Texas Is Big

This morning the sky was over cast and it was misting but it didn't take much to get me out of my sleazy hotel room near the beltway in Houston. I took the route 290 through Austin intersecting with Interstate 10 near Segovia a couple hundred miles down the road. To get onto 290 from the beltway, I traveled on a three tier overpass that took me high above the city. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It was a rush climbing the steep curved highway and coming back down into the city.

I stopped for breakfast in Chappell Hill and it was like going back in time. The tables were covered with red and white checkered vinyl table clothes and the windows were trimmed with matching curtains. An old Coca Cola emblem hung on the wall near the 1950's cash register. Bar stools were in front of a long counter. A young family sat at the table next to mine. The father was wearing a black cowboy hat, denim shirt, Wrangler jeans, a leather belt with silver stars, and cowboy boots with silver buckles. His toddler son was dress almost the identical minus the hat. The cafe had a strong mesquite smell that hit me when I walked in the door. I had a nice Texas breakfast of eggs, ham, grits and a bisquet.

The ride on 290 took me through the hill country. The boggy swamp near the Louisiana Texas boarder turned to desert with scrubby trees, bushes and cactus. Cattle were grazing near an oil derick. Where 290 joined Interstate 10, the geography changed to plateaus. Wind generators were mount on the top of some of the plateaus and the giant rotors where spinning slowly.

The speed on the interstate was posted at 80 mph. Houston to Fort Stockton-500 miles. That's a lot of miles on a motorcycle.