Yesterday’s post had a warning for vegetarians. Unfortunately today’s is no better – in fact if you are a vegetarian you are possibly better off going elsewhere. There are going to be at least a couple of “beef” references today.
I had intended to give you some vital statistics about our trip but I keep forgetting.
Day 1 we travelled about 14,000km although I admit that it was mostly at around 40,000 feet and I watched movies and tried to nap most of the time.
Day 2 we had The Don and we travelled from Fort Worth to Waco, and travelled about 120 miles.
Today started as a beautiful clear day under glorious blue Texan skies in Waco. We stayed at the Knights Bridge Suites – probably the only night on our trip that we are not staying at an AirBnB … mainly because of the TV show “Fixer Upper”.
Chip and Joanna Gaines run several businesses in Waco and they have a show flipping houses for people. While they have done lots of good things for the local economy and tourism in Waco, unfortunately it seems that everyone that has had a house flipped has it listed on AirBnB for exorbitant prices – hence the motel.
Like most motels around the USA, the Knights Bridge Suites offers a complimentary continental breakfast, so we decided to partake.
You would expect that the fact there was nobody else in the dining room should have sounded the first warning alarm … but we boldly went ahead anyway.
I had a bowl of raisin bran (yum, fibre!) and MBW had a bowl of instant oats … and then we looked at the coffee machine … and then we looked at the packets of preservatives cleverly shaped like muffins and wrapped in plastic … and we decided to head over to Magnolia for coffee instead.
We packed up The Don and headed over nice and early to beat the crowds … sigh.
The first warning alarm should have been the fact that we were ushered into queue lines and entry was being granted by a Magnolia team member, just a few people at a time.
Now I know how cattle feel when they are being herded onto a truck!
MBW purchased the obligatory cupcake and then we went over to the coffee shop.
More queue lines 🙁
But the coffee was good, my choc chip cookie was delicious AND the size of a dinner plate, and we had a nice chat with Courtney whose house appeared in Season 1 of Fixer Upper. (I’m actually unsure of the significance of having a house in Season 1 and happening to be in the coffee shop, but I sense it is somehow a badge of honour …?)
By the time we’d had coffee, the silo gift shop was open and we thought we’d have a look before the crowds turned up.
They have a special on at Magnolia at the moment where if you spend $75 in one transaction, you get a free coffee mug. We got two coffee mugs and if we had been a little more careful about how we divided up our purchases into lots of $75, we probably could have got a third.
Enough said.
After spending a small fortune contributing to the Chip and Joanna Gaines empire, we thought it was only proper that we use their rest rooms and enjoy their outdoors area.
By this time we were ready to head down to San Antonio via Austin … so we got on the interstate, pointed The Don south, wound him up to 80mph and I set the cruise control.
I know that I had a bit of a rant yesterday about the roads and drivers here, but the interstates are really quite amazing. The entrances and exits are designed in such a way that you rarely need to drop below 80mph to enter, exit, and merge across various roads.
One of the challenges though is that you are often presented with a wide number of lane options, and the GPS instructions are long and confusing … leaving you with not a great deal of time to make an important decision about what lane to be in, when you are doing 80mph and surrounded by other vehicles going much faster than you are …
… so we ended up on an exit that we didn’t want to be on, and in a lane that we didn’t want to be in, and not really sure where we were going. The GPS was having trouble recalculating the route fast enough as we lurched from exit to exit to freeway entrance again …
So I stopped, counted to 5, and did a U-turn to try again.
Remember yesterday I told you about having a dirty big Chevy badge attached to a dirty big radiator grill in my rear view mirror? Well I had exactly the same experience again today … except that the Chevy badge and radiator grill were not in my rear view mirror, but rather right in front of me.
It seems that one of us was going the wrong way up a one-way freeway entrance … and I suspect that it was me because I was the one that seemed to be going a different direction to everyone else 🙁
The GPS was strangely silent on instructions, as I suspect that she knew I was doing something seriously wrong but was not programmed to know what to do about it!
We finally made it to Austin in time for a super-late lunch. The place to have BBQ lunch in Austin TX is Terry Black’s BBQ, and it was goooood!
Now I know what you are thinking – that is a disgusting display of gluttony, and I’d normally agree with you … except it was soooo gooood!
On the plate is brisket, pork ribs, ‘slaw, potato salad, and cornbread. Yum!
I have never seen so much smoked meat being carved up in my life. Seriously, they must smoke that beef by the herd!
We finished lunch, put ourselves back into The Don and started heading onwards to San Antonio. We had a brief stop at Starbucks for caffeine to offset the effects of eating too much, and continued on our way.
I know that I keep banging on about the interstates, but I cannot express enough how unsettling it is to be sitting on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, doing 80mph with trucks beside you (see above), and the GPS giving really complex instructions like “stay in the middle two lanes” when you are on a three lane interstate. Which are the middle two of three lanes?
I know that I also keep banging on about how fast the other cars go. There was one time today on our way between Austin TX and San Antonio TX where I was in the fast lane sitting behind a Ford Mustang and stuck in some slower traffic – we were only doing about 75mph …. when the traffic in front of the Mustang dispersed and he (I assume it was a he) put his foot down and the Mustang took off like it was rocket propelled, and he simply disappeared like a fart in a fan factory.
So anyway we made it to San Antonio and checked into our AirBnB and then went off in search of the river walk in downtown.
I thought that it might be good if we tried talking like Texans to try and blend in more. It’s not that hard, you just keep saying “y’all”, like “are y’all having a good time?”
I thought it was a great idea, but MBW not so much. In fact I think that her exact words were “stop talking like that, you sound stupid.”
Me: “Hey, I’m sorry y’all”.
Anyhow I need to wrap this up as we have a long drive tomorrow from San Antonio TX to Lafayette Louisiana so we have an early start.
Google Maps reckons that’s about a 6.5 hour drive … but I think I can get that down a bit if I get The Don up to 120mph …
Today’s song is an oldie but a goodie and really needs no explanation.
The video clip is not so much a music video, but rather a part of a movie for your enjoyment: Deep in the Heart of Texas (Gene Autry & Smilie Burnette – from Heart of the Rio Grande – 1942)
Ciao
#G&KTAKEUSA2019