TEXAS TRADITIONS

A LONG WEEKEND IN AUSTIN

Austin Texas is our destination for a long weekend. This part of the Lone Star State deviates from the rest of Texas. It is the state’s capital and a very liberal island in a vast unending sea of conservative views. Austin prides itself to be a counter culture haven and the copyrighted ad campaign for the city is “Keep Austin Weird”.

Despite the wayward and sometimes “look-at-me” antics of the wacky citizens, Austin is a great place to visit, but don’t worry, because of this pandemic we’re not cavorting along 6^th Street drinking shot after shot of tequila. Instead we’re in a little Airbnb cabin in the nearby town of Manchaca.  

It’s a funky, colorfully painted comfortable cabin, neat despite not having a lot of right angles in the structure and a just perfect location as Janet’s daughter lives nearby. The place does have indoor plumbing and corrugated metal forms the walls of the kitchenette. There’s a little courtyard with tables and in the middle there’s a little pond with koi that are sometimes harvested by racoons, and we were told not to be alarmed by prancing armadillos that have been known to scamper about.

GETTING HERE

The spread of COVID has slowed both in Texas and Pennsylvania as more and more people are respecting the virus and wearing face coverings as a precaution. Travel restrictions between these two states has been lifted with no necessary quarantine or lockdowns, so we thought it was safe to travel.

Originally, we had a direct flight from Philadelphia to Austin, but that got cancelled and we ended up having to fly through Charlotte and changing planes. Both flights were packed, but everyone complied with the necessary face coverings for this pandemic.

According to the U.S. Transportation Command, flying is pretty safe in this COVID era as the filtration system of the plane removes particles every 6 minutes, so the risk of transmission comes from just the people near to you and if everyone wears masks that risk drops. Wearing masks is a requirement to fly, so until this pandemic is miraculously controlled, it’s best to not buck the system. 

U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND

THE FIRST STOP

Janet’s daughter has made a nice life for herself down here. She’s bought a house and has a job with a highly regarded cowboy bootmaker, Texas Traditions. Their celebrity clientele list is as long as the four year waiting list to get a pair of their boots made, and the starting cost of $3,000.00 is enough to keep me in sneakers.

We’ve been to Austin several times over the years and whenever we visit Lee Miller’s shop its with a bit of reverence knowing that the craftsmanship has been passed down for generations. 

After we picked up our rental car our first stop was to see everyone at the boot shop.

Here’s a great story about the boot making process.

HOW $3,000 COWBOY BOOTS ARE MADE

We’ve already had the tour, so it was just distant hugs and air kisses before we headed off to our hippy cabin in Manchaca.