My favorite airport for lunch: Austin

Why?  Because it offers a Salt Lick BBQ food stall right next to an Amy's Ice Creams stall.  I like to pass through security, pick up a Coke Zero at the Book People shop, head to Salt Lick, order the two-meat combo (brisket and sausage), and settle in for a delicious lunch.  I never eat the sides, so I always have room for a small cup of Amy's.

That's exactly what I did today as I was making my way home from Austin.  The brisket and sausage were as tasty as usual, and for the ice cream I chose butter pecan (my mom's favorite) and pistachio.

Now, I'm happy to report that I'm home!  I fly out again a week from Friday, so I'm going to focus on getting the most out of this time at home.

Two reasons why the Austin airport is great

My lunch today, which consisted of the meat from this Salt Lick BBQ two-meat combo

Click an image to see a larger version.

and this small cup of ice cream from the Amy's there at the airport.

I've yet to taste a bite of brisket in North Carolina that was as good as mediocre Austin brisket, and the Salt Lick's brisket is at least average for Austin.

In case you're wondering, the two flavors in the Amy's cup are oreo and butter pecan.

On the road again: Austin, day 4

Though I'm very happy for Austin that this week supplied it with a great deal of much-needed rain, I can't say I enjoyed driving in that rain.  Today's trip from the hotel to the airport proved to be particularly harrowing, because no one seemed inclined to slow in the slightest.  Giant trucks going 90 miles an hour in an 80-mile-per-hour speed zone are scary enough normally, but when you're in a POS Nissan Versa that could hit 80 only when going downhill, those trucks are terrifying.

Still, I made the trip safely, got soaked again walking into the terminal, and found no joy at check-in:  no chance of upgrades today.

I did, though, enjoy a delicious lunch of brisket and sausage.  I love the Austin airport.

My first flight ran about 40 minutes late, so our plane didn't even touch down in DFW until after my flight to Raleigh was due to start boarding.  I can't complain too much, though, because I boarded the RDU-bound plane three minutes before they closed the door.

My row mate was a complete jerk who elbowed me in the side, looked at me, and said, "You'll have to lean into the aisle, because I have to type, and I need my arms wide to type."

An unpleasant discussion ensued.  I, also, needed to work.

We compromised a bit, but I spent the entire flight with his right elbow in my left side.

As my notebook was booting, the guy in front of me completely reclined his seat.  I then had to recline mine to have enough space to open my notebook.  Even with my seat reclined, my space was so limited that I spent the entire flight propping open my notebook on its spine and typing down into it.  The bruise on my forearm is still fading.

Because I reclined, the woman in the seat behind me hit my seat repeatedly.  I apologized to her but explained that I really did have to work.  She didn't care, and so for the rest of the flight she smacked the back of my seat every few minutes.

I am very happy to be home.

On the road again: Austin, day 2

Walking down the row of rental cars yesterday to find mine, I encountered this pair.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Quick quiz:  which one was mine?

If you guessed the Corolla--or anything "not the Jaguar"--you would be correct.  Of course, I couldn't afford the mechanic I would have needed to retain to fix the Jag's problems while I was in town this week.

Today was an eighteen-hour work day, so I have little I can report.  Lunch was a meal with a friend and client.  It contained so much meat, courtesy of a local Salt Lick, that I was still full when I went to bed.  (Dinner was two side salads in the middle of the evening.)

I can say that the weather here is perfect, spring idealized, as good as Texas has to offer.  Lovely indeed.

Tomorrow, more work!

On the road again: Austin, day 5

Today went to travel and work during travel.  Lunch was at the Austin airport, which amazingly includes a Salt Lick Barbecue and an Amy's Ice Creams; I ate food from both.

I'm home now, and I'm quite tired, so I'm going to leave you with a question that I'm sure has been nagging you as much as it has been bothering me:  Is it possible that this



will finally be a good Fantastic Four movie?

I'm doubtful, but you know I'll check it out.

On the road again: Austin, day 5

I am home.

In fact, I will be home for 3.5 weeks, which is quite some treat.

Today's travel went about as well as one can reasonably expect.  Check-out from the hotel was an unreasonably long and hassle-filled process, but this trip the hotel's staff seemed to have lost a great deal of knowledge, so I was prepared for this development.  The trip to the airport was uneventful, and check-in and security were painless processes.  That truly is about as good as it gets.

