Texas back roads
They wended their way through the backroads of the Texas Hill Country. Everything had been great right up until she realised they were crossing the Colorado River.
OMG Stop, Betty! Pulling over to the side of the road and jumping out of the car and opening the camera app on her phone she inadvertently shut down Google Maps. That’s when it all went a little sideways.
After a little time exploring around the river they got back on the road. Looking for the road to follow using Google maps she soon realised she had no cell reception, the app just displayed a white screen with a little blue dot shining brightly in the middle of it.
‘Oh well I’m pretty sure we just follow this road, then there was something about a state highway with a 93 in it, or was that 97? Let’s just keep going and see where we get to’, she thought. ‘If it comes down to it, I can sleep in the back of Black Betty. It’s not like sleeping in the back of a Jeep is new to me, and she’s a brand spanking new one’. Black Betty was the distantly related Texas based stand in for Jack, the woman’s usual trusty companion.
A couple of days travelling a little further than usual and through a few timezones had left her sense of direction a little off, not that it was ever that crash hot anyway. Being lost, or rather, just flying a little blind wasn’t all that unusual without her trusty sat nav device…currently sitting back in Western Australia.
Driving through the granite hills and ravines of the Texas Hill Country she could easily imagine cowboys of the Wild West era galloping through the deep ravines, riding hard to get through before any potential ambushes could start a gun fight. It was the perfect space for ambushes to be conducted at random depending on who the prey might be.
Being this close to the Mexican border, the area would have been a little hot action-wise back in the day. If not for the ribbon-like roads leading the way through the hilly landscape, one could easily think they were back in those far gone times.
In that, there were similarities to the to the Australian and the New Zealand backroads she was more familiar with. Beautiful wildflowers covering the grassy roadsides, many same or similar plants, granite rock and a pale pink-ish dust instead of there deep red of the Aussie outback or the ,mid to deep browns of the New Zealand back roads.
While the evolution and progression of human-kind had changed much of society’s landscape, it was still so easy to see the physical landscape as it had been, and envision that those who lived in the past were still roaming now.
After a few wrong turns and a very scenic drive around Mason County - a very pretty piece of Texas with very helpful & friendly people, she finally spied her hotel for the night up ahead. On first impressions, while it was cheap and literally just a bed for the night, she wondered whether sleeping in the back of the Jeep might be a better option.
The motel was a long flat building that could easily have existed back in the good ole days of cowboys riding around the Wild West. Or a stagecoach inn lodging travellers in the middle of nowhere for the night.
The Inn
‘They came galloping up out of the ravine, looking around for any signs of ambush or danger. The inn lay up ahead, low and flat against the backdrop of granite hills and steep canyons. Just a solitary building planted firmly atop a rocky plateau, out in the elements with little cover
Keeping a sharp eye out for any threats they cautiously approached the inn, and checked in for the night.
While the room was sparsely furnished, it was clean and functional, and entirely in keeping with the whole western theme theme that was running through her head.
A quick visit to a local music festival where local residents in Stetsons danced with their partners to music played by a visiting band from Arkansas was a nice warm n fuzzy way to end the day.
After an uneventful night’s sleep the newly met travel companions hit the road again, the final leg of this section of their epic road trip through Texas, USA.
