Driving Through Texas

We finally are here in San Antonio! We have been driving for two days and most of the miles were in the state of Texas. We spent a lot of time in Colorado but that was because we had to drive down Cameron Pass with no snow tires on icy roads and then drive through Fort Collins, Denver, and Colorado Springs. Anyway... We have spent some time driving in Texas over the past few years and I am so impressed with how the scenery changes as we are driving. I am one that loves to look out the windows and "get into" my surroundings. I also love driving through towns and cities and viewing the types of buildings and wondering how it would be to live there.

Up around Dalhart last night we could smell smoke for miles and miles. It smelled like burnt hay or some kind of grass. It was very irritating to my breathing and even my eyes. I wondered how people could stand to live around there if this was something they had to put up with every year at this time. It was dark and we could not see any fires burning. I am left wondering what was going on!

When we got to Amarillo we planned to stay there overnight. We got on a wrong turn off and wandered around town for quite a while. We saw some different parts of town and finally drove through the downtown area without finding any place to stay that interested us. We had about decided to go on toward Lubbock when we found a satisfactory place to stay.

The next day we drove through miles and miles of cotton fields. Bob was very impressed with this farm country. It was flat as a pancake! We saw no oil wells in this part of Texas! Then we were in an area of scrubby trees and pretty desolate looking land. It was not quite as flat and not many houses or farms. Then came farm land again and ranches with cattle and sheep and lots of oil wells! Finally we were in the hill country. It is beautiful and the towns are picturesque with lovely old homes, antique shops, and museums. San Antonio is right on the edge of the hill country.

We have driven between Dallas and San Antonio and it is a whole different landscape. There are two towns I really liked. One is Glen Rose, which a man I dubbed Mr. Texas Chamber of Commerce, recommended to us on our cruise and the other is Hico a very small town not far from Glen Rose. They are my kind of towns in a very pretty part of Texas. I could live in either one of those towns.

We have taken the southern route from San Antonio to Houston and then east to the border. Again with a changing landscape. The Houston/Galvaston area was still quite devastated by hurricane IKE when we drove though last year. One of the most interesting things I learned was that the last milepost before we left Texas was 875 (or maybe even a few more miles! My memory is not as good as it used to be.) I hope to get some pictures from around here to post later. That's it for tonight, I'm too tired to make much sense!