March 2019 – Page 2 – Adventures of Roy and Laurie

When in Texas there are a few things we wanted to make sure to see and do. Number 1 is BBQ! Check, done that. Number 2 was to see the studio where Austin City Limits is taped and produced. Years ago, we watched an episode (when we were young enough to stay up past midnight) and got hooked on a singer named Keb Mo. Never would have heard of him but now we own all his CDs and have seen him in person a few times.

Too bad this is only the tour and not a real show.

It looks a bit more like Laurie is actually on stage.

The numbers represent the number of shows each artist has done over the past 50 years. Keb Mo is not up to 6 yet but we did find his name a few times on the wall of performers.

Keb Mo has played here at least twice that we can remember.

As Willie Nelson was instrumental (so to speak) in getting ACL off the ground years ago, they gave him his own porch to smoke on when he is in town.

When asked about this hanging souvenir our tour guide said Willie’s Reserve is now a legal canabis company in Colorado.

To be a fly on the wall when this guy played the house?

The backstage portion of our tour was excellent. It was really cool to be let into some of the areas generally reserved for folks that make the show happen. No one told us not to touch anything or not to take pictures and we really appreciated that.

The sound board that the show producer uses to mix each show. No, I did not push any of those buttons. should I have?

The dressing rooms were set up for a luxurious experience. Our guide told us that the crew goes out of its way to make sure all the artists have their idiosyncrasies are satisfied.

The original wooden stage that they still use on special occasions.

Our guide said the drummer on one of the recent shows had way too much fun one night so the crew had a bit of fun with him before helping him up. No, he was not seriously hurt.

As Laurie is pointing to HER left we suppose the arrow is pointing in the “right” direction. Exit stage left for us!

Their cups are made of cornstarch! This intrigued us a bit.
Here is the Wikipedia definition of a LEED certified building:

**LEED**, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Available for virtually all building, community and home project types, **LEED** provides a framework to create healthy, highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings.

After our excellent tour it was off to find some of that famous Texas BBQ. We were told Franklin’s was a must try by some folks on our tour so we walked the 2 miles just to find them “sold out” at 1pm. They open at 11am so we figured to try again tomorrow before leaving town.

This place called Franklin’s is so popular that when we showed up at 10am the next morning the line was wrapped around the block with some folks at the front still in their sleeping bag! We would not wait so off to find another venue.

I think we made the right choice by choosing this “food” truck wouldn’t you say? And the BBQ was excellent.

There were many more food trucks to choose from, Indeed there were food truck everywhere. We will wait until we visit Maine this summer for a lobster roll.

We are used to riding our tandem bicycle around city streets but the new craze is the electric scooters. It was a 15 minute ordeal to figure out the e-scooter app by Uber and another 15 minute ordeal to make them work after our credit card unlocked them but they were indeed very convenient and efficient. We used them to get back to our truck about 2 miles away.

Laurie had a great time flying by me on all the uphills!

As kids we remember the basics regarding the Alamo. For me it amounts to something about Davy Crockett and Mexico. Of course I remember the Sam Houston quote (not that I knew it was Sam Houston) “Remember the Alamo!”. Our campsite was situated right on the lengthy San Antonio Riverwalk, so a 4 mile bike ride got you a lot of places including downtown and the Alamo. There were no photos allowed inside the church part of the Alamo but we managed a few nice shots in the area. Its history is long, storied and many faceted. Ruled by Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas (a nation of its own for 9 years), then as The State of Texas. For a quick history lesson visit:

https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1201.html

This is the famous facade of the Alamo compound. Almost all of it is original to the 1700s except the very top which was added by the US Army when it leased the compound in the 1800s.

This is the “long house” facade. It is still all original material. The line of placards out front gave us a sense of what the compound looked like at different points in history.

There was a very impressive monument to all the people involved in the different aspects of its history. This side has a statue of Davy Crockett. Did you know, among many other things, Crockett was a Congressman from Tennessee who lost his re-election bid and moved west to Texas to give himself a new start. Did not work out well for him.

This is what is known as a “live oak tree”. It is an evergreen variety of oak tree. Nothing like the oak trees in the northeast but spectacular looking nonetheless. Check out the support on one of the low lying branches.

Outside the Alamo our chariot awaits a beautiful ride home on the San Antonio Riverwalk.

Our bike ride was interrupted by a family of ducks. The mother is trying desperately to get the last of her chicks into the San Antonio River. We politely waited but, many other walkers and cyclists did not. Poor birds.

This engineering marvel is the southern end of a 3.2 mile diversion piping system to basically run the river underground and past the city before “popping out” here. The literature states that it has saved the city from being underwater a number of times. $111 million was its cost 20 years ago.

Before cycling we had to walk the bike a bit along the path but the scenery was spectacular as the river winds directly through downtown.

Not sure what these birds are called but they were very interesting to watch as we cycled along.

Check out these two birds shortly after takeoff.

Before arriving safely back at our Bullet we stopped for take-out at a Rudy’s BBQ. Ribs and a loaded baked potato topped with a half pound of brisket! We figured we would find some good BBQ in Texas and so far, we have.

Month: March 2019

Austin City Limits (ACL)…The PBS Show…A Behind The Scenes Look.

The Alamo Is Not All That San Antonio, Texas Has To Offer.