Just South of Austin, Texas
December 19, 2019
Lots of sights in the past two days (December 16 & 17). I’ve been driving around southeast Texas, doing more driving than usual because (1) it is cold and (2) haven’t found anyplace to do much walking. I am now pretty far down the Gulf Coast at Padre Island National Seashore - I guess there is more south of me but I’ll head west tomorrow and go to Laredo which is on the Mexican border.
Yesterday was a bit overwhelming in terms of the names of towns I came across - Mont (shouldn’t it be Mont something?), Sweet Home, Concrete, Cost, Cheapside. I like to think that these kinds of town names reflect the humor of their founders,
Yesterday was also a drive through oil - or earl - country. All kinds of “pads” that I assume are associated with oil recovery - compression stations. I saw a new well being drilled - or it could have been a frac site. The roads were busy semis pulling sand, rocks, chemicals and pipes. It’s good to be a semi driver in Texas! Also saw what must have been hundreds of white Ford F-250s (if similar GMC’s and Ram’s) - looked like they were all oil-field related. And there were cows. 😁
You’ll see from the photos that the topography was rolling - not big hills but wave-like hills. And tons of live oaks, both by themselves and many in clusters. Some had dropped their leaves, others were green. I camped overnight at a state park in Goliad; hard to beat a site for $14 Town was founded in the 1700s. Most Texas towns I have been in were founded in 18 something.
I thought I’d go to San Antonio today but found the pull of the Gulf Coast hard to overcome. Today’s drive was quite different than yesterday's. Not much oil related sightings, not many live oaks. In fact, it was flat, no trees, wind farms, farm land and some cattle. Came through Corpus Christi to get to Padre Island. City of 300,000 with tremendously expanding suburbs. Not my style. But there was a Chick-Fila so I scored some chicken. I’m trying to frequent local places, but it’s hard to pass up a grilled chicken sandwich when I haven’t had one in weeks.
Very windy here on the beach! Hoping I’ll catch a good sunset in 90 minutes. (1 star - no clouds - the sun just went straight down.)
Another Archie Bell soundtrack - different tunes than before. Saving George Strait for West Texas.