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We drove in to Downtown Austin before heading out of the area. We thought we should check out the State Capitol Building - the biggest (like everything else in Texas) State Capitol Building in USA. As it was Sunday we had no traffic to contend with, found easy parking and drove around at our leisure for an hour. We then set the GPS for West. We stayed just below the 65 mph speed limit for the first part of the day and were passed by almost everything else on the road. Our destination was 550km away so we only made a few stops.
After leaving Austin the first town we came to was Johnson City, the home town of former US President Lyndon B Johnson, it was a bit of a stretch to call it a city! We didn't stop and continued through landscape dotted with vineyards and venison farms - could someone really eat those cute little deers?
Our morning tea stop was at Fredericksburg. There was a strong German influence in this town with many shops displaying Amish furniture and homewares as well as local wines. The Texan influence was also well represented by western gear - boots and Stetson hats everywhere. We checked out the price of real estate (as we often do) and decided that we could probably afford a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage house in town - but left town without purchasing anything except coffee and a muffin.
We soon joined I-10 West and the speed limit rose to 80mph so we increased our speed and were still being passed! We didn't stop again until Sonora for nachos for lunch. A unanimous decision was made not to revisit Sonora any time soon! A quick stop was made at Ozona to take a photo of the Davy Crockett Memorial where Greg sang me a verse of the song from the TV show from the 50's/60's.
We rejoined I-10 until we got to Fort Stockton, our stop for the night. We are about half way across the bottom of Texas with the rest to do tomorrow.
This morning, Monday 2nd October, we woke to the news that there had been a mass shooting in Las Vegas. A 63 year old man had shot into the crowd at a Country Music Concert, he was on the 32nd floor of The Mandalay Bay Casino. Early reports had 20 dead and 200 injured but as the day progressed, the numbers rose. As I write this (4:30pm the day after) there are 58 reported dead and more than 512 injured some of them serious. Apparently the man acted alone, had ten weapons in his room and it is not thought to be terror related. It is believed the man shot himself before Police entered his room. We have spoken to our friends Terry and Shirley Parker who are in Las Vegas and are fine. They said that most people are staying in their hotels and there is a very high police presence outside. Our thoughts are with those who have suffered today.
Today we travelled another 450 km before we reached the western border of Texas at El Paso - this city is enormous! We stopped for lunch on the eastern side of town and it took us about 40 minutes to drive to the other side of the city - and we were on freeway I-10. We stopped at a Harley Davidson Dealership where Greg bought himself a pair of jeans. This dealership claims to be the World's Largest and we think their claim just might be true.
Back on the road we continued west along the Texas Mountain Trail for another 40km before reaching the border of Texas and New Mexico. We could see Mexico as we drove along beside the Rio Grande - even saw a bit of the fence between USA and Mexico; no, not a wall but a very high black wire fence. Not long after crossing in to New Mexico the traffic was directed in to 2 lanes, one for cars and one for trucks. We were stopped at a border checkpoint (entirely in USA - no where near Mexico!) and had to show our passports as we were not US Citizens. All was good and we were allowed to drive on.
Our stop tonight is Deming, or as Greg described it, some bum f**k town in New Mexico. It took us 15 minutes to drive up and down every street in town and that included a stop at a Western Clothing store. We do have a lovely view of the outdoor pool from our room. Luckily our hotel has a restaurant as there is very little else in town that would tempt us to have a meal. I think it will be a cold beer and pizza for dinner tonight - could be worse I guess!
- comments
Craig and Marg Is Deeming the US equivalent of Eagleby? b***** on the lunatic in Vegas. Things like that always put a dampener on things. I think Andrew has been crying ever since seeing the cost of that Duke. Glad to see you weren't swayed by the Harleys. Wouldn't want you to return to the dark side.
Shirley So love your blogs, always gives me a laugh, so looking forward to catching up in LA