Driving rural Texas roads

[catman]

TexasNick: Excellent post. I love that route! Especially on a motorcycle (I know exactly what you mean, GoTexan). Mineral Wells to San Antonio is a nice ride until you get into SA. The area around Blanco is truly special.

[doss1]

Thanks, there's also an unusually large number of land and homes for sale on that route now.

[Back2TX]

I agree... I loved reading your post too. My husband and I took a few back roads today in East Texas (hwy 80 and hwy69.) I loved it... beautiful pine trees lining the roads with a nice scent of pine. We pulled over and bought some home grown peaches and tomatoes. Ahhh... so nice to be living back in Texas.

[case44]

Originally Posted by Back2TX

I agree... I loved reading your post too. My husband and I took a few back roads today in East Texas (hwy 80 and hwy69.) I loved it... beautiful pine trees lining the roads with a nice scent of pine. We pulled over and bought some home grown peaches and tomatoes. Ahhh... so nice to be living back in Texas.

I really love those East Texas roads. U.S. Highway 69 is a special drive going into Tyler. And there's also FM 14 north of Tyler, which takes you past Tyler State Park. You pick almost anything in that region, and chances are you'll see lots of pine trees and experience the real beauty of East Texas.

It's always great to get off the interstate every once in a while.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

Thanks, there's also an unusually large number of land and homes for sale on that route now.

That was a great post TexasNick...and some very good writing to go with it!

*rueful smile* A couple of weeks ago a good friend and I went out "driving in the country." He and I grew up together, and he is also my realtor, and we just decided to put a six-pack in the cooler and go cruisin along some of those old country roads where we used to hunt and fish (sometimes "jumping tanks!" LOL).

And yeah...we remembered them as excellent places to take your date and "go parking" (do the kids today even know what that expression means...? )

Anyway, as you say TN, the area has grown up and suburban style houses are all over the land where there was once nothing but open prarie and belts of oak trees along the creek bottoms. Nothing like I remembered, and it wistfully occured to me that we never should have taken the trek. But preferred to remember it as it once was...

What was that old song by Joe South? Don't It Make You Want To Go Home"...?

But there's a six lane highway down by the creek
Where I went skinny dippin' as a child

And the drive-in show where the meadow used to grow And
the strawberries used to grow wild

There's a drag strip down by the riverside where my grandma's cow
used to graze

Now the grass don't grow and the river don't flow like it did in the childhood days...

Don't it make you wanna go home now... Don't it
make you wanna go home...don't it make you wanna go
home

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by TexasNick

Hey folks,
It was a good day to be driving from Blanco to San Antonio today. I fixed a blown gasket in my old Jeep and I decided to go for a spin around the backroads (FM473) after visiting some friends in Wimberley. Gosh, what beautiful country! The ruby red sun was setting low off in the distance and I had the whole ranch road to myself with my windows down and ol' Don Gibson singing "Sea of heartbreak" on the radio waves. Horses and cattle grazed the lush green fields with gently rolling hills rising out in the distance and becoming softer as they reached out into the horizon.

It had been a while since I've seen a live armadillo and I finally had my chance to get close to one...except that he decided to jaywalk across the road while I was going 65mph....nothing scares an armadillo. NOTHING. I nearly flipped the Jeep by trying to swerve around him...and I wasn't sure if I had run over him. I immediately checked my six on the rearview mirror and noticed him spinning on his back in a circle, and, get this, he jumped back up and walked back across the road like a drunken sailor. He was almost road kill today.

Further down the road, I noticed 2 cowboys on horseback trotting down the road shoulder. I saluted and they returned the gesture by waving their cowboy hats at me. I wondered if they were riding horses to save gas and so I checked my fuel tank and noticed I was dangerously low despite having filled the tank earlier that day.

When I got on 281, I was shocked by the level of traffic. It seems each year it gets worse. As I pulled onto the highway, I nearly collided with a knucklehead in a black beemer that overran a stop sign. I honked like hell and noticed an OBAMA 08 "Believe in Change" bumper sticker planted on the back as she sped by trying to act like nothing happened. "Change"...yea....it's inevitably coming.

Further down the road near Spring Branch, I noticed a patrol car with its lights on and he was driving fast...BACKWARDS. Turns out the sheriff was trying to corner a disoriented young calf near the fence and prevent him from running across the highway and becoming hamburger meat. It was funny watching several F250 trucks pull off to the side of the road to assist the sheriff...each driver had a ten gallon hat and boots. Yea, we don't have a shortage of wranglers around here.

Wish I had a camera to take some photos that day. Note to self: Always take a camera along with you no matter what, even if you are just going to the grocery store. You never know what you will see!

You ought to get a blog going and write these types of entries on a regular basis. Loved it! BTW since moving from CA last November my favorite pastime is driving the rural roads in TX. Screw the price of gas!

[austinnetx]

A few years ago I was touring the hill country on that same route, window down, fresh breeze blowing the scent of bluebonnets across my face. Off in the distance, a farmer was cutting hay, its scent joining the flowers to make my smile broader.

Then I came around a little hill and hundreds of big, cow-roadkill fat black buzzards blackened the blue sky. In unison they vomited the rotten remains from their stomach onto my car. Sheets of gizzard juice whitened out my windshield and I felt thick gobbety wetness splashed across my arms and chest. I screamed in horror when all I could see were wiggling maggots on me and the glass as I careened off the road, through the fence, and into the freshly mowed hay. I rolled to a stop and rolled from the car, retching my DQ-chili dog onto the ground.

The hay farmer let me clean up at his place. He even put my clothes in his burn barrel.