Last Day In Austin ...

We all woke up last Monday morning (Sheridan & Drew and Paul & I shared a hotel room on the last night), and Vida Vegan Con was truly over. Sigh. It was time to make the long trek home, and normally, I'd have been down for a leisurely morning with one last breakfast out for the four of us or maybe a last morning meet-up with the vegan folks still in town.

But I had places to be. You see (and this is that announcement I mentioned last night), I was asked to film a segment for Vegan Mash-Up! The public access vegan cooking show's producer Betsy Carson was attending VVC this year, and she wanted to catch some vegans to film for guest spots on the show while she had us in one place.

If you're not familiar, Vegan Mash-Up is a cooking show that features Terry Hope Romero, Miyoko Schinner, and Toni Fiore on every episode. And then there's usually a guest or two per episode, and Betsy graciously asked me if I'd like to be one of those guests! Of course I would! So I downed an energy bar in the hotel, got dressed, and headed to the Austin makeshift kitchen studio. I can't divulge any more about what I'm making or what the episode's theme is, but the show should air on your local public access channel (WKNO in Memphis) in October. 

Once we were done, we had to hit the road if we were going to make it home before midnight. But since we hadn't eaten a proper breakfast, we had to make a stop for food first. Remember our first day in Austin when we tried to go to the Biscuits & Groovy food truck, but they were out of vegan biscuits? Well, while I was filming, Sheridan and Drew stopped by the biscuit truck. And they reported that there were vegan biscuits! Hurray! So we swung by.

I went with the Gloria Gayor — three of the world's most amazing, fluffiest biscuits topped with tofu scramble, white gravy, vegan bacon, vegan sausage, Daiya, jalapenos, and chives. OMG! What a perfect last meal in Austin.

Wheatsville Co-op was just down the street, so we made a stop there for road snacks since we knew there'd be no time to stop for dinner. Wheatsville has legendary Buffalo Popcorn Tofu, and after reading everyone's blog recaps of VVC, it seems that nearly all of us stopped at Wheatsville for popcorn tofu for the ride or flight home. I even ran into a Anika from Vegan Score at Wheatsville while I was looking at the tofu! 

Anyway, it was awesome. We ate this around dinner time in the car. I got buffalo and Paul got plain, and then we split them. I must figure out the secret to this and recreate it at home.

I also picked up some Vegan Salad Rolls from Wheatsville because salad rolls.

I had quite a scare while eating these salad rolls though. I was happily munching away in the passenger seat, watching out the window as we whizzed by trees. And then boom — I saw a dead guy! Okay, well, I THOUGHT I saw a dead guy. His body was limp, and he was hanging from a power line. I dropped my salad roll and told Paul to turn around. Paul thought it sounded crazy, but he obliged. We found the nearest turnaround spot, where the police vehicles make turns on the highway, and went back. 

As we were heading back toward the spot, we passed a giant zip line adventure course. Hmmmm. How did I not notice that? And then a mile or so down the road, I saw my "dead guy." He was right next to a billboard advertising the zip line. Obviously a dummy zip-liner. But I failed to notice that billboard (or the nearby adventure course) the first time! But seriously. Doesn't this look freaky? It's tiny, but look at the left side of the pic.

We found other weird stuff on the highway too. Earlier, before the dead body experience, Paul found this abandoned movie and games store in the shape of a spaceship. It was right off the interstate, near a gas station parking lot. Of course Paul had to climb it.

Later on down the road, there was a whole dome farm with lots of abandoned dome-like structures. We didn't stop, but it looked pretty spooky.

Anyway, I spent lots of time in the car snacking. I was so glad I bought all this popcorn from Cornucopia in Austin — Texas BBQ, Chile Lime, and Garlic & Herb Popcorn!

We finally made it home late, late at night! My parents had come by earlier and dropped off my pets that they'd been babysitting. They were all happy to see me. And my mom left half a vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake that she'd made. I certainly didn't need any more sweets after Austin, but this was so good!

Okay, that's it for Austin, folks! Tomorrow, I'll be back with a recap of my post-Austin cleanse. After all the biscuits and doughnuts and tacos and cake, I needed a juice fast. More on that tomorrow!