Day 9.0 - Late Start and More Driving

We got a late start this day because we were at my sister's house. We slept a lot. Got up. Ate. Slept some more. I didn't really want to leave, but we had to get going. I felt like we needed to make some progress as far as distance was concerned. We left at about 4pm with the plan to at least make it to Austin. Once in Austin we headed straight for Chuy's. My friend Jeremy said it would be a good place for Tex-Mex and it helped if we like Elvis. He wasn't kidding! It's a lively place, which means quite crowded and we had to wait a while for a table. I didn't take my camera in because of the crowd, so you'll just have to imagine. You know, like people used to do when reading books with no pictures? I know, it's difficult. Just try. Chuy's looks like a beach shack in the middle of Austin covered in photos of people wearing Chuy's t-shirts in vacation spots all over the world. There's wooden fish all over the bar area--hundreds of them. In the section where we were sitting, there were hubcaps hanging over us. It's all very...eclectic. Food-wise, it was pretty good. I had a tasty tortilla soup and garden salad and Mike enjoyed his beef taco and cheese enchilada (that was supposed to be beef).

We drove around Austin for a bit, just to take in the sites. We did some walking and then headed back out on the road because it was still light out. It was decided that we'd try to make it all the way to San Angelo that night and that meant a lot of driving on small county roads. It was spooky and kind of X-filesy. I was expecting to see something hovering in the horizon, but it never appeared. What I did see was more stars than I'd ever seen before in my life. It looked like an Astronomy book! Amazing. We did make it to San Angelo. It was uneventful for the most part, but the next day...more than made up for it.

Day 6.0 - South Into the Web

Saturday was the day for our longest time yet. Determined to make it to my sister's house in Houston, we drove for 13 hours straight. It was a cloudy and rainy day, so we did not have the sun beating down on us. It was great to get a break from that, but the gray skies made me yearn for blue and a little more contrast.

It was a few hours into our trip through Oklahoma when we started noticed some webs on the trees.
Sure that they were giant spiders, we were mesmerized and horrified by their presence. I had to take photos. After a while I was curious enough to google them on my phone. What I found was that the webs are NOT created by spiders, in fact they are nests created by caterpillars. Commonly known as "webworms," these caterpillars are native to North America and come out in the summer to early fall. With that knowledge in hand, we were brave enough to get a little closer and take some more shots.


Those nests were pretty much gone once we got into Texas and a little while in, the sun set and we were left with night roads and twinkling lights. Mike was tired and we were both hungry, but we managed to keep driving until reaching my sister's house just past midnight. We got a warm welcome and hot food. We'll be staying here for a few days before moving o. It's so great to be here at home with my sister and her family. I will enjoy every second I get to spend with them :)