AUSTIN TX, Pecan Grove RV Park, PRESIDENT LBJ Library, Life Lesson | Vanlife in a Travato

Now that I have your attention, this week we visit Texas, Austin, Texas to be specific, and three really great neighborhoods, including a relic, the Pecan Grove RV Park and the LBJ Presidential Library, including a life lesson. Our first stop is the Pecan Grove RV Park. Been there since the early 50s, I believe, and it is literally in downtown Austin, Texas. Widely regarded as a relic from old Austin, you can see skyscrapers from your campgrounds, and it is just minutes to some of the coolest areas. I even found a fellow Travato owner. I helped him out with a power adapter, they gave me some chocolate and wine. So these are the men's shower house restroom facilities here at the Pecan Grove. Laundry's on the other side there. Let's go take a look. Thermal, toilet, yep, shower one, shower two, and what I'm going to use, shower three. So upon further inspection, I wanted to share with you why I'm glad I'm doing number two of the Travato. Look at this. Toilet stall number one, no toilet paper, not good. Stall number two, no TP. If you're coming in here with a sense of urgency, you're having a little issue. So overall, not bad. On the rustic side, certainly, but this is my first time showering in this facility all week. I've been using my Travato shower, which I love. I just thought I'd try this for the channel, just to have the experience and be able to comment on what that is in real life. All right, that was the before. This, boys and girls, is the after. Overall, not a bad facility. The water pressure was good, the temperature was good, significant space, pretty clean. They've been painting this all week and that's why it's been closed. But here's just why you want to carry your own goods. The soap is kind of there. There's no paper towels here and it's just kind of gross. So again, my best practice is to clean the teeth in the Travato. All right, so it's crazy to think that my campsite is literally four blocks that downtown Austin. Got to book the Pecan Grove RV park. This is absolutely amazing. Talk about urban camping, right? All right, you see these people behind me on the bridge here. Apparently, they're waiting for the bats. They're waiting for the bats to emerge. They're really coming out from over here. Unbelievable. Just three driveways from the Pecan Grove RV park is the Shady Grove, which is a repurposed RV park, including vintage Airstream trailers that have been turned into, wait for it, restrooms. Yes, boys and girls, an old RV park repurposed. The men's room is now inside of an Airstream. Really great food, really great fun. And again, just steps from the RV park. Literally right next to the RV park, Pecan Grove is the Juliet Italian restaurant. And I was fascinated by the art on the walls. There was a particular artist that was infatuated with this lady's face and painted it over and over and over. Great pizza, stop by. So just down literally a block and a half from the Pecan Grove RV park is this little oasis of Airstream trailers and the little shops. Not open. I was hoping to get them today, Saturday morning, but they are not here yet. I love the small batch home goods, handmade accessories, slow fashion. That sounds like RV lifestyle to me. And then on this side of the parking lot is the food court, which surprisingly is not open yet either. Although it's only 1030. So again, Airstream cupcake, stuff in a cone, fruit, calzones and stuff. There's old boys and gumbo from New Orleans style. All of that just literally steps from your RV park. I think that's what makes this street so amazing is all these bars and services are just literally certainly walking distance, biking distance from the RV park. It's amazing. Definitely come to the street again. So just again, steps from the RV park is Zilker Park, a 350 acre oasis in the middle of downtown Austin. Zilker Park here, they require it's $5 to park until basically all day, 10pm tonight. A little kiosk here and you just choose a space, put this on your dash and you're good to go. So coming up is this bridge over the river and the life lesson here is going to be apparent in just a second. Watch this. So the backstory here is I rolled up on this guy. He asked me to record him jumping off the bridge. Normally I would say hell no. In this case, it's van life. I said, let's try something different. Get out of the comfort zone. Turns out he was a professional skateboarder. So cool. Yep. Those are turtles. So the water here coming down the river is actually originates at Barton Springs, which is up the trailhead some distance. Not going to go there today, but it is a continuously feeding natural spring. The water is relatively chilly. I'm told around 60 degrees. So pretty chilly for swimming, but it's just a beautiful, clear, peaceful river that clearly people take advantage of. Look at these guys coming up here. They're doing the kayaking. Just a really lovely park. Literally next to downtown Austin, Texas. Just crazy. And literally just three blocks from the Pecan Grove RV park. So bring your mountain bikes, bring your running gear, and spend some time here at the park. And don't you just love discovering new neighborhoods? All right. I'm at Bird's Barbershop here in Austin. With a haircut comes, are you ready? Free beer. Free Austin beer with your haircut. What a cool shop. Discovering new places just is one of the coolest things about RV lifestyle and van life. Prisma Vintage is a great clothing store. Vintage bought several items. Met Ryan. He is a perfumer. Hope I said that right. And love the fragrances. You got to check out his website. Hey, Ryan, what's up, man? And he and I talked about doing a little project together. I wear this frequently now. Just love it. Food truck parks were all over in Austin. So cool. Chicago never really had those, and they are in Florida, but they are really everywhere. They have these collections of food trucks, food trailers. And what funky neighborhood doesn't have a few cool dive bars? Shangri-La would be one. Hen would be another. And if you enjoy exploring, shopping, artsy-fartsy, tacos and beer, check out East 6th Avenue. This was really cool. They had a taco wagon in the back of the bar outside and just the most righteous tacos and a cold beer on a Saturday morning. It doesn't get much better than that. Well, maybe it was noon by then. And then on the way out of town, I literally decided at the moment to stop at the President Johnson Library. President Johnson assumed the presidency through a pretty horrible situation with President Kennedy, but was our 31st president. That was actually pretty interesting. I've been to Clinton's Library in Little Rock, and I found this one to be more impactful and better laid out. Maybe it's just the timeline. I don't know. But I was really surprised at how much Johnson got accomplished. I think Kennedy created the momentum, and then Johnson really carried that through, certainly in the civil rights and on justice. And then there's a whole Great Society of the Poverty thing. You got to see some of these numbers because they're staggering what they were then versus what they are now. And I think the Vietnam War really overshadowed many of his accomplishments. If you happen to be in Austin, I would make the LBJ Presidential Library a must-see on your list. And you just see some of the craziest stuff on the road. Look at this. These cars are in tow. Please like, subscribe, comment. Appreciate you watching. We'll see you soon.