The first town you hit leaving Austin going north on 290 is Manor, pronounced MAY-ner. Manor is home to Manor Downs, a racetrack where you can bet on dogs, horses and televised races from around the country. I've never been there, I didn't go on this trip, and I doubt I'll ever go. Now if it was a NASCAR track….
The one place I did stop at in Manor was This Is It! It's a bar just outside of town that I've always wanted to visit, but I've either arrived at the wrong hour (11 a.m. is too early, for example - it wasn't open) or I've been too intimidated to walk in. But someday I'll drink a beer there, dammit.
I've gotten a taste for what it must be like, though, by the murals painted on the outside of the bar. From the look of them, I can assume that the interior walls of the place are covered with funhouse mirrors.
Elgin (pronounced with a hard G, like the G in "El Segundo") was the next town in line. Elgin is famous for three things: sausage, which is generously produced there and shipped to neighboring cities and towns; the fact that there is a street named Elgin in Houston, but Houstonites pronounce it with a soft G, as in "gin"; and that there is a rumor that John Newcombe owns a big house there and occasionally comes out to play tennis on the high school courts - a rumor that is, as far as I can tell, completely and totally false.
© 2000 E.V. Hobbs