Austin Texas

The Capital building in Austin, Texas.

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The Texas Capital is beautiful.

Seen from a distance it is a remarkable shade of dusty pink,

officially known as Sunset Red granite.

Texans claim the building is 16 feet taller than the U.S. Capital.

The statue of the lovely lady on top of the dome is the Goddess of Liberty.

She is holding in her raised hand a (what else?) star.

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This is Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, and it's not a lake but a river.

(They also have a couple of highways here called Loops that don't loop anything.)

The unofficial city motto is Keep Austin Weird.

I don't see a problem with that.

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There are walking and bike trails along the river, and you can rent kayaks and canoes.

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I assume you can also rent inflatable swan paddle boats if you don't feel like bringing your own.

This is the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin.

It's famous for having the largest urban bat colony in the United States.

One and a half million bats spend the summer under this bridge, consuming 10-15 tons of insects nightly. When they take flight at sunset they tell me it draws a lot of spectators.

I missed the display by three weeks, dang it!

The bats left for Mexico the first of November,

as they dislike cold weather as much as John and I do.

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I didn't see this guy until I was right above him and I gotta admit he really startled me. I assumed he was homeless but then noticed the sign on the back of his jacket.

It says he is one of the 99%.

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Geeze, I hope it's not the same 99% I'm in.

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Right across the street was the Occupy Austin group.

This is the Clock Tower at Texas University.

When the Longhorns win, like they did last night, the tower is lit in orange.

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This is the same tower where, in 1966, a sniper shot at random people for 90 minutes

before police gained control of the observation deck. The shooting was broadcast live, and local citizens showed up with guns. After this shooting police departments all over America began forming SWAT teams. The shooter left a note asking that he have a autopsy after his death and a brain tumor was found.

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Austin is built on the line where the "Hill Country" begins. This was taken just

Northwest of the downtown area close to Austin's oldest tourist attraction - Mount Bonnell.

At 775 feet high it's a big draw here.

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Still in the same neighborhood, and close to the high income homes in Austin.

Some of the well known locals include Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Dell - the founder of Dell computers.

It's also close to the home of Richard Garriott, the Internet game developer who bought the first ticket sold to travel in space. In 2001 he lost everything in the dot.com bust and sold his ticket to another man.

In 2007 he had recovered enough to pay $30 million for another ticket and became the sixth space "tourist".

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Austin hasn't had the recession problems of most of America. The local economy is heavy in technology and has done well. There are so many techno wizards here that the area has the nickname "Silicone Hills. Our tour guide swore that there is a non-stop flight from here to the Silicone Valley known as the "Nerd Bird", but the local techies prefer the term Geek.

The Austin Visitor's Center is in the former Grove Pharmacy.

Cool, huh?

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This is on 6th Street, the heart of the "Live Music Capital of the World".

The street is lined on both sides with clubs for what seems like a mile.

Note that the Christmas lights are guitars.

Austin claims to have over 200 clubs with live music, and I believe 'em.

Some of the places are huge and some small.

They play all kinds of music from country to hip-hop.

Carlos Santana owns a club here,"Maria Maria".

Sixth Street with the Bat Bar on the left.

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Still Sixth Street, with Austin's tallest building in the background on the left.

It's a condo, and the ones on the top go for $5 million.

I'm guessing the owners don't go to Hoek's Death Metal Pizza.

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My favorite sign, finger included at no charge.

We are in Waco, Texas - the proud home of

Dr Pepper!

A pharmacist here made Dr Pepper in the 1870s, and it was first called "a Waco".

The museum is small but well done and interesting.

When the company began to seriously produce the soft drink the most important ingredient was clean water. They had to dig their own well to insure a proper supply.

Using the original building for the museum, and knowing a well was on the property, they began the search for the well.

Looking in the mirror over my head you can see down the well.

The well has been cleared to 27 feet, but it went deeper when new.

Excavating the well they found lots of old tools and bottles.

Supposedly Waco was settled by Native Americans because of springs in the area, so most wells dug would have been successful.

