We won’t start with the title explanation, but maybe we should as it was at the beginning of our tour………
It was a really nice day out in Austin Texas so we decided, while sitting in the RV having our morning coffee, to do a last minute walking tour. We had to mad dash out of our PJs and into an Uber to get to our meeting spot. The tour was downtown and our guide was Jim who happened to be the owner of the company, and was not just entertaining, but knowledgeable of Austin in general and its vast history.
We met at a cafe, and started our tour. Well, we actually didn’t start. We were in a circle listening to the guide, when someone walking by bumped into Barb. When we turned to see who…….here’s what we saw. Jim (the guide) thought it prudent we wait and “give him some space”. (Apologies for the blurry photo. It was hurried and a little on the down low).
OK show over, now let’s get to the tour. Let’s start with Willie Nelson. The Austonian’s call him their patron saint. Austin has a very deep and rich music culture and hosts the largest music festival in the U.S called City Limits which is held in the fall. Willie also recorded the original pilot episode of Austin City Limits on October 17, 1974 2 years after he moved to Austin. They still record Austin City Limits where we were standing by the statue and there is a street named after him, of course.
OK for those vodka lovers out there…….Tito’s vodka was created in 1995. Need we say more. Love Tito’s is a retail store in downtown Austin and the owner, Tito is often there. In the early days of Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Tito donated product to local nonprofit events. Over time those small, localized gestures not only continued, but evolved into a nationwide movement to make the world a better place. A true entrepreneur at heart and well educated as a geo physicist, his tinkering with homemade flavoured gifts for friends, soon named him the “Vodka Guy”. This led him to leave the corporate world and petition the Texas government to become the first distillery in the State. While it took Tito 8 years to perfect his vodka, it remains today one of the cleanest spirits available. To learn more about Titos visit www.titosvodka.com
Another great stop was the statue of Angelina Eberly. In 1842 Texas was an independent nation, and Austin was its capital. Sam Houston, the president of the republic of Texas sent a detachment to Austin to remove the government archives so the city of Houston could be the capital. When an innkeeper, Angelina, discovered the men loading their wagons, she rushed to the corner of what is now Sixth and Congress and fired the town cannon, blowing a hole in the land office building and waking up the City. The citizens chased down Houston’s men, recovered the archives and gave them to Angelina for safekeeping. The statue honours Angelina, a bold woman with a short temper, who preserved Austin as the capital of Texas.
Next we wandered around the downtown core and took some great pics of the skyline and original buildings. One of the great buildings was the Driskill Hotel built in 1886 for $400,000 (equivalent of $92 million today) by Jesse Lincoln Driskill. In 1857 Driskill enters the cattle business in Tennessee. In 1869 he moves his family to Austin and at this time Driskill had already made and lost a fortune during the Civil War selling cattle to the Confederacy, where he is given the honorary title of “Colonel”. In 1880 Driskill, now a wealthy cattle baron, decides to build a luxurious grand hotel in Austin, one that would rival the palaces of New York, Chicago, St Louis and San Francisco, to serve as a showpiece. In 1884 he purchases the lot for $7,500 and opens in 1886. In 1987 the hotel closes due to staffing issues and then reopens again in 1888 by the brother-in-law (apparently the title was won over during a poker game). There is a ton more history, but I don’t have the bandwidth to put you through the history lesson! Here are some pics. Something to note, the hotel is 97% original to this day. We agreed, we would come back to Austin someday and stay at this historic Hotel.
Next photo we want to bring to your attention was the Frost Bank building. The bank was the first skyscraper built in the U.S after 911. The architect built it to look like an owl in any direction which was the emblem of her Alma matter. The story seems to be that she didn’t get into the University of her choice and her brothers did. When she won the bid to be the architect for this building she thought why not “stick it” and show her talent to all. (This was the guide’s story, who knows what the real one is, but we like this one).
We saw a great mural on a building by the Congress Avenue Bridge, which is also famous for the 1.5 million bats that live underneath. Apparently it is a great sight to see at night when they take off to eat. My sister JL and I went to Borneo to the largest bat cave in the world and watched 10 million bats leave the cave……now that was something and would recommend any “bat flight” to witness.
Now of course we had to go for lunch!!! To be fair, we didn’t have breakfast as you may recall from the beginning of this blog we had to do a mad dash out of the R.V this morning. SOOOOO, Jim (guide) pointed us in the direction of the Iron Works BBQ joint. Ironsmith Fortunat Weigl migrated to Austin in 1913 from Germany with his wife and sons. In 1922 Weigl forged his own ornamental iron works, which he moved to this site in 1935. He produced original works, entirely hand wrought for many significant Austin homes, the State Capital and buildings of the Universities of Texas. It remained in operation until 1977. Many famous people have eaten here, including Barb and I of course, and the food was very good.
Well that’s a wrap for a Friday! Stay tuned for more adventures from the great City of Austin.