Gourdoughs’s. . . Big Fat Donuts. . . Grilled Strawberry. . . Grandma’s Pie. . .
We ate so much good food in Austin, and I feel like we only just scratched the surface. I’ve already got a growing list of places to try next time we’re in town. Here’s the first food truck we ate at in Austin, Gourdough’s Big Fat Donuts. More to come.
About an hour into our drive from Lubbock to Austin I spot a BBQ sign. I can tell from appearances that it’s probably not a chain. We’re not quite ready for lunch but I’m too curious to let this one pass me by. It might be the best barbecue in Texas and I’m not willing to loose sleep wondering if maybe I should have stopped. What if the next ten restaurants are those crappy burger joints. We pull off the highway and park up. There’s a sign indicating that truckers are welcome. That’s to do with parking, I’m sure. But it’s also enough to remind me that we’re entering unfamiliar territory. Suddenly this is a good thing. The diner is a small Ma & Pa outfit, operated since ’79 and the Texas accent is like sweet music to my ears. We order up a sandwich each and some buffalo wings. You can tell before the food even reaches your lips. There’s the authentic smokiness that you won’t find in anything that isn’t barbecued with heart. More nuanced than something that’s been simply grilled or had smokey essence added to it. It’s a flavor I’ve been striving for. The food is great. I’m so glad we stopped here. At this point I feel like even if we come away with mostly mediocre food for the next 6 weeks we will still have had two damn good dining experiences in the USA. If you’re going anywhere near Post, Texas then consider this a stop sign.
A three screen drive-in theatre showing only double features for six bucks per head. Awesome.
We caught The Expendables and came just early enough to see the end of Machete. Wish we had seen the whole thing, the drive in would be a great setting for it.
We visited the Petrified Forest not to see the strange silica laden wood or dinosaur fossils (which were still interesting) but to see the Painted Desert. Most of the desert is located within the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, but part of it lies just south within the Petrified Forest National Park. The environment has been carved by the weather over many years into peaks and troughs and the varying minerals within the rock make this area one of the most beautiful and colorful landscapes in the world. If you want to see this park in half a day or less you can easily take the 27 mile Petrified Forest Road that runs between I-40 to US-180 and stop at the sights along the way. We got out and looked around at many of the stops and lookouts but only found time for one walk; the Puerco Peublo – exploring the ruins of ancestral Puebloan dwellings.
In our quest to fill in the in between places of our road trip we’ve been on the look out for interesting hotels to stay in. The history of the Wigwam motel, as well as its Route 66 heritage contributed to us wanting to stay here. Though quite old (built in 1950) the Wigwam Motel in Arizona is clean and has novelty factor. It is near a train track, and though that didn’t bother me too much it might be necessary for some to use earplugs. The motel also keeps a bunch of classic cars on its grounds. I didn’t see much in Holbrook besides a bunch of chain restaurants, but we did find somewhere nice to eat.
