The Memory Remains
I look back at one of my epic “bundles,” a trip with multiple favorites (Metallica, Brewers, bats and Texas BBQ) in one swath — and why I recommend this method.
When I want to travel, I travel. Rain or shine, snow or steam. And I make it count, often bundling many of my favorite things — and soon-to-be favorite things — into one epic trip.
Almost one year ago, my husband Joe and I took a trip of the ages, combining Southern heat, hot metal tunes and even hotter BBQ. Let’s look back at how “taking in it all at once” is done right.
Leg 1: Texas Heat, Cool Bevvies
After a short layover and another airport margarita down the hatch, Joe and I boarded a plane for Dallas, Texas. Upon arrival, we headed straight to the Fort Worth Stockyards and immediately into Texas culture. A “cool” 109 degrees set the scene at Second Rodeo Brewing, with a Lonestar beer, an on-tap margarita (don’t judge!) and a country cover artist on stage, followed by a meal at Paloma Suerte, consisting of shrimp aguachiles and short rib birria tacos along with a paloma and a tequila old-fashioned.
Leg 2: Fueled Up Before “Fuel”
On day two, we hit the John Wayne museum early (and quickly), so we could make the queue for Goldees BBQ, maker of Texas Monthly’s No. 1- ranked brisket. They only make about 50 briskets a day, and they sell out fast, thanks to the aforementioned notoriety. After two hours (and more sweat, not yet the meat kind), we snatched that coveted brisket — along with homemade sausage, pork belly, turkey, something called Kennedale casserole, banana pudding and a Big Red (a soda staple with Texas BBQ). I can confidently say that was the best brisket I’ve ever eaten!
Fueled up, we headed to Arlington and to one of our bundled itinerary’s highlighted items: Metallica, show 1 (of 2) of their M72 World Tour. Pantera got the crowd warmed up, and Metallica cranked out the hits while we watched metal fans bangin’ their heads and whipping their hair to the beat. Classic. Timeless. Exactly what we hoped for. (Except for that damn Cowboys’ blue star logo that surrounded this pair of Packers fans.)
Leg 3: Brewers and (more) Brisket
We travel for Milwaukee Brewers baseball, so tacking a Brew Crew game onto our epic bundle wasn’t our first rodeo. After I scored a Nolan Ryan bobblehead to add to my collection, the Texas Rangers continued their hospitality, offering a taste of their brisket elotes (I highly recommend!) from Hurtado’s stand and a generous loss to my Brewers.
I also have to give a shout-out to the Tipsy Oak, where we had a late dinner after the ballgame. The owner and staff were awesome, and the food was really good. We had some delicious margaritas, poutine and a lobster roll — yes, a lobster roll in Texas!
Leg 4: Bats (Without the Balls)
Austin, here we come! On our journey to the capital, we made a pitstop at Buc-ees, a road trip must, and then headed to the city-favorite original Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. We witnessed their famous grill and lunched on chicken (so delicious), brisket, a beef rib, sides and pulled pork, which was uniquely extra smokey. Topped all of that off with a piece of chocolate pecan pie à la mode.
Maybe it was all the meat, but we certainly transitioned to vampire mode for our next attraction: bat-watching at the Congress Avenue Bridge. Our tour guide explained around 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats and their pups live under the bridge, and they all emerge around sunset. It’s the largest urban bat colony in the world. We watched the somewhat macabre spectacle from a riverboat.
Then, with “thirsty” palettes (if you know what I mean), we headed to Terry Black’s BBQ. You can’t leave Austin without it. Terry’s has four restaurants across Texas. We tried their sausage, turkey and brisket, along with mac-and-cheese (of which I consider myself a connoisseur), beans and bread pudding. We vow to return.
Final Leg: A Goodbye the Size of Texas
We speckled a few distilleries in between our trip’s featured events and learned how to properly pronounce Waxahachie from an extremely nice employee at the Meat Church BBQ supply store. A quick stop at Dealey Plaza and Whataburger before catching our “destination Wisconsin” flight home ended our epic BBQ, baseball, headbanging and bats vacation.
This memory remains, as Metallica would say, as one epic Texas-sized trip for our books. That said, we’re already booked for a return trip in October to capture the rest of my husband’s BBQ bucket list and celebrate his 50th birthday— plus whatever else we can bundle up. And that’s how you do it.
