Texas Round-up

Yup partner - these pages are normally called "wrap-ups," but because this trek was to Texas "round-up" seems more appropriate.  Below is an interactive map showing our route and various stops along the way. If you're ever planning a road trip to Texas, especially through west Texas, prepare to drive long Texas-sized distances. In fact as far as states go, only Alaska has Texas beat on the wide opens spaces between points of interest.

Tip: fuel up when you can especially in west Texas. I once made the mistake of trying to skip on to the next town for gas between Fort Stockton and Van Horne and barely made it. My poor car was running on fumes by the time it choked it's way up to a gas pump.




I've been to Texas many times to visit relatives, so my expectations for sightseeing were low with the attitude "been there, done that."  WRONG - some of the most amazing places we've ever seen are in Texas.  Below are our three top favorites:

	Caverns of Sonora  While we were on the road, fellow travelers Leslie and Al recommended seeing the Caverns of Sonora. Turned out, it was one of our best experiences ever - ranking right up there with flightseeing over Denali. If you are interested in an amazing underground experience take the tour of these caverns and skip Carlsbad altogether.
	Big Bend Texas Although I had passed through Big Bend many years ago, this trip we had the opportunity to explore it more fully. Spring is a great season to visit. We lucked out in hitting one of the best wildflower blooms in many years. Next time we'd like to bring a 4WD to explore the outer reaches and also sign up to float through some of the canyons on the Rio Grand.
	Seminole Canyon Seminole Canyon was another unplanned stop which turned out to be amazing. We found the guided tour was both intriguing and fascinating to learn about the ancestors of today's Huichol tribe. Later we found out about even more paintings in this area. We hope to return and dig even deeper into Lower Pecos Archaeology.

Texas has enjoyed a much storied past. Here are a few books we can recommend:

Texas: A Novel	King Ranch Story
Moon Texas	Texas State Parks & Historical Sites

Recommended Texas based movies

Last Picture Show

Boyhood

Giant

Blood Simple

No Country for Old Men

Lone Star

Some of my favorite Texas tunes:

This song makes me miss my grandfather and riding around San Antonio in his truck:



This tune puts a smile on my face about returning to San Antonio:

 

... and my absolute favorite:



Humm - maybe on our next trip, we'll fly into Austin and listen to music in the local honky tonks.

Ya'll come back! Ya' hear?