Welcome To Case's Column
Let me say a big welcome to all of you for joining me here. I'm going to call these blog meetings Case's Column. I wanted to use "Corner", but that was already taken.
Since 2008, it's been a real privilege to come on here and share some of my life with you, and it's a big world where we live.
In these blogs, I'll just speak whatever is on my mind, but we will be playing within the rules here. I may pick a particular topic, point out an event, or shoot the breeze. I'm a little bit of an essayist at times, so I'll just speak what's on my mind, and I might tell a story or two. Or, I might spew out an opinion or three. There will be some serious moments, some tender, some poignant, but there will also be those moments that you'll just bust out laughing. But, hopefully, everything will be in good fun here. And, of course, there's a place below for your comments and thoughts as we go along here. So feel free to join me for the ride -- I sure as heck hope I'm doing this right and not making any mistakes.
Thanks for taking your time in reading Case's Column. Hopefully, you'll enjoy being entertained by it as much as I've enjoyed putting these writings together. And thanks for the time you spend in City-Data.com, where it's great to be alive!
Regards,
case44
Let me say a big welcome to all of you for joining me here. I'm going to call these blog meetings Case's Column. I wanted to use "Corner", but that was already taken.
Since 2008, it's been a real privilege to come on here and share some of my life with you, and it's a big world where we live.In these blogs, I'll just speak whatever is on my mind, but we will be playing within the rules here. I may pick a particular topic, point out an event, or shoot the breeze. I'm a little bit of an essayist at times, so I'll just speak what's on my mind, and I might tell a story or two. Or, I might spew out an opinion or three. There will be some serious moments, some tender, some poignant, but there will also be those moments that you'll just bust out laughing. But, hopefully, everything will be in good fun here. And, of course, there's a place below for your comments and thoughts as we go along here. So feel free to join me for the ride -- I sure as heck hope I'm doing this right and not making any mistakes.
Thanks for taking your time in reading Case's Column. Hopefully, you'll enjoy being entertained by it as much as I've enjoyed putting these writings together. And thanks for the time you spend in City-Data.com, where it's great to be alive!
Regards,
case44
The Occasional Adventures And Misadventures Of The Occasional Road Trip
Posted 11-10-2012 at 06:06 AM by case44
At this writing, it was last Saturday morning when I decided to sleep much earlier and get up much earlier. And I did just that. It had been too long since I've done a road trip down to Austin, Texas, so it came time for me to take advantage of such an experience. The forecasts seemed favorable enough as long as it didn't rain.
There was also plenty of reason to go down, and that was "The Country Gold Show", since relaunched on Austin's KOKE-FM (99.3 and 98.5) after being pushed off of KVET-FM, where it had been for 21 years. In order to get within KOKE's range, I'd have to get down to Temple, Texas before 5 in the morning, as the signal, while not perfect, came through pretty good for a low-power station. Doable, I'd say. But there's a sacrifice, in that I'd have to wake up at 1 and leave Dallas by 2 in order to make that trek down there, necessitating going to bed at an earlier time the night before. As I stopped to top off my gas at the Pilot in Hewitt, south of Waco (I only needed a few extra gallons), I couldn't get the pump to start. LOL, right? Oh, well. I'll have enough to fill the tank after 10 a.m. in Austin. Because of time, I couldn't stay and fight with an attendant who may not even be at the counter (it was, after all, approaching 4 a.m. at that time), so back to I-35 I went. When I arrived in the Austin area, my sunrise would be disrupted. Why? Patchy fog. Some places had decent skies, but other places had low visibility.
No worries, though. I made do with what me and my Toyota had, so I'm satisfied, anyway. Round Rock donut holes awaited me from that legendary donut shop, and for lunch, it was Salt Lick barbecue, also in Round Rock. There are a lot a great sights to see while in Austin, with downtown, the Colorado River, the spectacular rock cuts in the Texas Hill Country, and much more. Plus, I decided to check on the progress of the new infrastructure either still under construction or already completed. U.S. Highway 183A has their new extension just completed. Nice ride.
