As I have already noted, the main reason we were in Austin was to catch up with Jett’s nephews and nieces.  But Austin is also one of my bucket list cities – a place that has always interested me but I have never had a reason to come here.  So I was also looking forward to a day in which we could wander around the city a bit.  That day was yesterday.

We began by heading toward downtown Austin with the intention of exploring the “SoCo” (for “south of Congress”) area, which is apparently an artsy-fartsy section of town.  I’m not sure we ever got there. Finding any area south of Congress proved to be problematic as Congress runs north/south.  We found some on-street parking not far from the capitol building and wandered that area for an hour.  It was mostly uninteresting, being home to lots of large banks.  There was, however, one stunningly beautiful office building which we found was the home of the Texas Schoolteacher’s Association.

Texas Schoolteacher’s Association office

We made it as far as the state capitol but did not have enough time on the meter to go inside.  That is because we had dawdled at a bakery that served some interesting concoctions including a variety of macarons (no, not macaroons), which are French pastry cookies, and lavender lemonade.  I was under the impression that lavender was to be smelled, not tasted.  I even had some vague recollection that it was toxic.  So naturally I had to try it.

Delicious.

Texas state capitol

On the way back to the truck we passed the governor’s mansion, home to Rick Perry, the man who Texans elected to lead them to prove, it seems, that George W. Bush was not, in fact, their dumbest governor ever.

Casa de Perry

Still in search of the elusive SoCo, we moved the truck to the east side of downtown and found the funky 6th St area.  This is primarily a street of nightclubs that were dark and quiet at noon, but there were enough restaurants and head shops (no, I didn’t get a crack pipe, but I could have) to keep things interesting.  I learned later that this area goes nuts on weekends, particularly when there is a home University of Texas football game.

Sixth St

Sixth St bar

We had lunch at the Driskill Hotel, another stunningly beautiful building in downtown Austin. It has a great lobby and upper lobby bar. It is one of the most interesting hotels I have ever seen.

The Driskill Hotel

Jett in the Driskill lobby

The upper lobby bar

I had a Pretzel Pig sandwich for lunch – slices of pork tenderloin on a bun made of pretzel dough, with a spicy BBQ sauce and cole slaw topping, with a side of home-made kettle chips, washed down with a local microbrew’s Octoberfest.

Pretzel Pig

That was one fine lunch.

We topped off our afternoon by finding the 360 bridge. This is a fairly new bridge northwest of downtown that is nice, but it is no Zakim. We were more impressed by the views we got as we approached it from the east side of the Colorado River (no, not THAT Colorado River, silly).

Jett catching the view

The Colorado River from above

The 360 bridge

We had another family dinner last night, but this one was at Trudy’s, an Austin Tex-Mex institution, to give Nick and Mark a night off from serving others. It was very good, but the best part of the evening was just catching up with everyone.

Trudy’s

Our home for the last three nights has been the Austin Lone Star RV Resort, conveniently located just 5 miles from Cafe Malta and less than 10 miles from downtown Austin. We liked the park. It was clean, well-maintained, had a nice dog park and a nice pool (which we actually used). It was 100% occupied on Saturday and seemed about 80% occupied last night, so it is popular. My only complaint is that the pull-thrus were small. I had a hard time squeezing the truck onto the site.

Next stop: San Antonio. We plan to stop along the way to see if we can get the troublesome #2 slide cable fixed. It is fraying and may pop any minute.

It’s always something…

Livingston seems like a nice small Texas town.  But we aren’t here to see the town; we are here to see Rainbow’s End, home park of the Escapees RV Club, a.k.a. SKP (get it?).  This park is open to the public, but clearly caters to Escapees members.  The club itself does not promote Rainbow’s End, or any of its other 7 “Rainbow parks” – campgrounds owned by the club – but independent reviews are available (e.g. here and here).  The reviews are not all complimentary and I can see why.  Compared to some of our other campgrounds, the facilities were second-rate: a gravel pad (instead of concrete) on our pull-through, no showers or restrooms nearby, an older laundry room, no cable TV, no WiFi in our area, no camp store, a smallish dog park and minimal landscaping.

Patience resting at Rainbow’s End

The laundry

The pool

We loved it.

Why? A deep sense of community, of everyone pulling together for the common good, suffuses the place. Everyone we met – from the instant I walked in the office door and found the manager hugging a departing camper – was friendly, helpful and supportive.  Social events dotted the calendar.  The community supports Livingston charities as well – we helped load trucks with the tables and chairs from the community center that were being loaned to the SPCA for the day for a fundraising event and the annual bake sale in support of the Livingston volunteer fire department (which has provided funding for two trucks and other equipment over the past 20 years) is one of next week’s highlights.  Last night we went to an all-you-can eat spaghetti dinner SPCA fundraiser at the local Methodist church and were surprised (though we shouldn’t have been) to find that half the people there were Escapees.  We sat with some of them and felt like we belonged.

Next week is “TexFest”, this year’s name for the annual week-long Octoberfest party.  Members are arriving from all over the country to attend.  One gets the sense that members use these events as good excuses to get together to renew friendships.  We are sorry that we have to leave before the festivities begin.

Adding to the sense of community is the fact that there are many “permanent” residents of Rainbow’s End.  This group includes some long-term residents living in their RVs, but also includes a large number of people who own deeded sites, most of which include a small cottage and a large hanger-like garage for their RV.  These people might spend most of their time on the road, but have a place to come home to.

Cottage with hanger

Some live in one RV and use another to travel.

A 2-RV resident

There are 128 daily use campsites at Rainbow’s End, but almost 200 deeded sites.

What else makes Rainbow’s End unique?  I have already mentioned SmartWeigh.  It is also our mail-forwarding service (yes, we picked up our mail so to our creditors who are reading this: the check is in the mail).  Most unique of all, though, is the Care facility.  This is basically a nursing facility for aging or disabled RVers.  The Care facility (which houses medical facilities as well as an adult daycare room and a larger multi-function room) is surrounded by 38 campsites reserved for RVers needing assistance.  If necessary, meals are delivered to them in their RVs.  Cost for daily support, including the 3 meals and adult daycare?  $650 per month.  That works out to about $20 per day for meals and a variety of other non-medical assistance (shopping, etc), provided by volunteers.  I assume that medical care is covered separately, mostly under Medicare and I think the RV site has some rent as well, but not much.

The Care facility

We had breakfast at the Care facility yesterday ($4 for eggs, hashbrowns, grits, biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage and toast) and met some of the elderly RVers receiving care there. Jett and I agreed that it was the most cheerful assisted living facility we have ever seen.

The Escapees RV Club is one of those organizations – like my fraternity – where everyone has a memorized number. During social hour a speaker invariably begins by introducing himself or herself as “I am Jane Doe, 12345”. Jett was impressed when we were asked to introduce ourselves the first night and I could recite our number: 110057. One of the speakers was Kathy, number 3, daughter of the founder. Over 110,000 people have joined since the founding, it seems.

The Escapees RV Club is also affiliated – loosely – with 11 SKP Co-op parks. These are parks owned and operated by the people – all Escapees – who individually own the sites in the park. Basically, campground condos. The sites are used by the owners when they are there but are available, very inexpensively, to other SKP members when they are elsewhere. I think this is a rather unique arrangement and I hope to try one out sometime, just to see how they work.

We wish we could have stayed at Rainbow’s End longer, but we must leave today. As we leave we will give everyone the closing that is used at every Rainbow’s End social: “Have a Rainbow day!”