Texas Tour - Day 2 (3/28)

Day 2: Austin / College Station

For lunch I met up with my former roommate Teresa at Chuy's, then went to her house and hung with her 2 little chillens. What a great time we had! She's so happy being a mom!

We gave the camera to Lucas and chased him all around the yard while he took pictures like this...


... until I was able to take this photo by setting the timer and putting the camera on the trunk of my car (way to get the camera centered, Ange)...


After that I headed to College Station. Everlost got me so mixed up on the Great Southern Highway (my nickname for I-35 for those of you who have read Asimov's Nightfall) that I was 35 miles away from 290 by the time I could exit, so instead I took 79 east. I decided that I wasn't lost, I was experiencing a part of Texas I'd never seen before...

For my friends not living in Texas, these are Bluebonnets, now the ubiquitous side-of-the-highway "wildflower" that was heavily planted under the direction of Lady Bird Johnson. I was surprised to see these growing in California a few weeks later, but I realized that they are like Bourbon or Champagne: if they grow in Texas, they're Bluebonnets; if they grow outside Texas, they're lupines.

Here's something funny for my Southern friends: right after I took this photo I stopped for gas, and while in the gas station I ran across a package of Big League Chew - you remember that chewing gum designed to look like pink chewing tobacco? I thought that went the way of candy cigarettes! I had to buy their last bag just to prove to my California friends that I wasn't making this up.

Eventually I got to Loni and Arsenio's in College Station. I tried to get another of my timer-photos with the three of us and their three cats. The cats weren't very big fans of this idea.


We watched Borat (my first time) and chatted and chatted before we finally had to sleep. I tell you, I hadn't seen Loni for years, and now I get two visits four months apart! I'll have to keep up that record.