Twitter road trips USA: Texas to New Mexico day one – as it happened

Gruene Hall was recommended by several readers, including @peterkraft. A few seconds after setting foot inside, it was clear to see why. Hallowed ground for both musicians and their fans, the ancient dancehall's wooden floorboards were so worn they bounced underfoot. 

I helped myself to a $3.75 Shiner Bock and sat down to listen to Danny Bams and Billy Bright. This was a free show, the latest in a mix of gratis and paid gigs listed on the bar's chalkboard. Just outside, town of Gruene is quite touristy, packed with bed and breakfasts, and so the crowd at the dancehall was mostly families with small children.

But vestiges of the past were everywhere, from a tribute to local icon George Strait and ending with a small corner homage to John Travolta, whose famous dance scene in the movie Michael was filmed at Gruene Hall. 

Gruene Hall was where I decided to try something that popped into my head while preparing for this trip. For many Guardian readers, Texas is a mystery, so I decided to ask a few Texans two simple questions: What's the biggest misconception about Texas ... and what's the biggest truth? 

Logan Felch, 18, from San Marcos said the biggest misconception about Texas is the fact that most people think it's a desert. The biggest truth?

"It's the greatest state in America." 

Gruene Hall bartender Chelsey Fisher, 21, from nearby New Braunfels laughed when asked about the biggest misconception:

"There's a bunch, aren't there? It's probably that we're all rednecks and ride our horses everywhere." 

The biggest truth?

"Everyone's very nice, friendly and welcoming."

[Blogger's note: So far, this is absolutely true.] 

Outside and around the corner at the Gruene General Store, I ran into Belmont, Texas-based Jean Parigi, who gave her age as "old enough to know better." What's the biggest misconception about Texas?

"That everybody wears cowboy hats." 

The biggest truth?

"It's big."

[Blogger's note: Also true. We'll find out just how big tomorrow, when we drive 500 miles to Marfa.] 

Katie, Sarah and John have entered Gruene, Texas, along the Guadalupe River. Built around the cotton industry in the 1870s, Gruene fell on hard times when boll weevils and the Great Depression caused its population to plummet to less than a hundred people. 

It's revived since its ghost town days of the 1950s, and become a tourist attraction known for its mix of Victorian and frontier architecture, including one of the oldest dance halls in the country.

Though Katie left Austin's city limits this afternoon, we've collected a map of notable barbecue joints of note in and around the city, per reader recommendations and Texas Monthly's 2013 area picks

There was too little time to make the BBQ joint and gas station that featured in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Crowbiscuits recommended the site via Guardian Witness, pointing out that "sadly, there was no sizzling BBQ on offer!" 

If you're in search of Leatherface lore, however, you can find the abandoned building just south of Bastrop, on Highway 304. Beware malicious attendants.

Happily, I can report that usaprofessor5's assessment of Texas Hill Country is totally accurate: it's gorgeous. Rolling hills, corn fields ... and a giant, Wal-Mart-sized gas station chain called Buc-ee's, where people go to fill up on petrol. And magnets, river rafts, Texas A&M gear and Blue Bell ice cream.

After that uniquely Texan experience, we arrived at Gruene Apple Bed & Breakfast, which came recommended by @nbraunfels2day. I'm currently staying in a completely golf-themed room, while Sarah's room has a floral and hot air balloon motif, both $120 per night.

There is an automatic piano playing in the lobby, there's free wine and The Wedding Planner starring Jennifer Lopez is the featured film tonight. 

That's all very tempting, but we're heading to the Guadalupe River and then to Gruene Hall for the evening. Stay tuned. 

Our road trip playlist grows, thanks to imakinderegg and trimphone, with Calexico's "Two Silver Trees", and Los Lobos' "The Hardest Time".

Since 99% of tips for the Austin area involve food, and 99% of those food tips involve BBQ, it's important to note that we didn't take our First Taste of Texas BBQ decision lightly.

