I-635 & 75 overpass

I had to leave Dallas sooner than later. However, it was nice to stay put for a little bit and to have some company. Thank you again Lynn and thank you Jay for the location tip for the overpass. The median across from the Motel 6 parking lot gives you a great vantage point. I might not like Dallas, but the people I met sure were very generous. Thank you Kathy for the chili, I’ll have some tonight – it was very good.

OK, the drive from Dallas to Austin. The straight line to Austin would be I-35, approximately 200 miles. I took the not so straight line which totaled 250 miles. I left Dallas on highway 67 and then moseyed on down the two lane highway 174, eventually heading a little west towards Waco and then south on highway 95 to Austin.
When I looked at my odometer and my clock, I realized that I had only driven 40 miles in one hour! I wasn’t sightseeing; it was the head winds of about 25 miles an hour that kept me from moving. As hard as I pressed that gas pedal, I could not make it to the 55 mph mark. The engine would rav and I was only going 40 – 45mph. The fact that I was driving through hilly terrain did not help either.
On the bright side, I did drive through some beautiful rolling hills country side. The green of the trees and bushes was not the same uniform green anymore as I had been seeing in Mississippi and Louisiana. The spectrum ran the gamut from dark green to silvery green, not sure if that is a real color or not, but that what it looked like. It reminded me of my last trip when I drove through Nevada where the sagebrush alone came in a wide variety of shades of green.

Valley Mills

Several of the small towns I passed had big western themed murals painted on their buildings. The buildings themselves looked like the buildings we are used to seeing in the old western movies. I stopped in one of those towns, Valley Mills, just to take pictures and ended up having lunch; who could resist a restaurant named “Cowgirl’s Café”, anyone? Nice little place, great place for burger fans, not so great when you don’t eat meat. But there is always the good old grilled cheese sandwich, hard to mess that up. The place was decorated with, what else, cowgirl and also some cowboy memorabilia, pretty neat.

Cowgirl's Cafe

The Cowgirls

Drove past Crawford, but no sightings of George.W.
Other than rolling hills I also saw some life stock, long horn cattle and I mean LONG horn, wow. No photos this time around, but I have the feeling that I will see more of them. Also saw some goats with cute little baby goats. Let’s hope that they were milk goats.
Texas drivers are impatient or plain old stupid. Double yellow do not pass lines don’t mean anything to them. Now I know why so many states have in addition to the lines signs that say DO NOT PASS. It is not so bad when I get passed in a no passing zone, except when I have to move to the right so that the idiot who passed me doesn’t drive into oncoming traffic. Not so fun is when you see headlights coming towards you, on your lane. I thought Miami drivers were bad, but they only make passing impossible, Texas drivers are dangerous.
It took me seven hours to drive to Austin. I was pooped, but very happy to park my camper next to Allison and Joanna’s house, thank you! The campgrounds around Austin were full. I didn’t know that this weekend was the big Republic of Texas biker rally.

Texas State Capitol (Austin)

I spend today wandering around downtown Austin, despite 95 F temperatures. I had brunch at a nice place on S. Congress Avenue and that’s where I concluded that, no matter where I live, there have to be good restaurants. I don’t eat out often, but when I do I like it to be something good, something that I cannot or would not make myself.
Next stop, Galveston Island, I am just not sure exactly when I’ll be there. It is a 280 mile drive and I will not do that in one day, no way Jose!