Roll-N out in style

The final train shot: Saying good-bye to Roll-N Saloon

I woke up to a disturbing phone call a few days ago. It was a friend calling to tell me she had gone to the Roll-N-Saloon over the weekend and, to her dismay, she was informed that it has lost its lease and will be closing its doors for good effective this Saturday.

Located in a strip center at San Felipe and the railroad tracks, the bar opened on December 15, 1969 as the Al Lee Lounge. The owner, Joe Lee Thomas, changed the name to the Roll-N-Saloon in 1972.

I mentioned the Roll-N in my “places to go on Thanksgiving night” piece not only because it was open on turkey night, but also because this quintessential dive bar has been a favorite haunt of mine for many years. When I was home from college and wanted to meet up with old friends over the holidays, Roll-N was always one of our first stops. Now that we are a little older, it's still one of the top picks for drinks when “the marrieds” have a hall pass for a night out.

Yes, it's run down, there are no windows and the décor is reminiscent of an episode of Dukes of Hazard, but this place is a treasure. And not just because the drinks are cheap and stiff, or because the jukebox is full of classic hits to which someone in my party always decides they need to sing along to karaoke-style or accompany with air drums (no names shall be mentioned), but because the people and the atmosphere are so easygoing.

People from all walks are welcome and, although the Roll-N is located on the edge of flashy River Oaks, you can leave the fancy attire behind, show up in your shorts and flip flops and feel right at home. Before the implementation of railroad quiet zones a few years back, it was customary for everyone in the bar to do a $1 “train shot” every time a train passed by and blew its whistle.

I plan on grabbing some friends and hitting the Roll-N for one last hurrah. There may not be a whistle blowing, but we will definitely have a few “train shots” in honor of this fallen landmark.

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Found Footage

Texas hiker discovers impressively intact dinosaur track near Austin

Photo via KVUE

It may look plain, but this footprint tells an exciting story.

A dinosaur track discovered along Brushy Creek in Hutto near Austin is offering a glimpse into Texas’ prehistoric past.

For Gio Bernabe, walking along Brushy Creek is a chance to explore, fish, and look for anything interesting.

But during a recent Saturday afternoon walk, she came across something she never expected to find.

“And then I saw there was like this huge imprint of kind of like a foot, like a three-toed foot,” Bernabe said. “So I looked at it and I kind of cleaned it up and it looked like a dinosaur foot.”

Bernabe posted a photo of the print on social media, where it quickly attracted attention from the community.

“I was so excited because this is honestly one of my biggest dreams,” Bernabe said. “I've always wanted to find something like, really cool like this, like fossil-related, and I found it in Hutto, Texas.”

Chris Sagebiel with the Jackson School of Geosciences’ Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collections examined the tracks and confirmed they belonged to a dinosaur. He said the tracks are particularly well preserved.

“I can only think of a couple of places where, in this area, where we have tracks that are that age, that are that well preserved,” Sagebiel said. “We get a lot of really faint tracks or partial tracks, but a beautiful one like that is a very nice find.”

Dinosaur tracks are relatively common around Austin, according to Sagebiel. However, they are more often found west of Interstate 35, where older rock formations are exposed.

The size and spacing of the tracks can help researchers identify the type of dinosaur that made them.

Sagebiel said the tracks likely came from a large, plant-eating, two-legged dinosaur — possibly a Hadrosaur, also known as a duck-billed dinosaur.

Hadrosaur illustration This distinctive dino from North America is a member of the family hadrosauridae.Getty Images

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

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