An estimated 200,000 bikers converged on Austin for last week’s Republic of Texas Biker Rally. This annual event is based east of downtown at the Travis County Exposition Center, although there are motorcycles everywhere during ROT. If you aren’t a biker, it’s a good weekend to avoid driving on the area’s roads…or to leave town.
Over the Edge is a unique fundraiser for Make a Wish Central and South Texas. For a minimum of $1500, donors can rappel down the 38 floors of the W Austin Hotel this weekend. According to their website, Over the Edge has raised almost $450,000 through private and corporate donations.
Auditorium Shores is located just south of downtown Austin along the shores of Lady Bird Lake. This 57-acre park is used for lots of annual events: Austin Marathon, Cap10K, Turkey Trot, Austin’s New Year, Keep Austin Weird Fest, Cowboy Breakfast, Austin Food and Wine Festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, plus many more. With all that use, the park looked more like a dust bowl and was definitely overdue for improvements.
Even though we’re over 200 miles inland, Austin now has a boardwalk.
After years of study and almost two years of construction, the Boardwalk Trail on the south side of Lady Bird Lake opened today. This new 1.2 mile pathway connects the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail near the Austin American-Statesman property to Lakeshore Park on the east side of I-35. Since the city did not own much right-of-way access on the south side of the lake, an elevated boardwalk was built right over the water. This trail completes a 10.1 mile loop from the western pedestrian bridge under Mopac to the eastern dam/bridge at Pleasant Valley.
Austin is hosting the Summer X Games this weekend. Most of the action is east of downtown at the Circuit of the Americas race track, where the F1 race will be held in November. But the games kicked off on Thursday evening with free events on Congress Avenue in front of the Texas State Capitol. This was the same location as last June’s X Games Rally that secured Austin’s bid to host the X Games for the next four years.
May 10th was a sunny, not-too-hot day for this year’s O. Henry Pun-Off. Several hundred folks gathered in the backyard of Austin’s O. Henry Museum on East 5th Street to watch this almost-annual event. Since you might be wondering, I’ll explain why I didn’t write up this blog entry earlier in just a minute.
WEST (West Austin Studio Tour) is happening over the first two weekends in May. This is the companion spring event to the fall’s EAST (East Austin Studio Tour). As would be logical, EAST took place east of I-35, while WEST covers a much larger geographic area, with boundaries of I-35, Ben White/290, Mopac, and 183. Both EAST and WEST are organized by local arts non-profit, Big Medium.
The construction site for Austin’s new Central Public Library was brightly lit on Friday evening as final preparations were being made for the pouring of the foundation. According to the library’s web site: “The mat slab is approximately 200 ’x 200’ and is 5’-6” thick and has 1,433 tons of reinforcing steel.” Over 1000 cement deliveries would be needed for this ’round-the-clock pour.
The Gelato World Tour stopped in nearby Republic Square Park this weekend. This event was sponsored by the Carpigiani Gelato University in Sigep, Italy. Their mission is “to spread the culture of Italian gelato, a fresh, artisan food product, to the general public throughout the world.” After sampling gelato for the past three days, I can say that I heartily approve of this mission.
For two weekends each year, the Pecan Street Festival takes over East Sixth Street (formerly called Pecan Street). Both weekends seem to mark the change in seasons here in central Texas: late September, as the hot summer days are ending, and early May, as spring comes to a close. Many of the same vendors return each time, but I still enjoy browsing their latest wares. At last weekend’s festival I noticed some new vendors, including Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda Pop Company. Unlimited soda refills for the price of a silver mug was a popular concept for a hot, sunny weekend.