The Lonestar Round Up is a show I look forward to all year. Packed with Traditional Rods and Customs from all over Texas and surrounding states if thats .your jam your not going to be disappointed. The guys running this show know what they are doing and somehow manage to book amazing bands to play live music almost continuously througout the show. The LSRU is held at the Travis County fairgrounds is a great location. Not to big not to small. Most importtantly these guys make sure its laid out right. I am not sure why so few shows seem to put much thought into their layouts. At LSRU the food and vendors bisect the show. You have your headliners and front row stuff and a few clubs up front. The inside vendor building were the art and clothes stuff is then the stage. Food trucks and seating followedare ind front of the stage area that leads into the outside vendor row. The other side is the rest of us. The drive ins and show ups and the for sale/covered swap area following the path circles you around and brings you back to the middle. its really nice when your ready for a break the food, drink and seating are all easily accessible no matter how much ground you've covered. For a guy like me with back and leg issues its perfect. Theres plenty of room to keep you moving all day but not so big that you dont feel like its possible to see pretty much everything.
What makes the LSRU special in my eyes and why its a show I look foreward to attending all year are the surrounding events.
Theres a BBQ kick off show on thursday that I somehow miss every year. this year was no differant. Due to internet issues at my home airtport I got in a few hours late and missed pretty much everything. I saw some great leaving the show on my way in. But by the time I got there the place was packed up and less than 20-30 cars were left. Still worth the drive. hopefully ill have better luck on my next visit. In talking with some of the stragglers they unanimously said this was more of a locals event and that lost of cars go to this show only so its worth the effort.
Mark Gustafson plans and leads a garage crawl through Austin and the surrounding country side that is not to be missed. In fact I'd say that this event alone is worth the flight and rental. This year was no differant. My favorite stop was Speeding Springs the meet up point for this years garage crawl and quite possibly the prototype for what my own dream shop/property might look like. Megan the owner of the property was there and kind enough to open her newest shop building for us. Allowing us, the unwashed masses in to see a portion of her private collection housed in one of the nicest shops I've ever seen. I really hope that this stop stays on the tour in the future. After a brief drivers meeting we headed off to a three fer. Martin Brothers, Rex Rods and Brad Lindigs amazing personal collection.
All three were on the same property and within steps of each other. It must be cool to have two differant shops so close together. One seemingly very traditional and the other had a stack of roadster shop chassis and seemd to be more pro touring focussed. I'd imagine the inspiration flows back and forth and if one shop gets hung up on something a fresh opinionohelping hand is right there. It's gott abe nice. On the back portion of the property next to the farthest building that housed the Lindig collection was the HR depertment. Their own personal shooting range with multiple targets and plenty of room to be enjoyed with a few freinds. Ohhhhhhh Texas! It gets harder to leave every time I visit. Both shops were very cool and packed with cool stuff and the Lindig Collection was full of several impressive traditional Rods and Customs each one looked to be freshly show detailed and polished to perfection.
Jerry Dixon Automotive was next up and boy was this place packed to the gills. Walking out through the shop every lift was full. Someones project, someones Hot Rod, Custom. Muscle car or cruiser talk about variety! All in various states of completion. Going out through to the rear area it was like stepping into an episode of car hoarders. door to door and fender to fender GTOs to jeeps. F150s to Furys there was a little bit of everything and it was all stacked deep.
The Garage Crawl ended at Austin speed shop which rightly seems to have become a hub for the Lonestar Roundup. if your in town fdor this show you will probably end up finishing the night there two or three times. its a great shop with tons of cool stuff on the walls and around and as a hub of the show plenty of cars are coming in and out the whole time. Bif thanks to Mark for all he does to set this part of the show up!
The Show itself goes friday and Saturday and as I said before its a great time. While the show is done Saturday, Sunday still has stiuff going on A morning meet upo at Jo's Coffee and then a nice drive into the hill country with a brunch stiop at Ski Shore Cafe. I love this spot and as I have said many times if I was a singleguy living in the area the Ski Shores Cafe would absolutley be a weekend date spot. Built in the 50s this place is a time capsule the food is great the service is just a good as the food andhaving seating right on the water with boats and folks floating by its a great spot.
This year an added bonus was put on by the Deadend Magazine guys for the re launch of The Rodders Journal. The Deadend Guys know whats up and currated an amazing spot in an artists collective type warehouse with tons of parking that was full of Rods, Customs and Lowriders. The spot was right on Congress which is the local strip for cruising so even if you didnt know the Deadend/TRJ spot was happening the cruise was well worth your time. Tons of restaraunts breweries and hang out spots on both sides of the street to check out and post up at while watching the locals cruise by. The Texas cruise scene takes me back it feels like cruising felt when I was in my teens in Cali. revving it up, and occasional burnouts? No problem. Gas station meet up spot for the street racing set to meet up at and arrange shennigans? You bet. The only pissing and moaning I heard were from out of towners that were having a hard time remembering what freedom felt and looked like.
Lonestar Round up is a great time and a show I cant recomend enough especially if you can spare the time to be there for all the events. Add to that the location of Austin with its amazing food, kind people and tons of stuff to do its makes for a great weekend. Sadly I didnt make it out to any of the comedy spots this trip but if your into stand up comedy like I am Austins Comedy scene is on fire. So theres that as well.
Being back home I already mis being in Texas. I gained at least ten pounds, most of that is probably brisket and Texas BBQ. I regret nothing the food in and around Austin is another reason that makes the juice of this trip worth the sqeeze. If your looking for a new show to check out or an automotive centric vacation give Lonestar round up a shot!
James
The Lowered HMFIC