Travel dates: July 17-21, 2017
Austin was our last long stop on our 2017 road trip. From there on, we had a series of overnight stops and then home. So it was lovely to be able to pause here for a few days, see a great city, and hang out with friends.
Our friends, Kristi and Ony (and their kids), moved to Austin in 2016. They’ve since moved back to the Atlanta area, but at the time we hadn’t seen them in over a year, so we had a great time catching up, checking out local thrift stores, and making use of their pool to cool off during the very hot days we were there.
But we also spent some time exploring Austin proper….like the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, aka Graffiti Park.
I thought about giving this place its own post, but apparently they’re planning to tear it down soon to build condos :(…..so I guess such a post would not be as evergreen as I would want. Anyway, it’s a cool little tucked away spot where you can draw or paint whatever you want….and it will soon be covered up by something else.
We also ate lunch and did some shopping on Congress Street:
There was a candy store and a costume store called Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds, which is probably the best name that exists for a costume store. We got Abe this Abraham Lincoln mask there, of course:
La Hacienda RV Resort
Let me start by saying that La Hacienda is a really lovely place: well-kept and nicely landscaped, with clean and updated facilities. We stayed here because it was super conveniently located to our friends’ house in Steiner Ranch, near Lake Travis north of the city. We didn’t spend a ton of time at the campground or get a chance to check out many of the amenities (since our friends had their own pool). It was well over 100 every day we were in Austin, and our trailer’s AC struggled to keep the temperature inside under 90, so we were mostly here to sleep. But we did use the bathhouse and the laundry room and everything was immaculate and in good repair.
We paid $50/night for a back-in with full hook-ups. We thought the rate was very reasonable, but they do have a $50 cancellation fee, which is the steepest we’ve ever encountered, so be sure of your dates before you book! The park was not very full while we were there in July mid-week.
Our site was plenty long and easy to get into and pretty spacious:
Some other campground views:
Let me finish by saying that La Hacienda is not really our kind of place….for the same reasons we don’t want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA. La Hacienda is a little on the fancy side, and it has a long list of rules. I don’t have anything whatsoever against rules that ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone at the campground, but La Hacienda’s went beyond that in our opinion. No pop-up campers and any RV over 10 years old has to approved by the management. I actually have kind of an ethical objection to rules against older campers even though we have a newer one ourselves. I hate the idea of a rule that suggests that there’s something wrong with holding on to a perfectly serviceable camper just because it’s on the older side–that supports and encourages the idea (that doesn’t really need a lot of support in the US) that everything is disposable. /soapbox. There was also a rule that prohibited walking through other sites….even if they were unoccupied. Which seemed excessive. The laundry room and bathhouse were directly across from our site through a pull through site that stayed empty the entire time we were there. It’s possible we did not aways follow that rule.
So if we were staying in Austin again and didn’t need to be on a particular side of town, we’d probably pick somewhere more suited for ragamuffins like ourselves….but we were glad there was a nice park so close to our friends’ house and we had a good experience here.
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