Many of you wanted us to visit Salt Lick (too far off-path). Others wanted Franklin's (not open Mondays). And then there was a small set of you who suggested the BBQ pits out in Lockhart, a 45-minute drive from Austin through Texas hill country. We decided to go with @crkmcabbe and @hardyintl's suggestion: Smitty's Market.

The first thing that hits you when you arrive at Smitty's is not the smell but the thick, almost overpowering heat – at Smitty's, patrons walk through the barbecue pit to order before passing though to the mercifully air conditioned seating area.

We ordered a pound each of of the most popular meets (ribs, brisket and sausage), which came to $33 and included with several thick slices of white Texas bread and crackers. We carried our plates – tear sheets of thick brown paper – and utensils – knives and fingers – to the seating area and dug in.

According to photographer Sarah (our trusty Texas native), Smitty's is a classic pit used that was at "the top of the barbecue game" for a long time. Trendier spots have stolen the spotlight in recent years, but the experience of walking through the huge barbecue pit and the huge old market building it sits in is completely unique.

Dizzy with meat coma, we skipped town before we could check out nearby competitor Black's, but their sides and desserts are said to be worth the trip from Austin.

Katie's adventures in the Texan capital, to the tunes of Austin's KUTX radio station:

Before departing Austin, we swung by Mayfield Park and Nature Center
to visit with the free-range peacocks who roam the grounds.

Peacocks, an unofficial if inexplicable mascot of Austin, are known
for being excellent 'guard dogs'. This became immediately clear; as
soon as we stepped foot inside Mayfield's front gate, loud cries rang
out around the grounds.

After strolling the gardens and watching the peacocks strut around and
shake their feathers at each other for a bit, we decided this was as
good a time as any to leave Austin.

Now we're in a car heading toward Lockhart for Smitty's BBQ,
recommended by @crkmccabe. This drive is about an hour and it's definitely the shortest amount of travel we'll do at any one time on this trip. We'll savor it while can.

If you have tips for this afternoon (Lockhart) and this evening
(Gruene and New Braunfels), send them to me @katierogers or leave suggestions in the comments below.

Where to begin with Austin's eclectic atmosphere? Well, you've got pinball machines and pulled pork at East Side King:

And colorful angst on the bathroom walls:

We coaxed one of Qui's chefs, Yoshi Okai, out of the kitchen and asked him about King's restaurant philosophy:

"It's being creative and always making new food to attract new people," Okai said. "And I always make sure my cooks are happy. Happy people can make really good food."

With that, Okai returned to the kitchen to make us a bowl of Sapporo beer bacon miso ramen ($8). The broth is made with the beer's foam, and it includes bacon dashi, white miso, corn, butter and bamboo shoots, among other things. An order of Paul Qui's pork belly buns ($7) later, and we doubt we'll be ready to eat for a while.

Next up: Hopefully a lot of walking. We'll visit The Drag, a shopping district near UT Austin, peacock-infested Mayfield Park and onward to Lockhart, where many of you have directed your very strong views about Texas BBQ.

East Side King is a chain of restaurants owned by one of Austin's own celebrity chefs, Paul Qui. The restaurant's located in the back of a bar called Hole in the Wall and serves up ramen and pork buns.

Since east Austin is still a bit sleepy on Monday mornings, we detoured to the Texas State Cemetery, final resting place of Texas politicians and other "people who have their name on stuff", according to photographer Sarah.

For the price of zero, you can conduct of self-guided walking tour of the lovingly manicured grounds. Among the people buried here: Stephen F Austin, the 'father of Texas'; Albert Sydney Johnston, general for three different nations including the Republic of Texas; and one French Sailor, the oldest set of European bones in Texas.

Katie is looking for things to see in and do in Austin, and while we wait for the city to properly wake up, get its caffeine fix and for the tips to start rolling in, here's some suggestions for art and museums to see by Austin Chronicle journalist Kimberley Jones, who contributed to our recent Austin City Guide.

