We're back where we started and had a greeting committee when we got off the train. So lovely.
Unbelievably it was 81 degrees at 10:30 this morning! Yikes, a heat wave for the next few days.
What a wonderful exploration! And we kicked all our misconceptions about Texas to the curb.
The people are extraordinarily friendly and polite. What a pleasure!
We've seen many beautiful and interesting places. Places that really stand out are the State Capitol in Austin, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, the Riverside Cottages in Blanco, Corpus Christie, the Visitor Center in San Angelo, Dealey Plaza in Dallas . . .and it goes on.
After turning in the car we had 5 hours to kill before getting on the train.
We explored different areas of the downtown from those we explored when we arrived. We found another one of those movie theaters that have food and drink delivered to your seat. You can also just go into the lounge and eat there if you want. Interesting concept and if it had worked out we would have liked to try it out.
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| All the grave markers have resumes, not just names and dates! |
Here we are again! We've made it back to Austin and just had time to do some walking around Congress Street which is full of shops, restaurants and bars.
We are really, REALLY, going to miss the friendliness and politeness of the Texans. It's been such a joy!
Today we just meandered toward Austin. Through the plains with lots of cotton fields and then into the hill country.
We stopped at a pit BBQ here in Llano for lunch. What a hoot! The ovens are outside; you pick your meat then go inside and pick up whichever side dishes you like. It's community seating arrangement with huge peppers and bread every foot and a half on the tables.
The temperature dropped 25 degrees today and the winds rose to 20 mph. Made for a pretty chilly morning.
San Angelo has a community project entitled "Art in Uncommon Places" and this means mosaics, sculptures, paintings, lights, all kinds of special things. It's wonderful!
We spent quite a bit of time at the visitor's center, a terrific looking spot which is part of the river walk and had a terrific walk looking at all the artwork.
We enjoyed lunch so much yesterday that we went back to Miss Hattie's today and then walked the historic downtown street.
As is usual for us, we took 5 hours to go what the map app said would take an hour and a half. Lots of agriculture in the panhandle plains not to mention that the temperature has jumped to 85 degrees today.
When we arrived here, we had lunch at Miss Hattie's Restaurant and Cathouse Lounge. What a kick! The inside is decorated like a brothel; very cute and the food was fabulous.
We are staying in a hotel on the Concho River that is billed as an atrium hotel. That means there are rooms on the outside so it looks like a regular hotel but there are also rooms inside (3 floors) that overlook an indoor pool, arcade area, indoor 9 hole miniature golf, billard tables, ping pong, foosball and air hockey. It's quite unique; we've never seen anything quite like it.
We're looking forward to exploring some more tomorrow.
No plan today other than drive west. We ran into the town of Newcastle which made us laugh since Norm's family is from Newcastle England! It's also a coal mining town.
We stopped to see Fort Belknap outside of Newcastle as Trip Advisor said it was the one thing to do in Newcastle. This fort was built to protect the Texas frontier against raids by the Kiowa and Comanche. It was very quiet as actually the whole day has been, probably because it's Sunday.
Further up the road we saw two long horned steer right beside the road. Scary guys. Next to the two steer was a buffalo!
Had a wonderful dinner at Rosas Tortilla Factory. What a colorful restaurant!
It took 4 hours of driving before we were done with freeways, shopping, buildings and traffic! Yikes!
I've now been to 4 out of 13 presidential libraries and Norm's been to 5. Today we went to the George W Bush library and all I can say is WOW. Just about everything is interactive and in one place you could pick your advisors as they would have advised the president and you choose whose advice you would listen to and discussions were about real events that happened. At the end the audience votes were announced and then what President Bush actually did. It was really interesting.
When you first arrive they show a video of scenes around the US around the ceiling. It was so amazing!
We went into Studio Movie Grill in Dallas which has 15 movies running. When you enter you go to a kiosk where you select your movie, pay for it then go forward to pick up your tickets. What's really different is that there is a grill and lounge also in the building so you can order food and drink and they will be delivered to your seat as you watch the movie. We really should have gone to a movie to get the full experience!
This morning we put on the GPS for Dallas but told it to avoid highways so we had a very relaxing drive through farmland. We got a kick when we drove through Penelope on our travels since Penelope is looking after our house and cat while we're on this trip.
We had noticed a couple of dome shaped small buildings but didn't know what they were. Then we saw what looked like a small village of them so we had to turn around and take a closer look. They are studio rentals in Italy, Texas apparently and are made of canvas rather than cement as they appeared to be from a distance. They are treated as apartment rentals after 30 days. Would have loved to see the inside!
We then arrived in Dallas and went directly to Dealey Plaza. After seeing literally a hundred shows about the assassination of President Kennedy, it was incredible to see all the places we've heard about and seen in photos and videos. We went up to the museum on the 6th floor of the Book Depository. It's a self-guided audio tour and you can literally spend many hours there as there is just so much information. They don't allow any photography in the museum but on the 7th floor there are a couple of windows looking down on the Plaza and so I tried to take some but they didn't turn out too well because of the sun, the dirty window and the fact that I couldn't put the camera directly on the glass so . . .
What a fabulous day! It started in the 30's but got to 70 degrees.
We started off at the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum. Very interesting to hear and see the history of the Rangers. I have to say I've never seen so many guns and so many really pretty guns. Their history was quite dramatic but ultimately the white hats have really become the good guys. Right next door was a cemetery which was begun in the mid 1800's for the Waco elite and of course, we had to walk around. There were some graves from the Civil War.
Next stop was the Waco Mammoth Site where they have discovered about 26 mammoths. This is a current dig and they are setting up a lab and an in-house paleontologist.
We pulled into Manny's On The River for a Tex Mex lunch. WOW! Fabulous location and fabulous food!
Our third stop was a walk along the Waco Riverwalk which is just gorgeous. The walk included walking across the Waco Pedestrian Bridge which was built in 1870. On the other side were larger than life bronze sculptures of three riders and cattle which extended for about a block.
Went to bed yesterday at 2 pm and got up this morning at 8 am. Feel much better! Much cooler today with highs only in the mid-50's.
We didn't mean to drive so much today but it happened. I thought we were going to continue northeast but Norm said he wanted to go to Victoria. Why? Because they have a Harbor Freight Tools store! So we had a chance to check out Victoria and it seemed like a very nice place.
As we continued north we came to La Grange and Norm said he was sure it was famous for something so I looked it up. It's the home of the first Chicken Ranch in 1844. The story of the brothel was immortalized in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas movie. Of course, that's a story that will stick in his memory banks!
Lovely drive up highway 77. Good road and very little traffic. The scenery kept changing which kept it interesting. Looking forward to exploring around Waco tomorrow.
