DAYS 17 - 19: Houston and Austin

Tuesday - Thursday, October 9th - 11th, 2012: Houston and Austin, Texas

Tuesday 10/9

The drive from Lafayette to Houston was about 3.5 hours.  I had found several food trucks on my food truck phone apps, but decided to take a different approach and searched for Houston food trucks on Facebook.  Usually if a food truck business has a Facebook page or a Twitter account, they update their hours and location on a daily basis so it's easy for their customers to find them or know when they're open.  

Texas Visitors Center

Yep, we're definitely in Texas.

I didn't want to run into the same problem we had in New Orleans not being to find trucks based the phone apps.  Facebook was definitely a more successful approach and I was able to find several Houston food trucks with updated locations and the hours they would be there.  

Papou Jerry's Gyro Truck on Facebook - open til 10pm!

We decided on a truck called Papou Jerry's Gyro Truck.  Our timing arriving in Houston wasn't the greatest.  It's an big city and it was rush hour, but we found the truck with no problem.

Houston skyline.

Papou Jerry's Gryo Truck.

What we ordered:

Veggie Greek Pizza

Gyro with sweet potato fries

Fried Pickles

Total (with tip): $17

Karbach Brewing Co. 'Weisse Versa Wheat' beer (from the 'West Alabama Ice House' bar that the Gyro Truck was parked in front of)

Total (with tip): $6

Karbach Brewing Co. beer

Food Truck websites - 'Roaming Hunger' and 'Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks'

Fried Pickles with Ranch.

Gyro with sweet potato fries.

Greek Veggie Pizza.

Everything was amazing.  The pizza had WAY too much feta on it, but otherwise it was delicious.  The fried pickles were to die for.

After our awesome meal, we were back on the road towards Austin, about another 3 hour drive.  We've definitely been anticipating our stop in Austin during our road trip since this is where we will be moving to once our road trip is over.  Mitch has been here before, but I haven't, so I was very excited!

We arrived in Austin around 8:30pm to our friend Colin's house in South Austin.  He has an awesome backyard with a fire pit, so the 3 of us and our other friend Dusty all hung out and had some drinks, then ate some dinner around 11pm.  

Me and Colin.

Wednesday 10/10

The next day, while our friends were at work, Mitch and I explored Austin.  It's such a fantastic city and I can't wait to live here permanently!  There are so many independently owned restaurants and storefronts, not to mention 100's of food trucks EVERYWHERE you look!  No need for a fancy food truck app/facebook/twitter account to find food trucks here. 

Austin, Texas

For lunch we had coffee's and sandwiches at a place called Jo's.  It's an open-air cafe where you order at a counter.  It was fresh and delicious and and the coffee was great!  Since it wasn't a sit-down restaurant, we overlooked our 'no restaurant' rule.

Belgium Bomber coffee with a ham and cheese sandwich.

Belgium Bomber coffee with a vegan 'egg-less' egg salad sandwich.

That night, Colin, Dusty, Mitch and I made appointments to get some new tattoos, so we got those done before dinner....

Colin the sailor gettin' some fresh ink.

Southside Tattoo Shop - Austin, TX

Probably the most painful spot to get a tattoo but he lived to tell the story.

Mini-anchor :)

Dinner was at a bar called 'The Ginger Man' where we met up with Colin's girlfriend.  I guess it wasn't a true dinner, just some bar snacks, but everything was very good - hummus, artichoke dip, and beer.

We still love each other after 3 weeks on the road together!

Out in Austin on Wednesday night.

The guys took us to a few other bars in the neighborhood, then Colin took us to some late-night food trucks in a different part of town that we hadn't been to yet.  

What we ordered:

Veggie Burrito from Arlo's (for Colin)

BBQ Pork Bah Mi and a coconut water from Mi So Hungry (for Mitch...I was still full from the food earlier, so I didn't get anything.)

Total: $15 ($7 for just Mitch's)

Arlo's (vegan truck!) - Austin, TX

Mitch and Colin.

'Mi So Hungry' - Mitch said this was in the running to be his favorite food truck meal so far!

Awesome parachute that was tied up above the eating courtyard.

Thursday 10/11

Everyone had to go to work again, so Mitch and I did some more exploring, this time to the outskirts of the city and more into the suburbs.  When we got back to the city, we decided to stop at a food truck parking lot not far from Colin's house.  There were probably around 10 food trucks parked there.

It was raining but everyone was still open!

We went to 3 different food trucks that all sounded unique and yummy.  First stop was 'Nomad Dosa.'

Nomad Dosa Food Truck - an old converted airstream trailer!

What we ordered:

Kerala Kokonut Soft Dosa

Coconut Juice

Total (with tip): $15

Kerala Kokonut Soft Dosa - soft 'shell' (similar to a thick crepe), butternut squash, zucchini, eggplant, carrots and cauliflower with coconut curry, mild coconut chutney, and lentil soup dipping sauce.

