I like my breakfast tacos cheap, tasty, and spicy... Fortunately (as The New York Times recently observed), Austin’s breakfast taco selection is unparalleled. Mi Madre’s is my go-to place. Juan-in-a-Million provides a strong handshake from the owner with every taco. Cocina de Consuelo makes home-made tortillas and names their enormous tacos after their customers. Tamale House is an Airport Blvd. dive, while Joe’s is an east-side hotspot. Trying the endless range of possibilities—the delicious salsas and variations on migas, the tempting dessert sopapillas, and the wide-range of tortillas is one of my favorite ways to experience Austin.

I’ve also used my time here to explore the local dance halls. There’s something so deeply Texan about a honky-tonk: the belt buckles and pool tables, the low ceilings and cheap beer, the neon lights and old-time country music...the boots. The Broken Spoke spurred me on to my first two-step lessons and I’ve since been delighted to discover the Gruene Dance Hall (where Willie sometimes plays), the Continental Club on Sunday nights (with Redd Volkaert) and Ginny’s Little Longhorn. I’ve worn holes through the soles of my first pair of dancing boots...

It was also Texas that first introduced me to National Parks, with San Antonio’s mission trail, which includes the Alamo’s less-famous sister missions: Mission Concepción, Mission San José, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and Mission San Francisco de la Espada. The stunning colonial architecture—giant stone structures, dotted with colorful flowers—and the buildings’ combinations of religious and military functions fascinated me, as did the eerie sense that history was very close at hand. When my husband and I discovered that the national parks system offers passports in which you can stamp a commemorative marker for each park you visit, there was no going back. Our travelers’ hearts were set on seeing as many parks as we could. The National Park passport has taken us to see out-of-the-way forts, bluffs, and buffalo herds, and has guided our trips to Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Louisiana with persistent searches for historic homes, battlefields, and dramatic landscapes.

Since moving to Austin, I have attended the National Rattlesnake Sacking Championship in Taylor and I’ve had a shooting lesson at Red’s Indoor Range in Austin. I’ve taken solo drives across Texas on beautiful, desolate stretches of abandoned highway and I have visited the memorial built for Tejana singer Selena in her hometown of Corpus Christi as well as the shrine for curandero Don Pedrito Jaramillo in nearby Falfurrias. I have tasted the best (and “worst”) Texas BBQ and have been surprised and delighted by deer bounding through fields during a dewy, early morning bike ride across LBJ’s ranch in Johnson City. I’ve toured the house where O. Henry lived with his wife in Austin and have visited the Forbidden Gardens in Katy. I’ve discovered some enduring pastimes and seen some unbelievable sights. My Texas adventures have sustained me throughout graduate school and they remain important subtexts for my academic interests in regional arts and cultural communities.