1000 Miles to Austin

Austin, TX — My ass is sore as hell and I could use a cold Lone Star. It's 11:37 p.m. and I just pulled in behind the Continental Club in Austin, TX. It also happens to be the first leg of my first road trip on my new '08 Harley Nightster which I rode vs. driving my Bronco in order to break the 1000 mile mark, the recommended break-in period for the motorcycle. Why I decided to make the 3 hour ride at night is beyond me, maybe due to the name of the bike. But it was a fun ride that evening and not much traffic to deal with, not to mention considerably cooler than it had been just a few hours earlier.

My first objective was to call the Austin Motel to ask if the No Vacancy sign posted was accurate ... it was. So they gave me the names of two other establishments, the first being the San Jose Hotel on South Congress ... No Vacancy. The second was the Embassy Suites Hotel also on SoCo, ummm, not my style. So I'll figure it out later I thought.

I walked around the front and through the door and was greeted with, "It's $8.00". And I replied, "My name is on the guest list." which got me a smile and a "Have a good time." I made my way through the people and up to the bar for my first Lone Star of the evening. The crowd was building but nothing compared to the numbers during the James McMurtry show just days earlier or the SkyRocket show at the Houston Continental Club the night before. However I was interested to see a fairly young crowd present to see the LeRoi Brothers who formed in Austin in 1981. The boys put on a good show complete with their frontman doing repeated pelvic thrusts into the crowd while shaking a pair of maracas. But at the end it became the Charlie Sexton show who had briefly been at the bar before he stepped on stage and stole the show. The tunes filled the air until 2:20 a.m.

By then I was ready to find a room for the night. Welcome to the Village Motor Inn on South Congress. Seemed okay. I parked the bike and went inside the office and rang the bell. A woman soon stepped out rubbing her eyes. I asked how much, "$50", I replied "Are the rooms clean?" of course I got the old "Oh yes, you want to see?". I figured I would trust her. Later I would learn that was a mistake. I went to room 312, the room was sparse and hot from no air conditioning all day. I pulled back the covers to find small stains that seemly looked like blood and a few long black hairs. I pulled the sheets back up and threw my stuff down when I decided to ride back up South Congress to the Magnolia Cafe where I had a great plate of chicken tacos served with chips and salsa. You can never go wrong with the Magnolia ... they're open 24 hours, 8 days a week according to the web site. And if people watching is your thing it's a must.

So back to the Village Motor Inn — I walk into the room and flipped on the bathroom light to prepare for bed. This is when I notice not only had the toilet not been cleaned in, I don't know, I'm guessing months. It had a thick layer of human feces to guard the cesspool of only God knows what below. I quickly packed up my belonging and awoke the night shift manager again, this time being about 4 a.m. As I explained that I thought their hotel was a health hazard I demanded either a clean room or a refund. So I slept in room 208. Not great, but a fairly clean toilet, maybe even cleaner than the one at the Town & Country in Marfa, TX [Next West Texas story coming soon.]. Note, I slept fully clothed on top of the covers and made sure I stayed in the room no more than my required four hours of sleep.

Up early I checked out and went to Las Manitas Avenue Cafe, one of my favorite eateries in Austin. After a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, re-fried beans, corn tortillas, orange juice and coffee I was ready to hit the road and get to Luling for the annual Watermelon Thump Festival.

Luling, a town of 5080 population once known as the "toughest town in Texas" when cowboys drove their cattle herds through the area and when those days ended the town soon became a small oil town. In it's day Luling oil wells produced 11,000,000 barrels of oil per year. Now they're known for the Watermelon Thump ... An annual festival celebrating the popular summer fruit. There you can find watermelon foam hats, watermelon seed spitting contest which resulted in me seeing a man spit a watermelon seed over 44 feet. They also had a classic car show with 1960's Mustangs, lots of Mopar, even a Metropolitan was being shown. Of course they had the usual festival food that involves various meats on a stick, kettle corn, funnel cake, etc, etc. And yes, watermelon.

But being a small Texas town has nothing to do with the quality of their production. It was extremely well organized. Easy to get from one end to the other, plenty of parking, restrooms and even though the June temperatures were pushing high 90's various covered areas with large water cooled fans kept activities very tolerable. Keeping the masses cool wasn't the only impressive thing I saw, how about the live music stage which was massive, complete with stage lighting hung via trusses, two sound boards manned with engineers. It was every bit professional as any big city music venue and I've been to a few. The bands that performed were The Moods and Johnny Dee and the Rocket 88's.

The Moods were a band that originated in Luling in the late 1950s, but rather than explain who they are I found a great short about them filmed for the 'Eyes of Texas' in the 1990s. And since I'm partial to video and that show here it is:

I watched the majority of the Moods until what I'd been waiting for all day finally came about. The watermelon seed spitting contest. Yep. At 4:30 p.m. sharp teams of seed spitting folks were gathering to show all of Central Texas what they had. The individual seed spitting contest happened the prior day as did the parade complete with the Watermelon Queen who was of course present at the seed spitting. The teams comprised of four persons varied from young women, to large farmer type men wearing overalls to a woman in her mid-80s. I saw seeds spit a whopping 8 feet to an astounding 44+ feet. I believe the record was 68 feet but no such luck this day would carry any one seed so far. But all-in-all it has motivated me to start contacting my own friends for a team in next years contest.

After the contest I decided to hit the road and go home. The ride was typical ... flying past 18-wheelers hogging the road, getting beat up by the wind and riding into a soup bowl of sloppy weather once back in Houston. I was glad to get off the bike, tired, sore and wet ... My goal of attending the annual festival in Luling, TX was now accomplished as well I now had over 1200 miles on my bike. Next trip ... Carthage, Texas. I'll be running sound on a horror film shot in the small East Texas town, 183 miles northeast of Houston, just southwest of Shreveport, LA. Personal interest lie in the fact that it'll be the second horror film I've worked on, ties back to Mike Boren of Big Bend, TX [Read West Texas pt. I] and well that much closer to covering all of the Lone Star state by years end.

Reb ... Next year I expect you to be spitting seeds with me, this festival was all your idea anyway.

**NOTE: I don't know how I missed this or forgot rather ... But during the last West Texas trip in May, Rebekah & I stopped at a Buc-ees in Luling and bought half a pound of 'Spicy Venison' meat sticks. That place had the most crazy selection of jerky and other cured meat products I had ever seen. Mind you, my father thinks he's the greatest hunter on planet earth and I grew up eating this stuff. We also bought breakfast here, a great selection of not-so healthy foods to choose from, but great for road trips. If only I had remembered about Buc-ees in Luling.