SO SO SO GOOD!  Very healthy.

Next stop was 'The Mightly Cone' which was recommended to us by someone while we were out the night before.

What we ordered:

Hot and Crunchy Avocado Cone

Hot and Crunchy Chicken Cone

French Fries

Topochico Water

Total: $12

The guys working were super nice and they even gave us a CD of their band for us to listen to during our road trip.

Crunchy chicken cone and fries - only thing we would change would be to offer corn tortillas in addition to flour tortillas.  Still, this meal was SO good.  It was very convenient to eat in the Dixie cone cup as well.  No need for silverware!

The Mighty Cone menu.  The Crunchy Avocado Cone was probably my favorite thing that I've eaten so far!  Crunchy, fried avocado - who knew?

Even though we were stuffed by the time we finished all our food, the guys at Mighty Cone told us that we HAD TO go to the 'Hey Cupcake!' truck that was parked at the opposite side of the parking lot.  I can never say no to a cupcake, so we happily walked over.

What we ordered:

Vegan Orange Cupcake with Lemon Frosting

Vegan Cookies n' Cream Cupcake

Total (with tip): $7

'Hey Cupcake!' - Another old airstream!  Love it.

THESE WERE SOOOOO GOOD!  The orange/lemon was my favorite!  They were so fresh and moist and flavorful!  See?  Vegan cupcakes are just as good as regular ones!

That night we met our friend Dusty for drinks at the San Jose Hotel before driving to the airport to pick up our friends, Michael and Peter, who were coming to Austin that weekend for Austin City Limits.

Dusty, me, Mitch.  

San Jose Hotel - Austin, TX

San Jose Hotel was a cute, boutique-style hotel.  We ordered a bottle of wine and hung out there for a while.  After picking up the guys from the airport around 9pm, we hung out at Colin's house for a bit.  Everyone wanted to go out, so I told the guys to have 'boys night' while I stayed home with the dogs and passed out from all the red wine I drank.



Tomorrow we are leaving Austin in the morning and heading west towards El Paso (about a 9 hour drive).  Then we'll be on to Las Cruces, Tucson, and San Diego!



Total Food Truck Spending Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday in Houston & Austin: $58 (under budget)

Total Spending Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday:
Kirby Cafe (we ate at a restaurant! ooops.  Late dinner the 1st night we arrived): $30
Jo's for coffee & sandwiches: $22
Walgreens (tooth medication for Mitch, shampoo, conditioner, candy): $29
Parking downtown: $7
Drinks at Stubbs: $20
Gas in Colin's car (thanks Colin!): $20
Wine at San Jose Hotel (with tip): $54
Tattoo's: $160
Food truck food: $58
Gas $132
Coffee and croissants on Thursday morning: $16
Groceries at Whole Foods $48

TOTAL for 3 days: $596 (under budget)

Total pounds gained between Mitch and I:
I'm guessing somewhere around 87lbs total.  My pants are starting to feel pretty tight!  Oh well, life is short - eat at as many food trucks as possible!  Only 13 days of eating like this left, then back to the real world.


XOXO
Mitch and Laurel

DAY 16: Mobile, Gulfport, New Orleans, and Lafayette

Monday, October 8th, 2012: Mobile, AL, Gulfport, MS, New Orleans, and Lafayette, LA

After a great nights sleep, we woke up early and started heading west.  Our first stop was Mobile, Alabama.  

We couldn't find a single food truck on any of our food truck phone apps and we couldn't find anything by just driving around the city, so (even though we were STARVING) we decided to keep driving west towards New Orleans.  It was a cool city, so I'm sad we could find anything :(

Driving along the coast in Alabama.

Crazy tunnel under the city in Mobile, AL.

As we were driving along the coast, one of our planned stops was going to be the Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi area, but since I couldn't find any info on my phone about food trucks in that area, we discussed by-passing it and just continuing to New Orleans.

As we were coming up to the exits for Gulfport, we decided to pull off anyways.  It was such a pretty area, so we at least thought we could go down by the Gulf and walk around.

Turns out, since it was Colombus Day, there was a huge classic car show going on by the beach!  There were food stands everywhere, so we knew it was meant to be.  We parked the camper and walked to the car show.

Gulfport Beach....holding a mini-Belafonte.

Mitch loves old trucks like this!

We found a food stand and ordered some food (I was SO HUNGRY at this point, I think I would have eaten anything).  

'Southern Flavor' menu.

What we ordered:

Sausage Jambalaya

Shrimp and Sweet Potato fries basket

Regular Fries side

Margarita

Water

Total: $25

SO HUNGRY!

Shrimp and sweet potato fries.

Sausage Jambalaya.

I'm not sure if I was just really hungry or if this food really WAS as good as it tasted, but we were happy with everything.  Nothing fancy, but everything was delicious.

