The Gobblers Knob

 Jo’s Coffee on South Congress. Great view, better coffee.

I decided to turn this past week’s trip to Austin for a convention into a bit of “me time.”  I am one of those typical Dallasites that secretly wishes he were an Austinite (don’t deny it, you are too).  After reading a post from the CMT blog a couple of weeks ago, I really set out to plan my 36 hours in The Capital City with the appropriate amount of fun.  I stole a couple of things off of the blogger’s list, and the other items I have wanted to do, or have done in the past.  Instead of getting extremely wordy, as I am one to do often times, I will merely be kinda wordy by providing you, my dear, dirty reader with a bullet by bullet recap of my trip:

• After getting my rental car, headed over to III Forks for a luncheon.  Not bad, not as amazing as I had hoped.  Perhaps I had built it up in my mind how good it was supposed to be.

• Headed over to Dominican Joe for some coffee and to catch up on work that I had missed over the course of the morning.  Having a tie on, I was conspicuous by my presence.  Hippies, homeless, and students (maybe some of them were all 3) acted cooler-than-thou as I plugged in my Ipod. I clicked over to the latest from Jackson Taylor Band and got to work.

• After leaving the coffee shop, I headed a couple of blocks south on South Congress Street to check in at The Austin Motel.  It’s a cool, retro, restored motel that sits in the best spot in the city.  It’s easy access to downtown is nice, but the fact that it’s placed across the street from the best music club and the best ice cream in town as well as next door to the best roadside coffee house you’ll ever find, makes this lodging choice an ideal one for this goober.  The wifi connection wasn’t the strongest, and the room wasn’t the biggest (I went cheap, there are bigger options than what I chose), but the motel offered a comfy room, both in decor and feel.  Knowing that I would simply be able to walk back and forth not only to the concert that night, but to grab coffee the next morning was a pretty cool feeling for this wannabe Austinite.

• After a pre-dinner scoop of Spicy Chocolate from Amy’s, I made my way to The Texas Chili Parlor for dinner with my buds from The 9513.  Brothers Brady and Brody joined me for some of the meatiest chili my intestines have ever attempted to digest.  The Mad Dog Margarita wasn’t as good as the waiter described it, and he described it by asking me if I liked or disliked Robitussin, so you figure out what I thought about the taste.  I had a great time with Brady and Brody as we bagged on Kenny Chesney, bloggers that suck (which I may or may not be one), American Idol Style Country, and frat boys that think Robert Earl Keen and Jason Michael Carroll are one and the same. At one point, Walt Wilkins came in and sat down to eat.  Well, I say it was Wilkins, my dinner-mates felt that he had too round of a face and posessed that other familiar Austin trait of looking a tad homeless. At the end of the night the guys bought dinner (which made me wish I had gotten a second margarita, regardless of the taste) and I set out to blow past my wife’s 1030pm bed-time prediction.

• After leaving dinner, I parked my rental at the motel and walked across the street triumphantly to see Jon Dee Graham at the Continental.  With a 6 month old at home, I was as shocked as anyone that I was still awake.  Finding a good spot near the stage at the reasonably attended gig, I settled in just in time for Graham’s first song.  After cranking out some of the local crowd’s favorites, including “Faithless,” “Tie a Knot,” and what ended up being my personal fave, the rocking “Something Wonderful,” I was satisfied that I had defied all rules of nature by being up so “late”.  Time to head on back across the street.

• Wake up, grab some coffee at Jo’s, check out of the motel, head to convention.

• While at the airport, I ran into none other than fiddle-carrying, Austin native Carrie Rodriguez.  One half of a hit-making duo with Chip Taylor (the guy that wrote “Wild Thing”).  We spoke for just a moment, and I noticed that her speaking voice isn’t nearly as twangy as her remarkable singing voice.  So to recap, Dinner: Walt Wilkins sighting (unconfirmed), Airport: Carrie Rodriguez sighting (confirmed).

All in all, great trip.  Very “Austin.”  However, I got to come home to something that Austin doesn’t have even on its most uber-cool night, my wife and baby boy (aaawww).