20120319 Cisco TX to Austin TX 170 miles Windy, cloudy
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We loafed for a while since we didn't want to arrive in Goldthwaite (pop 1602) early. We had told Steph & Gerry (from our Danube trip last year) we'd be there for lunch. Finally got underway into a gale wind (35 mph, gusts 41mph) coming straight at us.
It was good that we left the trailer attached to the truck last night; the truck acted as an anchor and prevented a lot of blowing around. We slept well.
I found my new iPhone 4 was telling me “No SIM Card” and had no phone service. So I used D's phone to call AT&T. They tried various things to bring it back to life remotely but finally had to refer me to an Austin AT&T store to get the SIM card replaced.
There was no way we were going to travel fast into the wind, so we just loafed along. We called Steph & Gerry – they told us they'd meet us at a certain restaurant. As we came into town, they called to say that place was closed but to proceed to it anyway – they'd drive from there. We went there and parked.
They drove to a nice Tex-mex place and we had a fine lunch while chatting about travels and kids and Baylor basketball and lots of other things. They're huge Baylor basketball fans and Steph is chairperson of the Booster Club this year. Now, there are booster clubs and other booster clubs, but when Steph said their's has around 1,200 members we paid attention.
Then they took us on a tour of the county, including a stop at the Regency suspension bridge over the Colorado River. See photo's at this link; the Historic Landmark sign spells out the history and the others show the river and the bridge. It's interesting to me that the suspension cables (one on each side) are made of extruded wires bundled together rather than twisted small wires bundled.
We saw all sorts of cattle and sheep and goats. Goldthwaite is the “Goat Meat Capital of the World (or Texas)”. Goldthwaite is luckier than some other small towns in that it is on the short-cut route for travel from west Texas on I-30 to cut down to Austin. Most of the buildings were occupied.
Finally, we had to leave, so they dropped us at the trailer and after good-byes and more laughs, we headed south again.
We found “civilization” some 30 miles north of Austin and followed US-183 into the city, taking the toll-road, then Texas Loop 1. Then the GPS dumped us into downtown Austin so I got a chance to try city street driving with trailer, including two-lane turns. I didn't kill anyone.
We found the funky little trailer park (Pecan Grove RV Park) that everyone wants to get into and checked in. They only keep 10 sites for transients, so we were lucky when we called right after another person had cancelled. Bryant and Susan say it's in the hip section of town, so for a change, we're “in”. We set up the trailer while Bryant & Susan drove down.
They took us in the car about 300 yards to Shady Grove, a restaurant with Tex-Mex and burgers and things. We each had sangria margaritas, then had various foods, all of which were good. We talked of the happenings in Manassas and trips upcoming, and things we can do here. We paid for two more nights than we reserved (the site was open for that many) so we can do more; the rains tomorrow might wash it out. Both Bryant and Susan are very happy in this place and we're happy they're happy.
We went back to our little house and compared their Apple iPad 3's with D's Apple iPad. D wants the new one. Guess we'll have to find the Apple Store.
One other “thing” going on here is the saying, “Keep Austin Weird”.
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