Austin

I couldn't help but think of my maternal grandma and Marty Robbins as we drove through El Paso early on in our trip from Las Cruces to Austin.



El Paso was also the first time in my life I laid eyes on anything remotely resembling a third world country. It was surreal to look to our right as we drove east and see Mexico in the distance. Zoning laws don't really exist there the way they do here, for better or worse, and with the brown of the desert land coloring the majority of the view, I felt as if I were looking at 1980s video footage of Beirut rather than sitting firmly on US soil and looking south. It was surreal.

Seeing the land change mile by mile was fascinating; we left brown, seemingly desolate, mountainous (including mesas) land and ended up in a much greener (in the middle of drought conditions, no less) hilly landscape.

We took TX 290 from I-10 to Austin in order to avoid the dip down to San Antonio, and in the process we stumbled on Fredericksburg. It's a quaint Wild West meets German settlement town and was a nice surprise.

We arrived at our destination in Austin at 8PM CDT, and Hubs suggested barbecue at Smoky Mo's. It was some of the best I've ever had. YUM.

Tonight we were able to meet up with one of my mom's first cousins whom I had never met. We had a lovely time visiting with her and her husband. Afterward they joined us as we met up with some other friends for ice cream at the Austin Arboretum. The kids were able to run and play outside, something they have not been able to do much with high daytime temps.

We head further east in Texas tomorrow!