This morning was nice under overcast skies and there was a cool breeze, too, as I drank my coffee. Living downtown is an adventure, especially when you are a writer, and I’m always gathering intel for texture and characters for stories I want to write.
As those of you who are regulars here to my column know, Danielle and I take a daytrip just about every week. Usually on Thursday, but sometimes on Friday. These are just short trips to explore Central Texas and experience what is going on within a few hours of downtown Brownwood. We never cease to be amazed at the cool things we find to experience. We don’t have much money, so these short little trips give us the experience of travel (authentically so,) without having to leave the state or the country, and we can be back home to our own bed at night. My sister and her husband just took a long trip to Italy, and it was awesome following her adventures on social media. I’m happy they were able to have that experience, but there are loads of great things to see and do around here, and when you are excited and happy to be finding new and cool things, I don’t know that the wonder and joy of it isn’t all the same. This week we shot down to Brady and Mason and found an afternoon’s worth of cool places and joints we didn’t know about.
Yesterday Danielle and I walked over to 10 Mile (the awesome wine and craft beer tasting room over at 401 Center,) and this is a short walk we take several times a week. One block over and a few blocks down. They always have something new to taste and it’s a great place to talk about downtown news and happenings. They had a special Oktoberfest dinner available over the last few days and we were hoping that we could get some awesome schnitzel or sausages, but they weren’t serving dinner until 6.
I looked at my watch… 2:30 pm. I had poker scheduled at 7, so it wasn’t going to happen this time.
The point is that if you pay attention, especially in October, there are tons of things to do right here downtown. All the time. Just this past Saturday they had the annual Corks ‘n Caps over by the Depot area, and this Saturday there will be a cool Coming Home kind of celebration featuring live bands, a car show, street vendors, axe throwing, and other cool stuff over at Shaw’s Marketplace/Fuzzy’s Tacos starting at 5 p.m. But I think they have street vendors and an artisan market going on there most of the day if you want to go there between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
There are a bunch of other things going on this month, and I’ll probably miss a bunch of them. I’m only going from memory, but I know that on October 21st there is a Baker Street Oktoberfest going on Downtown on Baker starting at 6 p.m. featuring live music, food, games, and other stuff. Pioneer Taphouse has live music pretty much every weekend night, and on the 27th my good friend Shel of the Shel Thomas band will be playing at Pioneer from about 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., so if you want to mark that on your calendar, it’ll be a good night. The great thing about live music at Pioneer is that we only have to walk half a block… or… we can sit outside the apartment and hear the music just fine!
Even though it’ll be warm for the next few days, we’ve gotten the hint of fall weather coming on, and by this coming weekend, it’ll be perfect weather for getting out and experiencing what exists in your own backyard.
If you aren’t an expert on what to expect downtown, just stop by Shaw’s Marketplace, or the Intermission Bookshop, or just about any other of the great businesses downtown, and there you’ll find a handy downtown map and event schedule (new every month!) that’ll serve as a sweet downtown guide. Or, I guess you can find us wandering around downtown and ask me, or just email me with questions. I’m not an expert, but I’ll do what I can!
As always, you can drop me a line at [email protected] with comments, suggestions, questions, or whatever.
Have a great week!
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.
