We had a five and a half to six hour drive ahead of us today, from Lafayette to Austin. I didn’t really know what to expect from Austin, but was told that the nightlife is really good. Austin actually ended up being one of the places I think back to a lot from the trip.
*On May 29th 2019, I travelled with Trek America on their Grand Trek tour for six weeks around the USA. We began in New York, travelling south to the West Coast, then North back to the East Coast. I am not affiliated with Trek America. Read all my Trek America posts here. *
Super 8 by Wyndham Austin
When we finally arrived in Austin we went straight to the hotel. This place has serious motel vibes, but the room was actually pretty decent. When we had a bed, wifi and a separate bathroom we were content. It was so good to have a hotel room after that really hot night, camping in Lafayette. The location of this particular Super 8 was perfect, we were able to walk to everywhere we went in Austin.
Stubbs Bar-b-q
After having such a good meal at Acme Feed & Seed in Nashville, I was SO EXCITED for this dinner at Stubbs Bar-b-q. Dinner reservations were made by our leader and we all ate together, this was a lot nicer than having to decide places for yourself all the time. I ended up visiting a lot of places I would have never heard about. The food here was so good, take a look at their menu here. There was live music that we watched for a little while, pretty cool that you can tie this in with your night out.
The plan was to head into Rainey Street and then Sixth Street after dinner. Again, places suggested by our leader. Trek America make it all so easy for you.
Rainey Street
If you aren’t familiar, Rainey Street is known for the renovated houses that have been transformed into bungalow bars. It made for a really nice, chilled atmosphere. If you like cocktails, this is the place to go. Makes me think how cool it would have been to be a college student here.
Sixth Street
Sixth street is busier and more upbeat than Rainey Street, the road is closed and there are people everywhere! We didn’t go in that many places, we were in The Blind Pig Pub and really enjoyed it there. The music here was really good, we ended up in a dance circle with another tour group and their leader. Lot’s of good memories from our time in Austin!
Paperboy, Austin
The next morning we all needed a good breakfast. Our leader suggested a place called Paperboy near our hotel. This place was so cool, located in a park, Paperboy is a food truck, they serve nicer food than you would think – believe me!
Texas Skydive
Most of the group went to Barton Springs, however, I’m not a fan of swimming so I was happy to sit this one out. Luckily, Chloe really wanted to do a Skydive whilst in Austin. Our leader said this was fine but he couldn’t take us as it was about an hour away from Austin. There ended up being 5 of us that all got an Uber to go and watch Chloe skydive.
Texas Skydive is out in a very remote place – we did arrive thinking, is this place actually legit. But it was all fine..keep reading 😉
Heading back to Austin
It was all over very quickly – pretty much as soon as we got there, they were able to take Chloe up. Before we knew it she was already back down. This is where things got interesting, we tried to get our Uber back to Austin. Booked it, all fine…a little while later it was cancelled. Then the app said no drivers available. We had been hanging around Texas Skydive for a while at this point, they said are we okay, we told them we were just waiting for our transportation back again.
Stranded in Lexington, TX
The same issue with the Uber happened several times. We asked Texas Skydive for a taxi company, they just looked at us like – yeah that’s not going to happen. One, you are out in the country and two, you are too far from Austin for them to take you back. This was a very strange period of time because we genuinely didnt know how we were going to get back, yet we weren’t too panicked. We did ask our leader to come and get us but, of course it would have taken him ages to get to us. He advised us to exhaust all options but he can come and get us, worst case scenario. We ended up managing to find an Uber, we just had to wait and see if it cancelled on us.
Thank You Texas Skydive
The guys at Texas Skydive were so nice to us about the whole situation, they let us sit in their upstairs area with sofas and TV’s. They even offered to go and get us some burgers from town.
A bit of luck..
The driver was on their way to us, so we left Texas Skydiving and waited at the entrance of the road. Perfect time for some pictures..right?
The car finally arrives, we had booked just a standard Uber, having already decided two people would stay behind and book another (somehow). However, as soon as I saw the car it took me back to my days of working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the size of the car meant that there was a very high chance that it had two extra seats in the back. I was correct, we were so lucky! The driver was so nice, we felt bad when he explained that he was heading in another direction and picked us up as he saw we were looking for a driver in the area.
The Bats Of Congress Avenue Bridge
After our ordeal (haha) we got back to the hotel and ordered pizza. We then walked down to Congress Avenue Bridge where, every sunset, the bats fly out from under bridge. We waited and waited but unfortunately could only see flickers of them under the bridge and the odd few flying out. Speaking to some other people there they said that there were specific times to come in the year where you can see them the best. Even though we didn’t see much of the bats, the view was gorgeous.
Continue reading Trek America 2019
Let me know if you have any questions regarding Trek America or the places we visited ?
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