Hello – or, howdy – and welcome to the first day of Guardian Travel’s reader-assisted road trip from Austin, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The premise of this trip is simple: I’ll go where you tell me. Just post your suggestions in the comments below, on Twitter using #Twitrips (or directly to me, @KatieRogers) or with our tool GuardianWitness.

Any and all ideas will be considered, but as I noted last week, this road trip is pretty ambitious – 1,030 miles in five days. Along with a photographer, Sarah Lim, and my boyfriend/our driver, John Chinoransky, I’ll have to be strategic about which recommendations to choose, but we’ll be sure to stay caffeinated, hydrated and sunblocked in order to cover as much of this stretch of the southwest as possible.

It’s Monday morning, and I’m off to grab a breakfast burrito at Juan in a Million on the city’s East side – thanks to @d_eklund for that suggestion. But I landed a day early to see as much as I could of Austin. My brother lives here, so, as one is accustomed to doing on road trips, I accepted a night of free lodging within the city limits. Here’s what reader-recommended activities I’ve been up to:

Sunday morning, it was a sunny 33C – early, cool summer, I’m told – so I decided to follow up on one of the very first reader recommendations I received for Austin: a trip to Barton Springs Pool. But first, I grabbed a $0.99 kolache from my brother’s local hole-in-the-wall bakery, Donut4U.

The Czech pastries are a simple creation: dough encasing sausage, cheese and jalapenos. But the humble kolache is a Texan breakfast staple, and they are delicious.

Post-kolache, it was off to Austin’s Zilker Park, home of the Austin City Limits Music festival and Barton Springs, a man-made, three-acre pool fed from water from a nearby spring of the same name. The pool is beautiful, tranquil … and the only place in the world where you’ll find a particular type of reptile, the Barton Springs salamander. Environmental protections went into effect shortly after the salamander’s discovery 20 years ago, which is why this pool literally feels more like a lake; at the deep end, the natural floor is covered in seaweed, and in the shallow end, bathers relax on algae-covered rocks.

I paid $5 to park and a $3 entry fee, the latter of which hasn’t changed in some time, a #TwiTrips reader tells me:

By Sunday afternoon, it was time for a late lunch and to check into our home for the night, Austin Motel. The motel is one of the most recognisable buildings in the trendy South Congress area, if not for its bright lights then for its slightly phallic shape:

For $150 a night and at the recommendation of @TWalk, we checked into a huge, clean room – nothing outwardly fancy about the decor, but the room was clean, bright and funky. More interesting is what’s outside: the motel office is full of weird touches and family photos, and the pool overlooks South Congress, which provides for quality people-watching.

The immediate area offers nearly every type of dining option, from gourmet ice-cream to Japanese food ordered via iPad. But since #Twitrips reader @elizalive suggested grabbing food at South Congress Cafe, an upscale diner located nearby, I walked the few blocks to try the BBQ pork flank sandwich ($15).

At sundown Sunday, word of mouth led me to Congress Avenue Bridge to watch the nightly flight of Austin’s humungous bat colony that takes place each year from March until November. It's popular - hundreds of people gather on a patch of land below the bridge to watch the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats spiral up into the dusk.

You can also hire a riverboat or park a kayak to watch the bats from the water, but the view is just as nice from the top of the bridge, not to mention relatively guano-free.

Afterwards, I checked out Rainey Street, a local part of Austin’s downtown known for its relative lack of tourists and old cottage homes converted into trendy bars. At Lustre Pearl, there were beautiful, beachy interiors and some sort of Hula Hoop competition. At Blackheart, I found reasonably priced Moscow Mules and live music under bright red lights.

Today, I’ll be wandering around east Austin and finding some decent BBQ, before departing for nearby Gruene to check out the oldest operating dancehall in the country, recommended early on by one of my Facebook connections. If you have any BBQ recommendations other than Salt Lick (outside of Austin and not exactly on the route) and Franklin’s (closed on Monday), please let me know!