My Trip to Texas

Since I lost my job in September, my sister, who lives in Austin, has been bugging me to visit her and her hubby. She's been there since about 2009 and I've never been able to visit. A window opened up in late Dec-early Jan.

• I had my kids from Dec. 20-29, so the plan was to drive down in 3 days. 
• My route to Texas went Fenelon Falls, ON - North Bay, ON (had to drop kids off at the ex) - Toledo OH
• The weather on the 1st day was awful. Ice Pellets started in North Bay, then freezing rain in the Orillia, On are then rain from Barrie, On all the way to Toledo. Huge headwinds too - 30-50 mph. 
• Crossing the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, On and Detroit. The only place Canadians can drive north to cross into the US!

• Next Day was Toldeo to Texarkana AR - that was LONG day! Over 17 hrs!
• Weather started off awful again. Getting gas in the morning the wind literally almost blew me off my feet.

• Big deal for an Eastern guy - Crossing the Mississippi!!

• Texarkana to Austin. This had me in Texas for New Years Eve. 
• After the 500th cornfield driving through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, it was getting pretty damn boring. (No offence to the folks that live in those states but man you could watch your dog run away for 3 days!)
• East Texas is damn flat too!
• I arrived in Austin about 2:30 pm on New Years Eve.

• Y'all sure do like your fireworks - we heard Fireworks going off from about 7pm on NYE to after 2 on Jan. 1.
• My sister and her husband had to go back to work on Jan. 2-3, so I poked around Austin myself.
• Texas Museum

• I went for a walk near Lady Bird Lake.

• Y'all have some strange looking waterfowl!!

• Next time I want a used vehicle, I'm doing a fly-n-drive!!!

• The next day dawned clear and warm (at least for me!)
• I headed out for the new Austin Main Library - the views from the Atrium Garden are really nice.

• Saturday - we headed out to San Antonio
• Riverwalk

• You can't go to Texas without going to the Alamo!!!

I ate and ate:

• BBQ in Texarkana - Naaman's Championship BBQ

• Torchy's in Austin - the Catfish Taco was devine!!

• Austin - Valentina's Tex Mex BBQ - Breakfast - The Real Deal Hollyfield - Taco with egg bacon and a slab of brisket. Also Mexican Coke (with Cane Sugar - not refined white sugar - so much better!! 
• I forgot to take a picture but here is my sister her husband Andy having them on his Birthday (pic stolen from FB)

On Sunday Jan 5th - it was time to head home again. (I had an interview on the 8th back in Canada).

• Thanks to some friends that invited me to stay over in Cleveland, I changed my route.
• The plan became Austin-Nashville-Cleveland-Fenelon Falls, ON
• The long day was Austin-Nashville

• If you're in Texas - you have to stop at Buc-ee's!!

• Arrived in Nashville late

I got up the next morning and before I headed out I was trying to figure out if there was anything interesting on my way, since it was only about 7 1/2 hours to Cleveland. On the way to Nashville I passed the turn to Shiloh and I thought maybe Gettysburgh. Nope -  way to far. Let's see what happened.

• Had breakfast at the hotel and started driving
• Kentucky is fun. I don't think there's a level patch in Kentucky. Up and down hills, around curves and through valley's
• I passed the site of the Carrollton Bus Accident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrollton_bus_collision

• Just awful and caused by a drunk!!

San Antonio native here. I can't recall exactly what it was like the week of Xmas but it feels like my entire winter break (teacher) was ~68f.  Hopefully you enjoyed our Christmas weather. 

But wait a minute - I'm going through Bowling Green KY.

• My dad was a Chevy Man his whole life and I remember sitting with him watching the Daytona 500 and cheering on Earnhardt.
• Bowing Green KY is the site of the National Corvette Museum and it's literally right at Exit 28 off the Interstate.
• Peel in and pay my $12
• If you are even somewhat interested in Corvettes or Racing - STOP!!!

• The Vette that owned the Outright Lap Record at the Nurburgring in 2012.

• The Sinkhole Cars!
• The cars that would have required more than 50% of their parts replaced were declared unrepairable and are displayed as the came out of the sinkhole, including still having dirt on them.

• They have raffles for the last C7 coupe and C7 Convertible that came off the Chevy assembly line. Tickets are $150 a pop.

Vigo said:

San Antonio native here. I can't recall exactly what it was like the week of Xmas but it feels like my entire winter break (teacher) was ~68f.  Hopefully you enjoyed our Christmas weather. 

I sure did!!! The day I left it was mid-70's (24C) Made my used-to-Ontario-Temperatures person quite happy!!!

Considering my heritage, I was quite proud to see this!!

Left the NCM and headed to Cleveland. Overnighted with some friends and headed out for home the next day.

• Trip was fairly uneventful after that.
• Back to the homeland

• 6 days of driving - 6422 kms (3990 miles)