MichelleAlthough Austin was on my itinerary, it became necessary to stay longer and have the broken RV Slide diagnosed. I ended up staying for a week at a property outside of Austin in a 30’ trailer being rented by the owners. It was a very nice location and close to town. It was wonderful for me and the cats to finally have some room to move around! Austin resides in the Hill Country of Texas and is so pretty. Lots of trees, streams and, at this time of year, wildflowers. Fields of Texas bluebonnets (we would call them wild lupine) and Texas Indian Paintbrush were in bloom. The blue and orange together was quite vibrant, and mixed in were pink, yellow, and purple wildflowers here and there. It is a gorgeous time of year in the hill country. Lots of green grass too, which I hadn’t seen in months!
Austin is a large city with a college (it’s the Capitol of Texas) and is known for its eclectic, hippy style in certain areas. Although I saw food truck courts in other towns in Texas, Austin took the craze to a new level. Blocks of food trucks were everywhere! Small eateries and pubs were brightly painted with words or murals that added a vibrancy to neighborhoods too. Austin is growing rapidly so there was construction all over… strip malls, houses, roads, schools, etc. Texas in general keeps their roads and highways in very good condition. Even their county roads are nice. I couldn’t find an area of Austin that wasn’t clean and nice looking. I compared the cost of living for Austin to Everett, WA. Although the overall cost of living was just slightly higher in Austin, the difference was how the cost of living was distributed by category. Everything in Austin was cheaper than Everett except housing. Austin’s housing prices are 35% higher than Everett!!! Outrageous! As much as I like Austin and the surrounding areas, I could never afford to buy a house there.
There is a lot to do in Austin, but I opted to have a leisurely time and visited only a few locations. First was McKinney Falls State Park. It’s a lovely large park with lots of trails winding throughout. Lots of wildflowers, trees, and birds. The Colorado River runs through this park. One area has big slabs of rock that channels the river and creates waterfalls. This is usually a big swimming hole but at this time of year there was not a lot of water and the falls were small. Still, it was pretty and relaxing. You may have heard that the Colorado River is now considered the most endangered river in the US. I can totally agree as I’ve seen it (or not as the case may be) many times throughout the last few months of travel.
Another day I visited the Zilker Botanical Gardens. When you first enter this garden it looks small. But it is built on a hillside and winds down and across the hill. It was a lovely sunny day and not too hot. It was a bit early for many flowers to be blooming but there were many water and stone features that made up for it. Since it is humid in this area (not as bad as the coast) many tropical plants can grow here as well as desert plants.
The last place I visited was Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Based on the name, I thought I would be seeing lots of wildflowers in bloom. That was true in a few areas but not the majority. I could tell it would be absolutely beautiful in a couple of months. Even then, there were lots of trails and much to see with different types of gardens. There was an area made for families and children which had a waterfall and things to climb on. Very nice park all in all. Wish I could be there when everything is in bloom.
There were a couple of very hot days (in the 90s) where I stayed at the trailer with the air conditioning!
After getting the RV back, I headed on towards New Mexico. The rest of the hill country area west of Austin was beautiful! I would definitely like to spend more time in this area.
PS – the RV diagnostic went well and I liked how I was treated at the RV repair company. Unfortunately there are warranty issues that I need to work out. That will be covered in another post once I know what’s going to happen.
