I missed a few days here last week because I was attending a travel bloggers conference in Austin. On the ride from the airport into downtown we passed a cemetery that contained a tombstone in the shape of Texas.
That evening I ate at a restaurant called Lonesome Dove. My one big trip to the state, 15 years earlier, had been to write about Larry McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City. No Texan I met this time had ever heard of it; many had trouble placing the name McMurtry.
Deer antlers decorated the top of the bar, lit in such a way that they gave it a tony, Western feel. The barmaid introduced herself as Kayla, then she reached out her hand and asked my name. I ordered the rabbit-rattlesnake sausage with rosti and the grilled okra, corn, cucumber and tomato salad. The sausage, Kayla said, was 60% rabbit and 40% rattlesnake, “from Ft. Worth.”
It arrived speared on a toothpick with the frittered tater. “You doin’ all right there, Tom?” Kayla asked a few minutes later as she mixed a cocktail.
A couple sitting a few seats down asked where I was from. The man was from Laredo; the woman from St. Louis, though both had been living in Austin for a number of years. The man gave me his card (he worked in real estate), and the woman tips on places to go, including the bar in the parking garage next door. It seemed an excellent start to my weekend.