And U.S. Highway 290 east of town is working along nicely, as the frontage roads are being built to make way for new tollway mainlanes. Central Texas travels are just fantastic, and it was just great to get Country Gold back on my car radio to go along with the great sights and landmarks. Because of high gas prices
, I am unable to do it very much.
Tell you what, I'm planning to go down again, hopefully, in another month. If the forecast calls for sunny skies, maybe this time, I can catch a great sunrise!
There was also plenty of reason to go down, and that was "The Country Gold Show", since relaunched on Austin's KOKE-FM (99.3 and 98.5) after being pushed off of KVET-FM, where it had been for 21 years. In order to get within KOKE's range, I'd have to get down to Temple, Texas before 5 in the morning, as the signal, while not perfect, came through pretty good for a low-power station. Doable, I'd say. But there's a sacrifice, in that I'd have to wake up at 1 and leave Dallas by 2 in order to make that trek down there, necessitating going to bed at an earlier time the night before. As I stopped to top off my gas at the Pilot in Hewitt, south of Waco (I only needed a few extra gallons), I couldn't get the pump to start. LOL, right?
Oh, well. I'll have enough to fill the tank after 10 a.m. in Austin. Because of time, I couldn't stay and fight with an attendant who may not even be at the counter (it was, after all, approaching 4 a.m. at that time), so back to I-35 I went. When I arrived in the Austin area, my sunrise would be disrupted. Why? Patchy fog. Some places had decent skies, but other places had low visibility. No worries, though. I made do with what me and my Toyota had, so I'm satisfied, anyway. Round Rock donut holes awaited me from that legendary donut shop, and for lunch, it was Salt Lick barbecue, also in Round Rock. There are a lot a great sights to see while in Austin, with downtown, the Colorado River, the spectacular rock cuts in the Texas Hill Country, and much more. Plus, I decided to check on the progress of the new infrastructure either still under construction or already completed. U.S. Highway 183A has their new extension just completed. Nice ride.
And U.S. Highway 290 east of town is working along nicely, as the frontage roads are being built to make way for new tollway mainlanes. Central Texas travels are just fantastic, and it was just great to get Country Gold back on my car radio to go along with the great sights and landmarks. Because of high gas prices, I am unable to do it very much.Tell you what, I'm planning to go down again, hopefully, in another month. If the forecast calls for sunny skies, maybe this time, I can catch a great sunrise!
Total Comments 6
Comments
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Well, I did decide on taking that road trip well before last Saturday, but anyway...... 
Posted 11-10-2012 at 06:19 AM by case44
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We loved Austin, particularly the River Walk.Posted 11-10-2012 at 07:01 AM by LookinForMayberry
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Well, LFM, they do have walking trails next to the river that are worth the walk, but watch out for joggers. They don't have any restaurants along the river proper, but there are a lot of fabulous places closeby (on Guadalupe, South Congress, Sixth Street, Barton Springs, or South Lamar). I just hope you're not confusing that with San Antonio's famed Riverwalk, which is also worth a visit.Posted 11-10-2012 at 07:10 AM by case44
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I've listened to KOKE FM a lot recently. I also go and see Dale Watson play on a semi-regular basis.Posted 11-11-2012 at 08:56 PM by MoNative34
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You can also streamline it on your computer, Mo, and it's at kokefm.com. You'll also be interested in what I wrote a few months back about the KOKE rebirth if you'd like to peek at it.Quote:Originally Posted by MoNative34
I've listened to KOKE FM a lot recently. I also go and see Dale Watson play on a semi-regular basis.
Here's that link. https://www.city-data.com/blogs/blog3...tin-radio.html
For the record, 99.3 comes in really good in North Austin, while 98.5 covers the central and southern areas of the metro pretty well.Posted 11-12-2012 at 03:51 PM by case44
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Yeah, I was shocked when I was able to get gas for $3.08 in Lubbock that weekend.Quote:Because of high gas prices, I am unable to do it very much.
Glad you enjoyed your trip.Posted 11-15-2012 at 08:11 PM by shoe01
