July 16th-17th, 2018

From Carlsbad Caverns, we drove to Lamesa, Texas. We found a spot to park for free overnight before making our way to Dallas. Halfway to Dallas we realized that the sulfur we’d been smelling for the past couple days was not from the numerous oil derricks we’d seen off the freeway, but from a massive exhaust leak. There was a foot-long section of the muffler rusted out right before the muffler and any time we rolled the windows down exhaust fumes would pour in. We spent part of the morning running errands and picking up parts to refill the AC and MacGyver the exhaust back together.

I’m not sure if I like Dallas. Actually, I’m positive that I don’t. We went to Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated. I’m surprised that he wasn’t killed by being hit by a car while crossing the street because the drivers here are horrendous. We went by Pioneer Plaza as well to see the cattle drive statue but we had to walk through a pretty rough part of the city to get there.

Kaitlin with steer statue in fountain plaza
Kaitlin sitting on a very hot metal bull in Founders Plaza

We ended the night at Deep Ellum Brewery which had good food and beer complete with typical edgy brewery servers that seem annoyed when you order a beer. All in all, it was a decent experience in the city, but I don’t think we’ll be coming back. We’re off to Austin tomorrow which we’re both really excited about. Hopefully, it feels a little more familiar than Dallas did.

I spent about 30 minutes trying to fix the exhaust leak this morning using a beer can and some exhaust wrap I bought yesterday. It worked for about 50 miles before it blew out again.

hole in exhaust
Foot long hole in the exhaust pipe.
Messy fix to get us to Austin consisting of two beer cans, an exhaust patch, and duct tape and zip ties to hold the patch in place long enough to melt to the pipe.

We drove with the leak the rest of the way to Austin and got it fixed at a small shop called Muffin Muffler. Luckily getting a new section of exhaust welded in only cost us 65 dollars. The guys at the shop were really nice and when we told them about our trip they were interested in it and asked us a lot of questions. That seems to be a common occurence. Any time we tell an AirBnB host or someone we meet on a trail what we’re doing they have a lot of questions and usually say something along the lines that they’ve always dreamed of doing something like this. Maybe all of us have that wanderlust in us to some extent or maybe the thought of running away from stability to experience a new place every day appeals to all of us whether we realize it or not. It sure as hell appeals to us.

After we finished at the shop we went to the state capitol and took the free tour which was much more fun than I anticipated. Kaitlin is looking over my shoulder as I write this and can’t help but comment on how many cool things she found for us to do, the capitol tour included. She’s right though, Homegirl can plan.

Texas State Capitol in Austin

From the capitol we checked in to our AirBnb because there was no way we were going to try to stealth camp on a Texas street in July. The house came with a sweet dog named Nanuk. Instant 5 stars. Kaitlin’s grandma had raved about County Line BBQ on the river when we told her we were going to be in Austin so our dinner plans were already settled. We sat on the patio right on the river accompanied by hundreds of turtles and catfish swimming by while we ate. We fed them bread after dinner and it’s obvious that these little guys know that the County Line BBQ dock is the place to get some snacks.

View from the county line patio
View from the County Line BBQ patio.

We went to Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar after dinner and we figured we’d only be there a little while but we ended up staying past midnight. The musicians were incredible and one of the guys could play Great Balls of Fire so fast that his hands become blurs on the keys. They were taking requests so I slipped in the song Tenessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton because I knew Kaitlin would love it. Kaitlin’s request was “anything by Journey besides Don’t Stop Believing” which ended up being Anyway You Want It. There was a group sitting behind us that really wanted one fo their friends to go up and sing with the band. One of the musicians said that they couldn’t turn it into a “karaoke jam” show until one of the group slapped a hundred dollar bill down on the piano as a tip to which he said “well it’s against the rules, but money trumps the rules” and pulled her up on stage. She sang Son of a Preacher Man better than I’ve ever heard it done. We finally decided to call it a night and go back to our room but we were both very impressed with Austin. It felt much more familiar and welcoming than Dallas and it redeemed Texas a little bit for me. We have a very long drive to Little Rock tomorrow but after that it should be much shorter distances between destinations.