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This humble blog was started to document our travels around the country during the summer of 2006, We have opted to continue updating it due to the requests from family & friends. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 10, 2019

“Old Miss Virgy tended bar at this shack out in the hills…” -Todd Snider- The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern


October 5, 2019


 




“Old Miss Virgy tended bar at this shack out in the hills…”
-Todd Snider- The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern

I think I have been traveling to Austin for about the past 15 years or so to attend the ACL (Austin City Limits) Music Festival. I love the festival and I really love the city of Austin, it is one of my favorite places in America to visit and there is just so much happening there and an overall great vibe in the capital city of Texas. The many visits have offered the opportunity to experience a lot of what Austin has to offer, so in the past few years I have taken to spending some of the time of my visit exploring the outskirts of the city and this year I arrived ready to spend some more time in the famed Texas Hill Country.



 


This year upon my arrival in Austin, I was on my way directly from the airport to the nearby small town of Lockhart. Known as the BBQ capital of Texas, which basically means the BBQ capital of the US, Texas style barbeque is what the town is known for as some of the best bbq joints in America can be found there. Having to decide on which of the famous places was tough, but really you could not go wrong and I ended up selecting Black’s BBQ.

 





Black’s BBQ is the oldest major BBQ restaurant and has been run by the same family continuously since opening in 1932. They have expanded and now have multiple locations, including in Austin but the original is in downtown Lockart, a block up from the town square and the beautiful historic Caldwell County Courthouse. The food was terrific as advertised and the town is a great little side trip only about 30 miles south of Austin in Texas Hill Country.




I spent some time walking around downtown Lockhart, then headed to the small, quaint Lockhart State Park where I took a short hike. The park features a golf course, swimming pool as well as a smaller but nice natural area with hiking trails where I took a leisurely stroll through the woods before hitting the road and heading to nearby San Marcos, Texas where there were a couple of places I wanted to see.

 





San Marcos had been listed as one of the ten best small cities in America and it is easy to see why. The San Marcos and Blanco Rivers flow through town and much of the city is focused on riverside activities. The city is also home to Texas State University, giving it a hip college town vibe like a smaller more manageable version of Austin.






One of the places that I really wanted to see was the famous Cheatham Street Warehouse. The famous music hall/ dive bar was built in 1910 as a railway warehouse and in 1974 was transformed into the bar and music venue that it remains today.  The Honky Tonk is known for giving the musical careers of both George Straight who played there while attending college in San Marcos and the legendary Stevie Ray Vaugh who once had a regular Tuesday night gig there before rocketing to superstardom.




Virtually everyone who is anyone on the Texas music scene has played at the Cheatham Street Warehouse which has hosted such acts as Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Charlie Sexton, Gary P. Nunn, Asleep at the Wheel as well as many, many up-and-coming Texas artists such as James McMurtry, Hayes Carll, Sunny Sweeney, Randy Rogers Band, and Todd Snider.

 




I also wanted to take n some of the craft beer scene in the area and ended up having a beer at three area breweries, stopping by AquaBrew, the Middleton Brewery and what was my favorite, Roughhouse Brewing. Roughhouse is actually probably located closer to Wimberly, Texas than to San Marcos and is located on a beautiful ranch and is an incredible and beautiful setting for the brewery that just opened in January of this year.

 




As awesome as the location is, the beer is even better and you can tell the love and quality that the family that owns and runs this brewery. It is well worth a trip from Austin and I cannot wait to return. I know Jester King gets all the well-deserved accolades as the best Farm House style beer in Central Texas, but Roughhouse is a tremendous new contender and well worth checking out.

 


While I was having a beer at Roughhouse, I realized that another legendary Texas roadhouse bar, the Devil’s Backbone Tavern was only a short drive up the Devil’s Backbone Highway from where I was. Celebrated in one of my favorite songs, Todd Snider’s, “The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern”, I had to check out the place where Snider once played every Friday night and where the long passed Miss Virgy served up cold beers.




It was just about what I expected and as described in the song, a dive bar roadhouse that was full of a rowdy, fun and very friendly crowd of Texas patrons on hand for a fun Thursday afternoon. The two bartenders were both new and did not seem to know the history of the place, but the t-shirts they sell have a quote from the song on them so of course I had to have one.




I wish I could have stayed longer but I had already planned on taking on a Texas high school football game back in Austin that night between the hometown Austin High School and their opponents from Del Valle, Texas. Having read “Friday Night Lights” and always ready to enjoy a football game. The game was held at House Field a 6000 seat capacity high school football stadium of the type only found in Texas. It was not full, but there were probably 4000 on hand to watch the home team take a beating. The game itself was standard high school football, in fact the quality seemed a little less than what I see in Key West, but the band, halftime show and theatrics were well beyond anything I had seen on the high school level.




The halftime lasted 40 minutes as bands and drill teams from both schools performed full, intense and huge performances that made one almost forget that there was even a football game going on. It was crazy but well worth seeing and I am glad that I got to experience Texas high school football.






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