the host in New Mexico who was also fine with pushing our reservations out a day. So now we have 3 days in SATX!!! Wooooo!

We drove up to Austin which is a little over an hour an away. We were dreading the traffic and parking situation, but reframed our mindset. We imagined driving in Boston for AB, spending 3 hours in the car and paying $75 for parking. We knew it wouldn’t be as bad as that, so when we arrived in Austin without having to deal with traffic at all and parked right by the convention center for $30 all day, we were stoked!

It was around 11am and a lot of the area was still being set up. We saw some bands doing sound checks and a lot of food trucks still setting up. We walked around and got a sense of downtown Austin. There were a ton of bars and restaurants. We initially struggled finding a dog friendly sit down place to eat, but followed some Yelp reviews to a place called Moonshine. The restaurant had an old southern house vibe. Duke and I waited outside as Corey tried to get us a table. We were told the wait would be 1 hour, which was totally fine since we had all day anyways. To our surprise, the patio out front served as an outdoor bar. While we waited, we were able to order drinks, appetizers and were served complimentary fresh popcorn. The wait was definitely not an hour. I would say we seated out back within 30 minutes. When the waitress brought us our drinks, they also brought out a bowl of water for Duke! I guess this is normal in Texas, but I’ve never encountered that in MA. The service was amazing! I loved the catfish with crawfish tails that I ordered. Corey ended up ordering a chicken fried steak or whatever which was the opposite of what he wanted. He had imagined fried chicken, but in reality it was a fried steak… Not bad but not what he wanted either. Either way, we were both stuffed into a food coma.

Awesome experience at Moonshine
Duke’s a fan of fine dining

That only means one thing… another car nap!!!! I think an hour later, we were good to go.

By the time we explored SXSW the second time, the place was bumpin! Huge crowds everywhere!!! I somewhat wish we didn’t have Duke, because there was a ton of free stuff to check out in the convention center but we couldn’t bring a dog inside. Duke was a trooper though. He was completely overwhelmed by the people and all the drums but still stuck it out. A lot of bands were playing in restaurants but you were able to watch from the street. There were also a ton of street performers and food trucks. We walked around a lot! And Duke got so much attention from people wanting to pet him! SXSW would be such an amazing experience for anyone who is into music and wants to bar hop all day!!! Definitely check it out in the future!

Good to see you again, Austin!

We ended up leaving around 5 or 6 and headed back home. Instead of going out again for the night, we picked up road trip snacks and a quick meal at Wholefoods.

I’m still a Whole Foods brat

We returned back to our AirBnb to find another puppy, Murphy. Jennifer was just telling us the previous night about how strays tend to show up at the house. They’ll find an average of 2 dogs a month. This guy still had a collar on and nail polish but no tags. He wasn’t microchipped either. Jennifer checked around the neighborhood and so far no one has claimed him. He’s an amazing dog though. Very loving and calm. Got very anxious at some point and just wanted someone to hold him to calm him down. After chatting for a bit and playing with Harvey, Duke, and Murph, I called it a night.

Falling in love with Mr. Murph!!!

Day 3
Today is the chill day. We slept in. Sat out in the back yard with the dogs and Corey got some work done. I pretty much spent the morning playing with the pups and writing this blog post. We were only up for a few hours but then decided to nap again. Up until today we haven’t really been feeling tired because we’ve always had something to do. Since we finally gave ourselves some time to relax, we really felt how all this traveling has been taking a toll on our bodies. We forced ourselves to wake up by 3:30pm.

Such a loving pup! Hope he finds a forever home!
Can’t leave out Charlie…

Instead of going to The Riverwalk, which everyone has been describing as a tourist trap, we decided to drive an hour to Lockhart, “the BBQ capital of Texas.” So worth it. You wait in line until you get to the sides counter. Then you scoop the sides you want and they charge $1.99 for every 5 ounces you get. Then when you get to the meat counter, you just tell them how much you want of each meat and then they weigh it before putting it on your plate. I ended up getting potato salad, mac and cheese, cole slaw, brisket, and ribs. Such smoky goodness!!!

Black BBQ: A must if you’re in the area
Wish I could record the relive eating this

We then drove to the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio before calling it a night. The garden was absolutely gorgeous, but I was honestly hoping for a larger more open space.

Japanese Tea Garden- crowded and smaller than I expect but still stunning

On to New Mexico tomorrow!!!!!

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