This suspension bridge was a huge success when opened in 1870. The only way to cross the Brazos River for miles; the toll bridge was open to stage coaches, pedestrians and live stock.

A view of the Brazos from the suspension bridge.

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The same engineer later built the Brooklyn Bridge.

Showing the cattle being herded over the bridge, this was a part of the Chisom Trail.

All the steers are carrying the Waco "brand".

Ten miles outside of Waco is another landmark.

Guess what the photo below shows.

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It looks insignificant now, but this is the site of the Branch Davidian Compound.

The siege and consequent fire caused so much turmoil in our country.

On the 2 year anniversary of the fire, the Oklahoma City bombing shocked and saddened us again.

I don't think there's any clear way to see this. There is enough blame and pity to spread over everyone involved.

Let's pray we've learned from this, and never do anything like this to each other again.

Headed to Texas

The night before we left.

Jeff, Coen and Amber stopping by.

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The younger man I'm in love with.

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Winston lays on the back of the sofa with his head on my shoulder while I read.

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We have stopped in Waco Texas for 2 days.

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By now most of the residents of the park are long timers.

Many of those people personalize their sites, like the one below.

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As you can see this area has been added to - a golf cart, grill, bird feeders and planters -

A Harley parked in front,

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plus

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A coffin???????????

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O K, that's a first!

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There's no way I can walk away from this!

I went to the office and asked for the story behind the casket.

The woman in the office was stunned and had to have it pointed out.

I hooked up Bella and walked her down the street, discovering that the coffin is a trailer.

Still something I've never seen before; a casket with brake lights.

Oops!

This is an electric box; what RVers plug in to to get the blender to work.

No electricity - no daiquiris.

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It's a vital part of camping comfort.

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That thing about making sure the breakers are off is pretty important too.

I blew up a $100 land line once. The snap crackle pop was mighty impressive!

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There's a box at every parking site of course - even the sites that aren't in use.

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We arrived at a place with really small camp sites, so the next row over was available for overflow parking. I proudly backed the motorcycle trailer in a space. That little trailer is so short it jack-knifes in no time, so I consider it a triumph when I can maneuver it in. It wasn't real straight but it was THERE!

After unhooking the fifth wheel John backed the dually in.

As he was moving back he heard a noise; something he'd driven over he thought; so he kept backing up carefully keeping an eye in the mirror and avoiding the car and motorcycle.

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What he didn't avoid was the electric box.

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Here John autographs the box he bought.

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He actually got a good deal. The $500 box was $197 plus a bottle of Jack Daniel's.

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The truck was a different story.

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The entire passenger side needed repair to the tune of $2000.

This was by far the most expensive R V park we've ever stayed in.

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While the truck was being repaired we went to the local Walmart in the car.

You know those motorized robot "mules" they use to take the carts back to the store?

A guy steers the mule by remote control while a long line of carts snake across the lot.

Well, it doesn't always work as well as you'd hope.

The front passenger side of my car got hit by a bunch o' carts on the fly.

John thinks the guy did it on purpose, but I think he was just simple-minded.

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I base my belief on the fact that his expression never changed, even when Purple-faced John jumped out of the car and began to question his family habits.

I don't believe that man understood that he'd done anything wrong, but most of the people within the range of John's voice certainly understood HE was upset.

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We can laugh about it now.

Just not real loud or long.

It's more of a chuckle.

Happy Halloween!

ALVIN!!!!

I remember working on Amber's costumes for weeks, and she made this one for Coen in no time!

A yellow felt "A" on a red hoodie!

I worked on a latch hook lion's mane forever!

Halloween is a HUGE deal at Amber's house.

The whole neighborhood gets up for it with decorations and parties.

The Saturday night before Halloween the adults get together for their costume party.

The party moves from house to house, ending in a neighborhood bar called Twisters where the costume contest happens. This year the winning neighbors were Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, but the bar winner was Snookie.

Luckily for Snookie my grandson Coen is under age.