The Texas Visit Part One

The airport in Austin is quite a bit smaller than Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Dixon O'Malley Rawlings Blake D'Alesandro Schaefer Schmoke Kweisi International in Baltimore. One thing I found strange was that it appears to have a huge amount of parking lots.......probably more. Everything went smoothly even though there was quite a bit of wind for some reason. We arrived later in the day, but the temperature had been 91 degrees earlier! Imagine that!.......91 degrees in late February...............I do not even want to think of how hot it will be in the summer months in Texas. Aside from absolutely clear blue skies and a bit of wind, the first thing I cannot help but notice is the air................it is clean air........not like Baltimore air. Call this trip a fact finding mission to see where my daughter is now living and raising a family. I was not happy that she moved so far away................I was even more disturbed that she relocated to an area that I was unfamiliar with. Oh well..........the world keeps spinning and life goes on......there ain't much I can do about it. I cannot blame them for wanting a decent existence away from a place such as Baltimore. Even though there is much I love about Baltimore, I can understand why people leave it.

Anyway...........we leave the airport in Austin and head northwest to an area known as Leander...............you can call it one of those "bedroom communities" outside Austin. From my observation, there is less traffic........well maintained roadways...........very efficient toll roads to save travel time..............and very noticeably less police vehicles roaming about. I mention the police vehicles because you cannot leave my house and not see a police car within a few moments. We seem to have a plethora of cops yet the crime rates are always rising.............hmmmm........as I think about it, I have forgotten that in Texas......people are still allowed to have guns to protect themselves. Besides........I have come to the conclusion that we have alot of police patrolling around in order to get a grasp on those who do not wear seatbelts. Surely you must know that there is money involved...........yep.......as in fines for not wearing the seatbelt............almighty revenue.........the other form of taxation.........highway robbery..........gee.....with all of that revenue they could.........well........they could hire some more cops and catch some more seatbelt law violators.........after all.........O'Malley has this "structural deficit" that has to be dealt with......hehehe. Gosh I love Maryland.

So we get off of the highway and hit the smaller roads.........and I still have not seen one cop car........but I have seen a shitload of Ron Paul campaign signs everywhere. They seem to love him here.........somehow I think it is drug-related..........well.........from what I hear about Austin is that there seem to be many libertarian hippie types hanging out here. I suppose I would fit in rather well here actually.......hehehe.

The other thing I notice is that this place reminds me of Florida quite a bit............maybe because of the view of the horizon...........it is all flat, it appears. Keep in mind, I have no idea where my daughter lives or what it looks like...........and the road I am on is making me hear banjo music, if you know what I mean......hehehe.

My eyes were looking everywhere and I noticed this odd thing. Maybe it is not odd for you, but where I come from, our traffic lights hang down.............red on top, amber in the middle, green on the bottom...........but not here. This would take some getting used to for me.

Also, I can see alot of undeveloped property that is soon to be developed. It is obvious that this is a growing area. In the picture you can see the train tracks...............which will be used for commuters who work in Austin. Ahhhhhh...........I like the fact that they seem to be planning ahead.

I don't know about you, but when I saw this, I had all sorts of stuff running through my mind.
Banjo music.............people with leather faces and chainsaws running down that road..........people screaming..............nahhhhh......this cannot be where my kid lives...........is it?

Look at that sky!..........Maybe I will get to see one of those unidentified flying objects I heard about on the news recently.........I have my camera ready!

So we head down the road a bit further, but not too far down the road.............and I am not really seeing much of anything.............hmmmm.........ok........where are we going?

The homes are out there yet they seem to be hidden.........it is a bit strange.

Ahhhhhhhh............a traffic backup because of a traffic light!............this makes me feel right at home! Seriously, though........this light is not as long as the lights near my home in Baltimore.

At this point, I am starting to see indications of civilization again......hehehe.

The banjo music in my head is fading.

We make a left turn onto a side road and VOILA! We are there! THIS is where my daughter lives now. Pretty good........I feel relieved.

The lawns are a bit parched, but overall, this is a very nice community. I am very relieved...........because the bathroom was just a few steps away at this point and I had some plumbing to take care of........hehehe.

Seriously, I was very impressed with what I had seen so far. I felt good about my daughter living here in her brand new home and community. I will write further about this in another installment.........so let's move on shall we?

As it was, my son-in-law spent one day driving us around to show us the area. Not far from their home is Lake Travis. This entire area is also known as Hill Country. Imagine that......it is as flat as can be where my daughter lives, yet just down the road a piece...........hills!........and a lake!

Actually, this area is very impressive. Lake Travis was beautiful. I was told that Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaghey(sp?) both own homes here by the lake. I cannot say I blame them.

As you can see, it was very windy. In fact, that darned wind persisted throughout our entire visit.

The road winded around Lake Travis. Alot of the homes are dotted throughout the hillside.

From there, we headed into Austin and drove through town. See the statue/whateveritis?

It is a large spinning bat made of metal. Why? Well, because just around the corner is a bridge that is famous for having a gigantic population of bats that hang around underneath it. Apparently it is an attraction.

So......of course, we made a left turn at the light and headed over that bat bridge! I suppose that one of the most noticeable things about Austin is that is appears to be very clean.

.........and it also appears to be growing.

Austin is the Texas State Capitol. This is the Capitol Building. I did not get to roam around on foot in Austin and check out the various shops.......not on this trip......there will be a time for that someday in the future.

So we drove around some more and headed back to my daughter's house. We did not come to sight-see.......we came to spend time with our daughter and our new grandchild Signtopia Expansion Pack 2.1. We had some visiting to do.........and visit is what we did.

Stay tuned..........there is more to tell.