Arrivederci Austin: Road Trip Roundup

A few months ago I first heard Lord Huron‘s album, Lonesome Dreams, and imagined myself blasting that album the entire drive to Pennsylvania, singing along to these lyrics that would become my travel anthems: I been dreaming again of a lonesome world; Where I’m lost and I’ve got no friends; Just the rocks and the trees in my lonesome dreams; And a road that don’t never end; I been dreaming again of a lonesome world; Where I’m lost and I’m on my own; What am I destined to be? It’s a mystery baby.

I dreamt of the open road, and getting some serious introspection on, formulating a plan for things I wanted to work on personally while traveling and things I wanted to do while traveling.

Unfortunately, the trip was a whirlwind few days that left absolutely no time for thinking, and resulted in me being totally and utterly exhausted. So exhausted that when I finally landed in Europe, all I wanted to do was sleep. And sleep. And sleep.

Despite the exhaustion that followed, the trip was actually a lot of fun. My friend Brittany, my adorable pup, Lord Oliver Roast Beef (or Beefy for short), and I piled into an over-stuffed car and bounded for Pennsylvania with a few intended stops along the way to see and eat some very important things.

Our first real stop was in West, Texas, which you may remember from the news not long ago when there was a huge explosion there, killing way too many people. However, what the town is best known for is its Czech Stop, touting kolaches. I’m ashamed to say that I’d lived in Texas for six years and hadn’t stuffed my face with even one kolache in that period of time. But don’t worry–I more than made up for it on this trip, and you’ll get to read all about kolaches on a future Foodie Friday.

Next, we made a wee pitstop in Texarkana so that we could stand in front of the post office, which is in two different states. It was a totally le cheesy stop, but worth it (especially to get this photo of my dog in Texas and Arkansas simultaneously!). Really though, Texarkana is kind of a rundown shithole, and doesn’t have much else to see except the post office. Sorry, Texarkanians.

Afterward, we made our way to Little Rock so I could see my best friend, his lovely wife, and two adorable little girls. You may recall that I really liked Little Rock during my visit last year, so I was excited to get back, even for a short visit. It was almost exactly as I’d remembered it, save for the horrendous heat and humidity I experienced this time, which was just killer. But thankfully we took reprieve in the awesome bookstore and river-front market. Little Rock has a great feel to it and a really cool local/arts community. If that’s your thing, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Our last stop on the officially official road trip was in Nashville. I’ve been to Nashville countless times because my mom is from there and I have family there now, but this was the first time I actually got to see Nashville. My aunt and uncle were awesome enough to put all of us up for the evening, and the following morning my uncle took us on a tour of country music stars’ homes (Brittany is obsessed and was surely googly-eyed throughout the entire tour, excitedly snapping photos through trees). Then he took us on a proper tour through downtown, and even in the rain, it was lovely. It felt like a cross between Austin and Boston to me–all the music and local feel of Austin with the architecture and structure of Boston. Perhaps the best part of the entire journey though, was seeing where both my Nana and Granddaddy grew up, and where their old schools were. It’s amazing to get to see all that family history and to have a deeper appreciation of where I came from.

When we finally pulled into my mom’s driveway, delirious and bleary-eyed at 2am, I had to unload the trunk of my car and repack my bags because I was off to Philadelphia, New York City, and Pittsburgh (beginning the following morning).