H2O - Water Towers, Etc.: Work Trip - Austin, TX for US Compost Council Conference

In January 2012 I had the opportunity to visit Austin, TX for the first time to attend the US Compost Council conference (one of KAB's non-profit partners). Owen and I decided to make a trip of it since we usually go somewhere warm in January to break up the winter. We were disappointed on the "warm" part. It wasn't like Miami the year before. However, we liked Austin. We felt like we were back in Raleigh - the state capital, a college town and a large IT business community.

At some point we picked up a community brochure and one of the brochures had a large water tower on the front of it. So we were off to water tower hunt through the back roads of TX.

Buda. TX. I know this is a picture of a tank and not a tower, but I love the graphic of the person swinging on a tire swing. When looking into Buda, they say they are the "outdoor capital of TX".

Fitting then that Buda, the outdoor capital, would have a very large Cabela's store off the interstate.

Cimarron. TX. We ran into these 2 very different standpipes in the midst of a subdivision. You can't really find "Cimarron" on the map. It looks to be just the subdivision, an unincorporated part of Harris County.

Gruene. TX. So we finally get to the destination at hand. Gruene (said like Green, it's German). They had an excellent brochure, with this water tower on the front of it, which is what caught our eye. The whole town was historic. They are most known for a live music venue that has been around for over 100 years (and hasn't really changed since that time). Lots of big stars have played there. This was our first taste of the excellent live music in and around Austin!

Kyle. TX. Owen was so excited to take this for his coworker named Kyle.

Lehman is the name of the high school in Kyle.

Mission Valley Factory. I'm not sure what this factory did or does. I can't find anything with a quick Google search. As you can see it was starting to cloud up.