I love lunching in the Austin airport, because standing side-by-side are two wonderful places:  a Salt Lick bbq, and an Amy's.  When your lunch includes brisket and a small cup of delicious ice cream, your day is bound to be good.

I got an upgrade on the second flight, and I was able to work for all of it.  As I said, as good as it can get.

I am so very pleased to be home.

What's that you say?  You want some more Petula Clark?

Happy to oblige.



Enjoy.

On the road again: Austin, day 5

I'm home, and I'm very glad to be here. 

Morning was work, followed by the usual fun process of checking out, driving to the airport, checking in, etc. 

Lunch at the Austin airport, though, was a true treat:  brisket and sausage from The Salt Lick, followed by a small cup of Amy's ice cream.  Those two options make the Austin airport the best place to eat of any airport I know. 

Now, to unpack a bit, and then to crash.

On the road again: Austin, day 2

Work dominated the day, so of course I cannot discuss most of what I did today.

Lunch was a treat:  family style with clients and colleagues at the The Salt Lick Round Rock.  I was too full from dinner to eat much, but the bits I tasted were, as always, excellent, and they kept the ice water coming. 

Dinner was also special:  a meal with friends at Barley Swine, a South Austin restaurant I first learned about in an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.  The food was creative and adventurous, and no dish was worse than tasty.  Quite a few of the small plates felt a bit over-thought, but I still enjoyed them.  It wasn't a top-drawer meal, but it was a good one, so I recommend it, though almost as much for its ambition as for its execution.

As luck would have it, in the building to the left of Barley Swine sat Lick, an organic, locally-sourced ice cream shop.  I tried a small with three tiny scoops:  dark chocolate, orange chocolate, and vanilla bean with strawberries.  All the flavors were rich, and the cream was light.  I recommend it to anyone  who loves ice cream. 

Tomorrow, more meetings!

On the road again: Austin, day 5

I'm home after a long day of traveling.  I spent a couple of hours of it in planes fighting turbulent weather, so it wasn't the best trip I've had, but I'm here, so I can't complain.

Austin's airport has to be one of the best anywhere, because it has both an Amy's Ice Creams shop and a Salt Lick BBQ, both of which are terrible for my health but amazing for my mood. Thanks to the Salt Lick, I was able to enjoy this sausage and brisket combo for lunch.

As always, click on the image for a larger version.

I couldn't finish it, but all that I ate was delicious. 

After the meat, we had more time before our delayed flight, so we enjoyed the smallest scoop of ice cream that Amy's would sell us; mine was cinnamon. 

I felt guilty about tormenting family and blog readers with my Amy's desserts, so I might also have brought home six pints of Amy's. 

Hmm.  Yeah, I think I did.

In the process, I learned that when you carry a box of ice cream onto a plane that's sitting on the tarmac for a while, you suddenly find yourself friends with pretty much everyone who saw you put it overhead.  Friends, that is, as long as the plane doesn't sit there too long.  Fortunately, today's didn't, but had we been out there another half hour, things might have turned ugly.

Fortunately, the ice cream survived and is now safely in our freezer.

And I am safely home...but not in the freezer.  They hardly ever lock me in there anymore.  Hardly ever.

I'm just kidding.  Our freezer is nowhere near big enough to hold me.

On the road again: Austin, day 5

When you wake up in Boston, look out your hotel window, and see an inch of snow and ice coating the cars in the parking lot, you think nothing of it.

When the same thing happens in Austin, it's rather a different story.

After a morning phone meeting, we checked out, a process that consumed entirely too much time as the front-desk clerks debated how to process my bill, and then began the skate to the airport. Austin is not equipped to plow roads, not even major ones, so we drove at times on snow, at times on ice, and whenever we could in the ruts worn by earlier travelers.

As you might imagine, it was a very slow and tense drive.

The airport was exactly the sort of calm, quiet place you'd expect from a city besieged by winter and dependent on a major hub, DFW, that was canceling hundreds and hundreds of flights. After rushing wildly to make a flight that our extremely cranky gate agent said was already boarding, we...waited. Two hours.

The brightest spot of the trip was lunch during that time: barbecue from The Salt Lick at the airport. Any day with BBQ in it can't be all bad.