We walked around and looked at classic cars for a little bit, then got back in the car and started heading to New Orleans.

The drive was so beautiful!  Louisiana coast coming up to New Orleans.

New Orleans skyline.

I found several food truck vendors on the awesome phone app call 'Eat St.' (Shout out to my friend Erica for the recommendation!  Such a great app.)  We picked out an area that had a few good-sounding food trucks and made our way to the east side of the French Quarter.

Eat St. phone app.

Once we finally found parking (NOT easy in the Big Easy, hee hee...), we walked around a bit.  We were just in New Orleans last March for Mitch's 30th birthday, so it was fun to see everything again.

I had to get a picture of Mitch by Pirates Alley since I didn't get to last time were there.

Jackson Square - New Orleans, LA

PEACE

Unfortunately, none of the food trucks were parked where they said they'd be parked on the food truck app.  We walked around for over an hour trying to find SOMETHING, but NOLA is a big city and it was getting late, so we were unsuccessful.

We still had fun just walking around - if you've ever been to New Orleans, you know that there is plenty to see/look at!  We finally got back on the road and started heading to Lafayette, LA where we had our campsite reservation.  We decided we would just make dinner there.  We considered eating at one of our favorite places in NOLA called 'Coop's Tavern', but it was super busy and there was a wait.  Plus we'd be breaking our road trip rules if we ate at a real restaurant!

First in line at Coop's :)

The drive to Lafayette was about an hour and half.  Mitch made a delicious dinner for us at our campsite (way better than any restaurant food we could have gotten!).   I did some homework, then we watched a movie and went to bed - super excited for Houston and Austin tomorrow!

Vegan Mac n' Cheeze with caramelized onions and green tomatoes.

Food truck/food stand spending: $25 (under budget)

DAY 15 Spending:

Gas: $138

Food truck/stand food: $25

KOA campsite in Lafayette: $35

Scratch-off lotto ticket: $8 (no winners unfortunately) :(

TOTAL: $206 (lil' bit over budget)

Leftover from our $6000 budget: $3406.50 (We're doin' pretty good so far!)

XOXO

Mitch and Laurel

DAY 15: Tallahassee, Rosemary Beach, and Pensacola, FL

Sunday, October 7th, 2012: Tallahassee, Rosemary Beach, and Pensacola, FL

We woke up at my cousins house to the roosters crowing around 4am but still managed to lay around in bed til 8ish.  After hanging out and eating breakfast with everyone, we were on our way (although we would have been completely content staying there for a few more days...so peaceful and beautiful there!).


We decided to stop in Tallahassee even though it wasn't an original planned stop on our itinerary.  FSU is located there, so we thought we might be able to find some sort of food truck.  It was a Sunday though and pretty quiet everywhere, so we basically gave up and started to head out of town.


Lucky us, we found a food truck parked just on the outskirts of town called 'King's BBQ!'  I was skeptical since all it advertised on the outside was for BBQ, ribs, pork, etc. (nothing I like), but Mitch was super pumped about it!

King's BBQ

Two for one pulled pork sammy's!

King's menu.

Rib Snack Sandwich

Yellow Rice

Fries

What we ordered:
Rib Snack Sandwich
Large order of fries
Side of yellow rice

Total (with tip) = $15



Mike, the owner, was SO nice.  We told him about our road trip and he let us take a bunch of pictures of him.  He even gave us a free 'King's BBQ' knit hat and visor AND 2 pieces of cake!  Thanks Mike!  Mitch decided that he definitely lived up to his title of 'King of BBQ' as he was hunched over the hood of the Jeep, eating ribs and wiping his BBQ sauce covered face with his t-shirt.  Even the fries were delicious!

Mike, the King of BBQ.

Mike and Mitch by the smoker.

He was SO excited.

After Tallahassee, we made our way towards Panama City in the Florida panhandle.  We were headed to a small beach community called Rosemary Beach to visit Mitch's family friends, the Keepman family.  They had just recently bought a house there, so we wanted to make sure we stopped to see them.

Mitch and Ryan, lifelong friends.

We ended up staying for several hours and had a blast.  They even fed us dinner (chili for Mitch, crackers/hummus/snacks and wine for me)!  They offered to let us stay with them, but we had already made a non-refundable reservation at a campsite in Pensacola, so we decided to stick with our plan :(

Charlie's chili and some snacks.

The Keepmans - Charlie, Ricki, Harrison, Scottie, Ryan, Sammi Bell, Mitch and I.

It got to be pretty late, so we started our drive to the KOA in Pensacola, FL - about an hour and a half west of Rosemary Beach.  I'm not too sure how we stayed awake for that drive, but we eventually got there and passed out immediately.


Food truck spending: $15 (under budget)

Day 15 Spending:
Food trucks: $15
Gas $148
Campground: $35

Total: $198 (under budget!)

Leftover from our $6000 budget:  $3612.50


XOXO
Mitch and Laurel