Wildflowers, winetasting and tornados
The spring in Texas brings millions of flowers along the roads to life. Especially the Texas state flower, the Blue Bonnet. We therefore set off on Saturday to do as thousands of Texans do, take pictures with the Blue Bonnets. There are even webpages were one can send in their Blue Bonnet sightings.
The objective for the weekend, was to drive a big loop up to the Hill Country along I-10, then take the 377 and 29, then stay a night in the Live Music Capital of the US, Austin.
Saturday
The day started out sunny and nice, and the flowers growing by the roads were really beautiful. After a lunch at a roadside joint, we headed East on the 377.
After about 30 minutes, the sky grew darker and darker, and you could see lightning in the distance. Then suddenly we got hit by a hailstorm that was the worst I have ever seen. The pellets were about 5mm in size and they were coming down heavy. So we had no choice but to stop under a tree and let it pass. After about 15 minutes it stopped and we could continue. Just when we were leaving the bad weather and heading towards Austin, my phone sounded an alarm. It was a Tornado warning, urging us take shelter immediately….. I am glad we were then leaving the area with bad weather.
After a couple of more hours with beautiful flowers and weather, we arrived in Austin. Unfortunately there were four different events in Austin this weekend, fashion week, reggae festival etc. And since we hadn’t booked anything before, there were no hotel rooms anywhere in the city. So we decided to have dinner and then go back to San Antonio. Sixth St in Austin is where all the action is, full of bars and restaurants, and almost all of them have at least one band or person singing and playing.
We chose a Mexican restaurant, called the Chupacabra, with nice seats outside. However as we sat there, we saw more and more lightning, then suddenly it started to pour down and the street turned into a river. So we ran back into the restaurant, in order not to get soaking wet!
After about 30 minutes it stopped, so we headed back to the car and drove back home.
Sunday
Sunday was a gorgeous day, sunny and 28°C, so we decided to go up and see some more of the Hill Country. We took 281 North up to Johnson City (Birthplace of President Lyndon B Johnson) after some ice cream at Dairy Queen; we found a winery which offered wine tastings, Texas Hills Vineyard. It was a wonderful place, the wine not the best in the world, but OK.
That area in Texas (along Road 290) is where all the Texas Vineyards are located, so we have to come back and do a wine tour soon……
The wildflowers along the roads were just as beautiful as on Saturday, and the only thing that put a dark cloud to the day, was a big dead Rattle Snake on one of the roads. Along with the tornado on Saturday, it reminded me, that this isn’t Kansas anymore…..
