Texas.

Where did I leave off last? Oh right ... cross country ... last time I got us all the way through New Mexico. Where does that leave us for this post? Oh right, TEXAS. Texas is its own country, half our trip was driving through Texas. Ok, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly felt like that. We finished New Mexico with Roswell and drove directly East on some highway who's particular number I forget. Our first destination was the Fort Worth / Dallas area where we had some friends to stay with. We only spent an afternoon in Fort Worth, but it was definitely TEXAS. Belt buckles, steak, cowboy boots and  ... and well ... cows. We decided our sole destination within Fort Worth would be the Old Stockades. Did not disappoint. It provided for some fantastic photo opportunities and some new sites. We did not try the steak. I sort of regret that.

 

 I don't normally post pictures of my significant other in my blog, but this one came out so well. How could I not?

Those are serious cows. Totally the Triceratops of modern mammals.

 



I don't think it gets much more Texas than this shot.

After Fort Worth we were off to the Peoples Republic of Austin. I really have to take a moment to mention that this was really a miserable drive. Texans drive a lot like Californians, except their highways are only 2 lanes, and they have a tendency to drive over sized diesel trucks that are lifted as if they are mud trucks. They also like to do what I coined "The Texas Ass Ride". Not so fun at 75mph, and yes, that name was meant to be ironic.

Anyways. Austin is awesome, ok, Austin was overrated, but I still found it awesome. I don't know. I guess my expectations of Austin were just too high. I doubt its really the live music capital of the world, but it might just be the bar capital of the world. Holy crap they have a lot of bars, and each one has live music! I have a feeling we missed Austin's awesome peak by a decade or two. However. I really did dig a lot of the people that we met there. I also really loved the outdoors activities in Austin. Barton Spring is amazing. Red Bud Island along the Colorado is great. Loved swimming there hanging out with the locals. We had great food in Austin, and definitely had some good beer.

Alright, let us follow this up with some touristy pictures taken by a tourist, aka me.

In front of the Daniel Johnston mural.

This is but one of Austin's phallic signs.

Barton Springs. A must visit. Beware the lettuce.

At some show we stumbled into awkwardly on a rainy 90 degree night. No, that is not Barney.

The Texas state capitol. How did Austin get so liberal while being the Texas state capitol?! I will never know. Rick Perry must live beyond the city limits.

Anyways, that is it for tonight. I have at least two more parts to this cross country extravaganza. Is this all filler to fill in until I start shooting a brand new project here in NYC?! Kinda!!