Wednesday Weekly: April 18

Just like last week's Wednesday Weekly, this one also is a catch-up week. I had a bunch of blog entries sitting in the queue. This week will clean out that queue. The blog will now be up to date. I'm hoping to have less than a week lag between when I do something and when I blog about it.

I can say I've finally been to my first rodeo. Victoria and I went to Rodeo Austin and also saw Josh Turner in concert. Now you may have read in the news about the Austin bombings. When I first found out about them, I was in the back of a squad car in Dallas.

Now you're probably thinking, "What the heck did you do now!?" I was actually on a ride along with my buddy Andy. He is a Dallas Police officer, and we have known each other since middle school. We both somehow ended up in Texas from Wisconsin. When I first learned the details of the Austin bombings, we were screaming to an active shooter scene. I'm not sure if I was safer in Austin or there at that moment.

During the ride along, Andy and I hit up Fast Furious Japanese Grill. They take a cue from the movie series The Fast and The Furious. The next day we hit up the iconic Keller's Hamburgers and then White Rock Lake.

Some other stuff I did in the meantime was take engagement pictures with Victoria. I also got to hit up Papa Perez, Wings 'N More, and Caffee Capri around the Bryan\College Station area. Once our engagement pictures were done, Victoria and I also moved.

Around Austin and Central Texas, I hit up a lot of cool places. I got to go to some hipster place called Culinary Dropout. You can imagine a guy like me in a hipster place. It was definitely an experience!

I also traveled to Lockhart, one of the BBQ capitals of Texas. I visited Kruez Market. They make German-style BBQ, and I think I broke a few rules there using forks and sauce. Their food did remind me of a lot of things I ate in my childhood.

I also hit up Krolczyk Meat Market in Hempstead. I literally drove 110 miles each way to eat meat from a gas station! It was nice getting out of the apartment, and I like these random road trips.

I saw the sad demise of The Lightbulb Shop. This business has been a staple of Austin for almost 40 years. Gentrification has taken another victim.

Finally, I hit up a few other places in Austin at one time or another. They include Bamboo Bistro, Fire Bowl Cafe, McAlister's Deli, Pappasito's Cantina, and Texadelphia. I also had a blog entry about the annoyances of the road when you run into a gas pump that won't shut up.

I hope you enjoy this week's edition of the Wednesday Weekly. My blog should fully be caught up with my adventures. In the upcoming weeks, I plan to drive up north. I'll first go to Marshfield and then to Thunder Bay. I think I'll drive next to the Mississippi River on the way back down to Texas.

See more blog entries here