Another day, another sunrise.  Is it bad I don’t even get out of the tent for it now?  I guess, to be fair, the KOA campground isn’t going to make a great picture.  I just rolled over after this and slept in.

I-10 to 183 to Lockhart – BBQ capital of Texas.  The whole town semed to smell of delicious smoke.  Had a bit of a break, so dropped by WalMart to pick up a tire bump and a quick Google search recommended Smitty’s Market

Smokey.  And the fire makes you sweat while in line.  Makes you appreciate what the cooks have to put up with…

1 hot sausage, 1/2 lb ribs, 1/2lb brisket.  Coleslaw and sweet tea.  Sweet tea was too sweet as always, but the Q was great.  Deep smokey flavour.  Only ate half of it and packed the rest.

Eagle-Eye hindsight in place, it’s possible Smitty’s was most popular because it was the one on the main highway, rather than the others that are a block or two off the main strip.   Oh well, it was still very good representation of “good q doesn’t need sauce” style.

Made it to Austin and swung by Uchi to find out when a good time to eat would be.

Had a few hours to kill, so grabbed a quick iced coffee before toodling around the city on Mendy without the roll.  What a huge difference.  Much more relaxing tooling around without all the extra weight.  The top case and panniers were still on and full.  Looking forward to riding her unencumbered one of these days.

Tried to find a good place to park to watch the Bat Flight and visit 6th Street later.  Many random one-way streets and a few missed turns later, I ended up by the lake.  And then up on the hill.  As a friend said – rich people live either on the water or with altitude.  This area had both.

Back down to the south end of the Congress Street bridge to wait for the bat flight.   It was a bridge retrofit years ago that introduced some bat friendly grooves.  Totally unintended consequence.

Can’t really see the bats.   Moving really fast against a dark backdrop.  This shot caught part of someone else’s flash.

Went for a late dinner at Uchi – http://meander.mezerkos.com/2012/06/29/day-29-uchi-austin/ before heading down to 6th Street.  Did a quick loop and parked the bike on 10th before exploring on foot.

Trading the riding pants for jeans wasn’t really enough.  Just meant my right leg got really hot from the exhaust from idling through the city.  I was still way, way too hot carrying my jacket along 6th.  I made a loop fo the blocks to see what was where.   Looks like mostly shooter bars and bad dance bars.  6th used to be the centre of live music in Texas, but now mostly for tourists and college kids.   As sweaty as I was, the free cover was quite nice.  It mean that I could go into clubs just to sit down and cool down – very much a new concept for a Vancouverite where fresh air is found outside.

In the end, the best part of going to 6th was getting back on the bike and the quick blast back to the hotel.   Not much traffic and couldn’t beat the cool air at that point.