We bid adieu to family and drove 118 miles west from Spicewood to Junction, TX, through the rolling hills of the Texas Hill Country with its scrubby bushes and wide open spaces. There we saw a variety of roadkill: 7 deer, 2 skunks, 3 raccoons, 1 armadillo, 1 porcupine, 1 opossum and many more critters that were unidentifiable bits of fur, etc. (I’ll spare you the gory details).
We appreciate the familiarity of the wide open spaces of the West. It feels like home.
It’s pretty swampy in Texas at the Louisiana border on I-10. There is a comprehensive Welcome Center there with the standard state maps and travel brochures, but also some interesting interpretive info on the surrounding Blue Elbow Swamp.
We were lucky to arrive in Spicewood outside of Austin in time for our great-niece’s 6th birthday party. We had dinner at a place that pleases kids and adults alike: a play area for the kids, good beer for the adults! After that, we headed over to the Christmas Tree lighting complete with Santa Claus, the Chick fil-A cow, cookies, s’mores, and music.
