Central Texas BBQ Tour: Friday

Got up early and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.  A hotel is a hotel, generally, but this place had one of the better buffets for breakfast.  They had actual hash browns instead of home fries.  That was a major plus.

Out on the road again to get to Lost Maples State Natural Area.  En route to the park, we travelled some minor roads and we travelled on a nice one, my favorite in Texas so far: FM 337.  It was twisty and turny and scenic.  It even had portions that had a warning sign for twisty roads with a speed limit of 15 mph.  They meant it, too.

The fall is when the LMSNA has all of their maples changing colors and they were reporting a great bunch of color.  We got there nice and early and were able to easily find a parking spot and get walking.  It turned out to be a great day for being in the park, but I was underwhelmed by the amount of color in the park.  There were some individual spots of color, but no major concentrations.

We spent a good portion of the morning at the park and then headed to Austin.  Another nice drive through Hunt and Ingram and a number of other small towns.  It looks like most of them survive because of folks coming to ride the rivers during the summer.

We made it to Austin in good time and got ready for our night on the town.  We went to Cuero's for dinner and then off to a Lyle Lovett concert nearby.  K. and I both thought the other was interested in seeing him but, in reality, neither of us was.  So, we went to the concert and had a decent time, but not enough to stick around for the entire thing.  The Paramount theater (where the concert was held) was cramped, folks were constantly going to and from the bar and the acoustics were unpleasant.  We left after about two hours, and headed back to the hotel.