Our time in Texas was short but we feel that we got a good sample of the cultural and social diversity of this powerful super state. We ate more meat in two days than we have in the past two months, glimpsed the true meaning behind the 'Keep Austin Weird' campaign and gawked at old space shuttles at the NASA Space Centre in Houston.

We detoured through Austin for two reasons - music and barbeques. As it is easier to enjoy music with full stomachs, we ate first. Trusting advice from friends we drove forty minutes to the famous Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in greater Austin for our first genuine Texas BBQ experience. Feeling hungry, brave and curious, we opted for the 'all you can eat meat' option. This entailed unlimited tender burnt-ended brisket, gourmet sausage, fall off the bone dry rubbed ribs and, on the servers recommendation, a side of 36 hour slow roasted turkey! It wasn't that the meat wasn't amazing (because it was) but just looking at such large amounts of meat nearly turned us vegetarian. We did our best to get through almost one heaped plate between us, only to be told by the server he had seen one guy eat five plates to himself!!! No wonder the meat industry in America is so profitable!

We experienced the other side of the cultural spectrum by checking out Austin's music and bar scene. Our first night was a relatively chilled, mellow and traditional bluesy night at Antone's. This live music venue has been attracting blues muso's since the '70s, including BB King and Muddy Waters, and we watched a pretty authentic local open jam night. The only things missing were the pin-striped suits and cigar smoke!

The following day proved a whirlwind of fun, excitement and weird. All over Austin we saw posters and t-shirts promoting 'Keep Austin Weird'. Being the unofficial music capital of the world, Austin has attracted hippies, right wing artists and open minded souls for years, a fact which they are very proud of. So we headed out on this regular Tuesday to see some of this 'weird'.

The day started out relatively unweird with a visit to the Texas Congress for a sneak peek at the historically right-wing Senate and House of Representatives. The gardens surrounding the building featured statues dedicated to Texas' large history, particularly their involvement in the civil war. We explored the interior too and as we were leaving a school group begun singing Christmas Carols in the middle of the domed building. The effect was magnificent!

From there we caught a bus to the trendy, alternative South Congress area to try out their famous food-trucks for lunch. After a delicious Jamaican stew we managed to find a film crew shooting a local advertisement and were invited to be extras! We signed our wavers and joined in with a mob of pretend groupies cheering to some guy playing a guitar and singing 'if ya gonna drive in Texas... ya gotta throw ya trash in the can'. We had passed 'Don't mess with Texas' signs on the highways promoting the same campaign, but didn't imagine we'd become so directly involved only days later!

Our day just kept getting weirder from there. As we sat in an open air coffee shop that afternoon we saw everything from a man riding a horse up the main road in full cowboy attire, to a woman ordering a coffee with a miniature pony on a lead! We even spotted McLovin' from Superbad leaving a gas station with dark glasses and a packet of munchies in hand!

Throughout the day we were given lots of local bar recommendations which would have kept us busy for a month. With only one night left, we headed off to an agreed local favourite, Cheer up Charlie's, with a slight detour past the famous 6th Street. When we arrived at Cheer up Charlie's we were relieved to find it packed, considering it was a Tuesday. As we looked more closely, we were surprised to see more guys in dresses than girls and a lot of tights, eye make-up and hairy chests.

Tonight was 'Fantasseee' night, which basically meant show-and-tell for Austin's growing queer community. Despite the hosts' eccentric appearance with his red wig, colourful tights and tutu, he was a really talented singer and entertainer and we soon found ourselves squeezing onto one of the busy tables. We sat through three hours of some of the funniest entertainment we have witnessed including dancers, mimes, story tellers and transvestite strippers! Two of the funniest skits were a guy who, upon finding a doll from the '50s, had decided to recreate her mis-fitted wardrobe into modern human clothes - and a guy who, being a collector of old used books, managed to find a 1953 gay erotica novel and recited some of the more vivid and disturbing passages. We've never laughed so hard and were impressed by how talented these 'normal' Austinites were!

Slowly meandering home, we managed to cap the night off by stumbling across an Irish bar filled with a film conference group. Instead of a band on stage, there was a high tech slow motion camera. We watched the rowdy film crew pop water balloons, slap each other, throw confetti and much more, only to play it back later in slow motion! Eventually, the mess was cleaned up and an awesome band, whose lead singer looked like Abraham Lincoln, started to play. The night was fairly blurry - and so are the few photos we took of it, but it was all a barrel of laughs and a great introduction to Austin's proud cultural diversity.

To make sure we really made the most of our time here, we stopped at another BBQ joint in Lockhart on our way out. Kreuz Market has proudly been lighting up its BBQ pits since 1990, and refuses to provide sauce or cutlery. We sat in the cafeteria with our slow cooked flesh served on no fuss brown butchers' paper and were once again impressed by the love and pride Texans put into their meat! With enough protein to keep us going for months, we headed back on the Interstate towards Houston.

Texas is known for oversized vehicles so it felt right as we drove towards pretty much the world centre of large vehicles, NASA's Space Centre in Houston. We managed to stay on course through the concrete tangle of overlapping highways and arrived at the Space Centre early. It was lucky we did, as we easily spent the whole day in this amazing display of human achievement and science.

The Centre had fantastic displays of 'Life in Space' and NASA's space missions, particularly Apollo 11's moon landing. It even had a few space artifacts, such as the Apollo 17 command module and real moon rocks that we were able to touch! The highlight for us was catching a tram tour through the complex, which included a visit to the original mission control and the current training and research centre as well as a close up look at the Saturn V rocket! Nerdy, but cool!

Giddy with excitement from this centre of one of man's greatest conquests, and still jiving from Austin we are back on the road again. From blues to jazz, from ribs to Creole gumbo, our next stop is the one and only New Orleans!!!