Movie Day - Texas BBQ

(Cedar Creek, TX) Hi 70 Lo 40 -- We left Dickinson, TX yesterday on a cold, windy morning with the temperature 42 degrees. We skirted the downtown area of Houston by taking one of the loops around it. It was smooth, but there was a lot of traffic.

The rest of the trip to the Austin, TX area was very uneventful. We love the gas and diesel prices along the Gulf coast. They’ve been around $3.29 for regular gas and $3.69 for diesel. Must be the proximity to all those refineries. :)

We arrived at Highway 71 RV Park in Cedar Creek, TX about 2:45, got set up and took a walk around the park. It’s an average-to-good quality gated park, very adequate for our four night stay.


Our site


We have a pull-through site. So far we've had a pull through site at every park since we left Florida.


Not much to look at out our back window. The office and bath house.


There's a pool.


The rest of the park.






Today we combined three things into one day. We've been wanting to see the movie "God is Not Dead," and we found out it's playing in the nearby town of Lockhart, which just happens to be the barbecue capital of Texas. So we headed out for a BBQ lunch and a movie. On the way just happens to be Circuit of the Americas, the new race track that was built a few years ago specifically to host the United States Grand Prix Formula 1 race. (Formula 1 is the premier racing series in the world, with each race held in a different country.) We were hoping we could get inside the track to take some photos, but it was closed due to some motorcycle testing going on. Jim took some photos of what we could see from the access road. It's a sprawling course over three miles long, with lots of hills. The red, white, and blue areas are the run-off areas along side the racing surface.




This is the start/finish line area between the pit suites on the left, and the main grandstand on the right. (The paved area in the foreground is part of the parking lot.)


Another view of the main grandstand at the start/finish area.




It's a beautiful track, and Jim really wants to come back to see the U.S. Grand Prix Formula 1 race someday. It's held in November, so maybe we can combine it with a trip to Albuquerque, NM to see the balloon festival in October. Hmmm....

We proceeded on to Lockhart on TX Hwy 130, a lightly traveled toll road with a speed limit of 85 mph.

There are four world famous barbecue restaurants in Lockhart, and we decided to try the oldest and most famous, Black's Barbecue.


Inside it's decorated like a typical roadhouse/BBQ joint.




Barbecue in Texas is primarily beef rather than pork. I had beef ribs, and Jim had beef brisket and sausage. We went along a cafeteria-style area to get our sides, and then had our meat cut for us at the cooking area. We're sorry to say we weren't impressed. :(  We always feel a little guilty when we don't enjoy a place that's supposed to be "the best." My ribs were a little dry, and tasted very average. Jim's brisket was very tender but had too much fat. (To be honest, he did have a choice of "lean" or "some fat" and he picked the latter.) His sausage tasted good but was a little greasy. Overall, we'll take good old Memphis or St. Louis style pulled pork barbecue over Texas beef any day. (Sorry Texans, but I'm sure you'll make it up to us when we go to Cattlemen's Steakhouse in El Paso in a week or so.)

After lunch we went a mile or so away to a small cinema and saw the movie "God's Not Dead."


It was a thought-provoking Christian based movie, and we enjoyed it very much.

We came back to the RV on a different route, through the countryside. It was a beautiful 25-mile drive across mostly flat, green fields and forests, but with a few low rolling hills. And we saw a few small fields of Texas Blue Bonnets, the pretty blue wild flowers that are in season.

Tomorrow we're headed to downtown Austin. See you then.