Austin, Texas

Joe and I have always heard that Austin is a neat city, so we added it to our "bucket list" and drove over in our Fleetwood Pulse to check it out. We spent two nights in the Austin Lone Star RV Resort, which is very close to Austin’s historic 6th Street Entertainment District. Traveling in the Pulse made parking a breeze. Sixth Street was nice, but we were disappointed in its appearance. The city officials need to hire the new French Quarter clean-up crew to take care of some cleanliness issues.

Our favorite place on 6th Street was BD Riley’s Irish Pub, established in October, 2000. The building was built by Joseph Hannig and dates back to 1875. Hannig was the husband of Susannah Dickinson, the last Alamo survivor. The western wall in the pub is original 1875 stone work and the rest of the pub came from Ireland and was built or installed in place. If you ever visit 6th Street, make sure you check out this pub.

Coyote Ugly, located on the famous 6th Street, was our second stop. Barbara and I agreed that we could have done without this stop, but since we were there, we drank a beer and watched the girls dance on the bar.

Our next stop was the Congress Avenue Bridge, located in downtown Austin. There appears to be some confusion as to whether the bridge crosses a river or a lake, but according to what I have found on the internet is crosses Town Lake. This bridge is home to an estimated 1.5 million of Mexican free-tail bats. The bats must still be in Mexico because they were not there for our visit. While there, we took the opportunity to sit and relax under the shade of one of the numerous trees along the lake.

Duck & Dog Pub, a British pub sistered with The Dog & Duck Pub in London, was our choice for lunch. The owner of this pub was once a collector of duck decoys and her husband is a veterinarian, thus the name Dog & Duck. The dark, cozy pub had tasty food and a neat display of beer tap handles.