Austin City Limits

Notes from Margo:

The last time Kathy Macchi invited another cousin to her house in Austin for a little visit, she stayed for 10 years. Some folks would learn to make the invitation a bit less welcoming. Not my cousin Kathy.

When I e-mailed that we'd like to visit her and her partner, Faye Rozmaryn, she answered with a big Texan "Mi casa es tu casa" e-mail, and then a list of questions: (Are you vegetarians? Any allergies? Any special likes or dislikes? What beverages do you drink? Beer? Wine? Do you like desserts? What do you eat for breakfast? Coffee? Tea? And so forth.) I answered with excessive detail and sort of expected a reply like: “A little too much information, but thanks.” Instead: “That’s exactly what we needed!!”

Austin is a beautiful, isolated, culturally rich, relatively liberal city surrounded by the vast conservative nation of Texas. So I'm guessing, from a very small sample, that people here are keen to show off the city. They seem happy to receive visitors who somehow find their way through the Lone Star State's endless flat, bleak expanses and arrive in the Hill Country of Central Texas.

I hadn't seen my cousin Kathy since we were teenagers. She moved to Austin 30 years ago from her home town, Boston. We've kept in touch on and off over the years with holiday cards and letters and the occasional e-mail, as well as updates from other members of the family. No phone calls. No real visits. There was a bit of ice-breaking to be done, for sure. But in the ice-breaking department, this was the tropical sun. Hugs. Come on in. What are you drinking? Here's where you're staying. Shall we do the grand tour of the house now or later? And can we lay on an incredible home-cooked dinner for you this evening?

The four of us talked through lunch at a local Tex-Mex place. We took a break, and then talked through dinner. (That's Faye and Kathy and I at left.) Faye is a gourmet cook, and we, of course, are an appreciative audience. She served up a perfect roast chicken that had been marinating since the day before, with salad and squash soup. The conversation continued through the evening – families, opera, travel, work, politics. Then just Kathy and I talked until well past midnight. Wow!

I'm feeling some regret for all the lost years. But the main thing is that the friendship is renewed, and we'll see Kathy and Faye in San Francisco sometime soon.

They live in north Austin in a house that they've slowly remodeled over about 15 years into a beautiful, comfortable retreat where they can relax and host their friends – expanses of wood, gorgeous tiling, walls painted in the rich, mellow colors of the Southwest. The house is laid out with the living areas open to the outside patio and pool, clearly taking advantage of the many months of good weather that Austin normally enjoys. Kathy said the city gets about five days of winter a year. The rest of the time, she can lounge around in shorts. It was drizzly and a bit cold while we were there, so it's just that our timing was a bit off.

We also visited Ingrid Weigand and George Dolis, who extended the same Austin hospitality. "Come on in, make yourself at home; let's enjoy this fish dinner from my mother's family recipe and one of George's famously complex salads." We felt completely blessed and welcomed after the long drive from New Orleans. Like Kathy and Faye, they have slowly remodeled their home over many years. Now it's a showplace for the homey warmth of wood and the earthy and elegant beauty of tile. Their home is also open to the outside, with a greenhouse on one of the decks. The upstairs bedroom gives the feel of a tree house among the branches of the huge, mature, live oak trees outside.

While we were in Austin, we visited the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, where we got the distinct impression that Texas and the Confederacy won the Civil War. But the highlight, for me, was a temporary exhibit of quilts made by ordinary people for ordinary purposes. When we toured the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky, we saw the work of professional quilters for display in shows or museums – quilts as art, rather than quilts as quilts. In the Austin museum, the Joyce Gross Collection contained beautiful, expertly made quilts in traditional American block patterns, whole cloth quilts, appliqué techniques and Hawaiian quilts. Quilts as quilts.

Notable: Kenny came through the surgery to repair her broken nose just fine. Whew!! I didn't think I was that worried about it, but when Clyde Hohn called after the surgery to tell us how things went, I couldn't breath for a few minutes. Watching the weather report makes me conscious of what a bad idea it would have been to fly to Ohio right now. The Midwest in buried under snow. Kenny is cognizant, I think, of how concerned we've been, so she is calling every day to let us know she's OK. And Maryann Hohn e-mailed every day with a report. We are reminded again and again of how lucky we are.

We are now hightailing it across the vast open landscapes of the Southwest, putting in some of the longest mileage days of our trip. We're heading home.

Mileage from Austin, Texas, to Carlsbad Caverns National Park: 527

Mileage so far: 10,572