Texas attractions

Good bye Austin, New Orleans here we come

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We said goodbye to family this morning and headed east. Our original plan was to drive to Lake Charles, Louisiana and stay at a casino tonight. On the way we made some cool stops, saw some neat things, and we ended up deciding to stop at the Rio RV Park again for the night. (See our review of Rio RV here.)

Burton, Texas train depot. Built in 1898 to the specifications of the Southern Pacific Railroad, this structure replaced the original from 1870 that had burned.

Neat old building with signage stating “Burton Auto Co.”. Might have been an early gas station.

Burton Farmers (Cotton) Gin built in 1914. Originally steam powered, it continued in operation until 1974.

New Mural in Brenham, Texas

Detail of mural painting

Built in 1870 for prominent banker, lawyer and landowner Jabez Giddings, this historic mansion in Brenham is known as the Giddings-Stone house.

This First Watch restaurant in Austin gets a big thumbs up

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There are First Watch restaurants all over the country. Tagged as “The Daytime Cafe” these upscale eateries are open for breakfast and brunch only, with the Northcross location in Austin open from 7:00 am until 2:30 pm daily.

CHILLED PEAR CIDER
Red Anjou pear, Fuji apple, organic
ginger, lemon and cinnamon

The service was excellent. We hit the door at a great time, about 9:30 am, and were immediately seated. The coffee was strong and hot. Sher enjoyed a local menu specialty drink: the chilled pear cider was made with Red Anjou pear, Fuji apple, organic ginger, lemon and cinnamon.

CINNAMON ROLL WAFFLE topped with cinnamon syrup, cream cheese frosting, toasted
pecans and cinnamon powdered sugar

The food was served in good time, and was hot when delivered. The pancakes I had were huge, and the eggs cooked to perfection with the fried potatoes. Our son had a Chimichanga with fried potatoes and fruit. Sher had the Cinnamon Roll Waffle, complete with cinnamon syrup, cream cheese frosting and more.

MULTI-GRAIN PANCAKES that were huge, topped with a couple of fried eggs and a side of seasoned potatoes

We highly recommend the Austin Northcross location of First Watch. The staff is great, the ambiance is inviting and the food is excellent! Visit the First Watch local website here for directions and other information.

Happy New Year 2018

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We are currently in Texas visiting family in the Austin area. Tonight, New Year’s Eve, we all are in San Antonio. We have had a great time, even though the temperatures are in the 30’s with wind chills (yes, the pesky wind chills we thought we were leaving behind in the north) in the low 20’s.

Glad we brought some cold weather clothing!

Shopping and eateries along the River Walk

We have had a fun day, even though it was a very chilly day! We were able to take the boat ride on the San Antonio River. It was fun shopping at the many places along the River Walk, and of course we visited the Alamo, site of the famous battle that ultimately led to Texas gaining its freedom from Mexico.

The boat rides on the San Antonio river

Pretty view of the River Walk with a pedestrian bridge

Happy New Year 2018 to all of our online friends! We appreciate our fellow bloggers and our fellow RVers. A lot of you fit into both categories quite nicely. We wish all of you the best for 2018. Have a successful, safe and blessed year, friends!

The Alamo

Continued journey from Texarkana to Austin

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We had another chilly night, this time in Texarkana. We hit the road again mid morning heading along I-30 towards Dallas. I was surprised to see the interstate speed limit of 75 MPH. I never run our RV at that speed, but I did run a little faster than our normal 60!

In front of the massive Dallas Historical Society

We really had a great time when we stopped at Dallas after we spotted the Cotton Bowl from the street. What we found when we turned in that direction was the Fair Park, a huge area filled with tons of different things to see. The plaza was built for the 1936 Texas Centennial World’s Fair and featured large statues and buildings honoring the six countries whose flags have flown over Texas.

Fair Park Plaza with Dallas skyline in the background

There was a butterfly exhibit in one of the science buildings.

One of the many pretty water features

We saw a neat Christmas lights/celebration set up along a large pond system. Bet that this is very impressive at night. Some of the buildings were closed, some were open, and there were very few people in the park. Otherwise, we would not have been able to drive our RV through the park! We met a nice dad who was there with his two kids and two dogs. He snapped the photos of us in front of the Dallas Historical Society building, and told us of the history of Fair Park.

We spotted this from the street and found Fair Park. This is the original Cotton Bowl

We finished today’s journey when we got to our family’s place in Austin. A great ending to a great day!

McLean Texas on historic Route 66

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IMG_3971McLean, Texas is one of the many towns on Historic Route 66 that harken back to the pre-interstate days of cross country travel. On our way from Tucson back to Indiana we stopped at McLean. Without knowing what to expect, we just drove around this small community.

The old Avalon Theatre front caught our eye. When we stopped and looked in the chained and locked front doors we could see that the entire roof had collpased. It was easy to imagine crowds waiting to buy tickets and see a movie back in the days.

 

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There is a really cool restored Phillips 66 gas station in town. The Devils Rope Museum celebrates the history of barbed wire. Unfortunatley it was closed the day we drove by.

According to the 2010 census the current population of McLean is 778. The town is on Business 40 at mile marker 142 on I-40 east of Amarillo.