Wife wanted to got to Austin Tx to Yoga with a Yogi from India. She and some friends from Yoga class were all going to trek up from San Antonio area for a 2 day Yogi fest. I said lets just take the camper and hang out in Austin for a few days.
We left out and drove about 1/3 of the way when I took this pic. We were driving secondary roads taking a back route to Austin. Most of these are quite narrow Ranch and Farm to Market roads with speed limits as low as 50 mph. It was uneventful and we arrived at the Austin 'Carefree RV Park' on I 35 just S of Austin. Very nice, great showers and facilities I recommend it at about $30 per night.
We unloaded and I was taxi taking her over in central Austin twice a day. For those who have not been to Austin is a fun and interesting place to visit. It is NOT TC friendly and if you have a CC, LWB, Dually its downright hostile. Streets are as narrow as driving in Paris, people and bicycles have the right of way, NO, I mean they have the RIGHT OF WAY so expect to be challenged often. (most places people and bicycles do have the right of way, but most of them KNOW that in an argument between them and a 5000 lb vehicle they will always lose in spite of winning in court)
Don't expect them to like trucks of any kind especially pickups and any kind of conservative sticker (military, guns etc) will draw comments. We don't call Austin the 3rd coast city for nothing and having lived in Ca (San Fran) you can expect a Ca state of mind with an abundance of SMART cars etc. But its still a fun place, with a TON of night life, its the live music capital of the US. If you go and you can still find those clothes from your hippy days in college, the be sure to wear them so you fit in.
We took an easterly route back and went thru Lockhart, Tx. Lockhart has 3 BBQ joints with global reps, Blacks (family owned and run since 1932, KreuzMarket and Smitty's). Lockhart is the BBQ capitol of Texas or so they say. It does have on average about 250,000 thousand folks eating BBQ there a year. Blacks BBQ is great Q, in fact all 3 makes some really great Q. Just S of Lockhart is Luling another town with no shortage of BBQ joints, in fact I rate it as good if not better than Lockhart. But Luling has Citymarket BBQ and IMO that is about as good as it gets anywhere on the face of the globe..FYI my all time fav is North Main BBQ in Euless Tex, that its HANDS DOWN best in the world.
Coming out of Lockhart and heading back home we stopped just E of I 35 to retrieve a donut that we had driven up to Round Rock Tex to get. World class donut, worth the trip. We did not eat it all of it and wife wanted to get it out of the camper. That was when the wife noticed the Norcold was working off the batteries rather than the LP, which was odd. As luck would have it there was a camping world just down on I 35 S of us about 15 miles. We head down there and after much discussion with several mechs it was decided that mostly likely cause was the regulator was failing. Camping world did not have our reg in stock, so we decided to head straight home. TWEETY'S is just down the road from where we live, so a trip is in order. I will do a remove/install the LP reg on my camper in the next few days...
13.6 mph about 1/3 of the way and before any stops or stop 'n go driving in the city. We finished up the trip with a 12.4 mpg average. The time in Austin (4 days) in heavy traffic driving took its toll on mpg. I also idle extensively as we have 4 dogs that are in the truck most of the time and we let it idle to keep the AC on due to the heat.
Round Rock Tx donut, need I say more
Lastly, this is the first outing with my new Rancho RS 9000 XL shocks and the camper. I did not see any scales or I would have weighed but for sure I am giving my GVW 13,300 a run for its money if not beyond.
We had been experiencing some swing and sway and bouncing on some bridges and concrete stretches when harmonics set in. I set the rear Ranchos at 9 (max setting) and the fronts at 7. This seems to be almost perfect for my configuration. The bouncing on bridges is completely gone and the swing and sway gone.
I continue to strongly recommend the Rancho adjustable shock for its versatility and ability to do what the shock was intended to do. Where the adjustable shock has the advantage is in extremes. Regular non adjustable just do not have the bandwidth of to address the loading found in extreme situations such as on/off camper and truck loading. NOT to say other shocks are bad or anything less than good, but the ability to adjust puts them in win column for you when big loads and extreme conditions come into play.
* This post was
edited 08/09/12 09:57am by 17oaks *
Don
17 Oaks Ranch, Texas
US Army (RET)
'11 F350 4x4, CC, LWB, DRW, Lariat
AF 1150, solar, satellite
Vietnam Combat Veteran
That attitude amongst cyclists of that nature is why I've got plans to get a couple of old Chevy windshield sprayers to attach to my truck's bumper aimed at roughly cyclist level connected up to a spare windshield washer pump and tank I have still.
We get those little tards on the island all the time , besides I thought Nashville was the capitol of "good" music, not Austin .
Follow me as I full-time the Redneck Way at The Journey of the Redneck Express CBChannel 17Redneck Express '1992Dodge W-250 "Dually" Power Wagon - Club Cab Long Bed 4x4 V8 5.9L gashog w/4.10 Geared axles '1974KIT Kamper 1106 - 11' Slide-in
Your info on City Market in Luling, Tx for BBQ just supports what this weeks Newsweeks magazine has written about. They rated the 101 best places to eat by 53 of the worlds top chefs, and City Market was rated as one of those places. Quite an honor when you think about all those restaurants out there. Great information and thanks for posting.
2009 Chevy Silverado 3500 dually D/A, Supersprings, Stable Loads, Bilstein Shocks, Hellwig Sway Bar, Front Timbrens.
2010 Arctic Fox 1140 DB, 220 watts solar, custom 4 in 1 "U" shaped dinette/couch, 59 interior and exterior mods to date and still adding
JoeChiOhki wrote: That attitude amongst cyclists of that nature is why I've got plans to get a couple of old Chevy windshield sprayers to attach to my truck's bumper aimed at roughly cyclist level connected up to a spare windshield washer pump and tank I have still.
We get those little tards on the island all the time , besides I thought Nashville was the capitol of "good" music, not Austin .
I have been Nashville many times and there is good music there for sure, but if you want live music its Austin, Tx. In fact one guy told me there are more Guitar stores in Austin than in Nashville and i BELIEVE him, there are more than there are Mickey D's...which as food goes Micks is hard to find by good food is not and they do NOT close the eatery's on Monday's...
kerry4951 wrote: Your info on City Market in Luling, Tx for BBQ just supports what this weeks Newsweeks magazine has written about. They rated the 101 best places to eat by 53 of the worlds top chefs, and City Market was rated as one of those places. Quite an honor when you think about all those restaurants out there. Great information and thanks for posting.
I love my Q and in my travels around the world I have eaten some to say the least and I have eaten at some of the best out there. While Kansas City like to think they are the best and they luv to tout Bryan's as the worlds greatest FACT is the brothers split up and where did they head??? Tex! Sonny Bryan's on Inwood road has been there since the late 40's IIRC is better than anything in KC.
My top 3 in no order:
North Main BBQ, Main St, Euless Texas. Originally a truck repair and ole Mr Green would cook up some Q for his customers and friends, word spread and Q sales increased to the point that he stopped repairing trucks and closed the truck wash, he now owns the entire strip shopping center still servicing GREAT Q. I have been eating there since he opened. Hrs are Fri for lunch - Sun lunch or till the meat runs out. $12 bucks (CASH) ALL you can eat, ribs, chicken, brisket, sausage, beans, potato salad, tea
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, besides I thought Nashville was the capitol of "good" music, not Austin 
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