A gate change later, we made the short hop to DFW, survived the disconcertingly uneven landing, and found that my flight home had already departed. Fortunately, the good folks in the Admiral's Club at AUS had reserved a seat for me on a later flight, so I grabbed some bandwidth and went to the gate for that flight--only to find that it had moved. Off to the new gate at a brisk pace because the flight was boarding. Nope. False alarm. Another hour-long wait, and then, finally, we boarded.

That flight was a dream. I had a first-class seat via an upgrade. They brought me Diet Coke and water, the guy in the seat next to me fell asleep, and I dove deeply into work. The trip passed in an instant, and finally I was home.

I am ever so pleased to be here, where I shall remain for the nine days until the next trip.

On the road again: Austin, day 5

You have to love an airport that has a Salt Lick sitting next to an Amy's. For my lunch today, I succumbed to the allure of the former but was able to resist the latter, though for a few minutes it was touch and go.

As I was returning my rental Malibu, I couldn't help but remark to the nice guy working the counter that this car had been the biggest POS I'd ever rented. He acknowledged that it was and apologized. He then explained that the only reason that it and many of its brethren and a whole bunch of Impalas were in service was the Toyota recall. They had pulled all their Toyotas and were checking them for stuck gas pedals. So, as Inspector Clouseau would say, the mystery is solved, and I am no longer annoyed at Dollar for giving me that vehicle. (Of course, they could have garnered more good will by telling me the reason in advance, but I can see why they wouldn't want to criticize their older cars to everyone.)

Through the wonder of airplane bandwidth, which I already consider as essential and as God-given a right as high-fat ice cream, I am writing this entry from the plane home from DFW. We seem to be running right ahead of, and at times directly in, the bad weather that's heading to Raleigh, so at times the choppiness is intense. Fortunately, I couldn't possibly go anywhere, because I'm squished against the wall by a seatmate who looks like a bearded Brock Lesnar gone to seed after packing down a hundred pounds of ice cream and BBQ. My back aches from sitting curled in my seat, but there is no way my shoulders and his can fit in the available space. At least I have an exit row, which is good fortune considering the flight was oversold by seventeen poor folks who are now unlikely to make it to Raleigh.

For those who don't follow our weather, which frankly would normally include me, we are supposed to get a whole lot of winter stuff on the ground--snow, ice, yuck--in the next two days. Raleigh closes down at the mention of snow, and this forecast is pretty hardcore, so I expect to be housebound for a couple of days. Fortunately, we have food, and the generator keeps the water and, crucially, the computers and Internet connection running, so we should be good.

I'll sign off now and post this from the air, just because I can. How cool is that?

On the road again: Austin, day 5

You have to love an airport in which almost all of the merchants are locals. The bookstore at Austin’s Bergstrom Airport is The Book People. Among the food offerings are local ‘que from The Salt Lick and fabulous ice cream from Amy’s. Both were part of my lunch today, though I was quite controlled (for me): just two meats on the BBQ plate, no sides (though I did eat half of my bread), and only a Tiny (an Amy’s official size) cup of delicious oatmeal cream ice cream. I quite like this airport.

The ice cream was so good, in fact, that Jennie could not contain her observation that Amy’s would pack three quarts as a carry-on item for the plane. A few minutes and the work of an industrious server later, I left carrying a cardboard box with a makeshift but very serviceable packing tape handle. Inside the box was a cooler, and inside the cooler were bags of freezer stuff, a quart of Dark Chocolate, a quart of Belgian Chocolate, and a quart of Mexican Vanilla. Chinese & Chinese just got yummier.

I didn’t watch the debate last night. I will probably view it via DVR, alone late at night, when getting angry and bitching at the screen won’t annoy so many folks. I know a lot of folks who are energized by Sarah Palin’s presence on the McCain ticket. They like that she shares their values. Fine. She doesn’t share my values. Fine. What matters more than values, though, is the most important question about any candidate for vice president: Should something happen to the President, is she ready to govern as President?

I cannot imagine and certainly have not heard any convincing argument that Palin is.

On less weighty matters, I’m deeply frustrated with my slow progress on Overthrowing Heaven, but it is coming along. The ending twenty percent or so is rather tricky, so I’m having to work quite hard to make sure that all the little pieces fit right. I think it’s going to be good, but I suppose I won’t ever really know. So it goes with writing, a mug’s game if there ever was one.