West Texas, Austin, & San Antonio

The next morning's drive was ... unexpected.  Since we were following our GPS's guidance, we didn't take the normal I-10 route into Texas; we took the northern road which took us over the pan-handle and through some interesting towns on our way to Austin.

We left Holloman Air Force Base early, before sun rise, and got an early start on our day.  The route took us towards the dry, sandy, and rocky face of the Sacramento Mountains, but as we crested the top, we were pleasantly surprised with trees, lots of TREES!!  We had stumbled onto a beautiful mountain road with foggy mists rising on the meadows as the sun rose over the mountain's horizon.

As we went further east, the vegetation grew less and less.  When we finally crossed into Texas, only small shrubs and weeds could be seen in the fields, not to mention oil drills.  As we continued along the highway, I started to see objects in the road.  They seemed to be little fuzzy black lines.  I thought they were moving, so I asked Lindsay if she could see them, or if I was just going crazy.  We ended up slowing to a crawl to clearly identify these big Texas caterpillars, who seemed to feed in the cotton fields.

As we drove, my Uncle Rob recommended a place that we stop for an early dinner.  After a few phone calls, internet searches, and iPhone apps downloaded, he finally got us the address that we put into the GPS.  The Hill Top Cafe, outside of Fredericksburg, Texas, was what appeared to be a converted gas station turned restaurant.  Cajun and Greek were their specialties.  Lindsay got the Fried Okra while I tried the Greek Special Tenderloin.  It was magnificent!

We arrived in Austin and were greeted by Rob, Susan, and two fairly large cats (the stars of Rob and Susan's Christmas cards).  We went out for gelato and spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up.  The next day was our tour around Austin.  We started locally, learning about the neighborhoods of Brentwood and Crestview and seeing the hugely famous Wall of Welcome with hundreds of tiles creating a mosaic that spanned a whole block.  We ate lunch at the Little Deli & Pizzeria there behind the Wall, and enjoyed listening to "the history of Rob and Susan," something that I had never bothered to ask until I was old enough to appreciate it.  Later we enjoyed a driving tour of Austin, seeing Zilker Park, their armadillo-shaped city hall, the downtown landscape, even a real Texas high school football game, all from the comfort of the RAV4.  We stopped in South Austin for some fine dining on S. Congress Ave, and for dessert we had cupcakes sold to us from a streamline trailer along the road, Hey Cupcake! (google it)

The next day we went down to San Antonio to spend the day with Lindsay's relatives there.  We arrived and enjoyed a lunch at Applebee's and spent the time catching up with Aunt Kim and Nick.  Seeing them together, it was like they were on a team.  Nick was so helpful to Kim; he even pumped the gas for her at the station.  Kim was watching out for Nick too, making sure he didn't scarf down his food too quick.  After lunch we went back to their apartment, where I got slaughtered by Nick at a video game.

After that, we went to visit Lindsay's grandfather, who unfortunately was in the hospital fighting a bad case of pneumonia.  Due to the nature of the illness, we all had to wear full hospital gown, masks, and gloves, which made chatting a bit difficult, not to mention rather warm.  We did have a wonderful conversation and got to explain our future adventure to England to him.  After a while, we had to leave because he was getting his final tests taken before he could be discharged.  We then went to his home where Edith had prepared a dinner for everyone.  It was so nice of her to prepare a top-notch meal that was both tasty and delicious.  After dinner, Lindsay and I went back to the hospital, where we hoped we could pick Grandpa up to take him home, but the test results were taking too long, so instead we sat and conversed a while longer.  He told us captivating stories from his military career.  It’s amazing how much energy he seemed to have even after overcoming that illness.  Before we left, we managed to sneak in a photo without the hospital garb.  We went back to his home where Edith had dessert for us.  After a few slices of pie, we then started our return journey to Austin. 

The next morning, we had to leave, but we decided that Austin would be quite a nice city to make our home, if our lives ever brought us to Texas.

~Blake