Roswell to Austin Texas

When we left Roswell, we were under the impression that the Carlsbad Caverns were open until 6:30.  It was now close to 4:00 PM.  Carlsbad was a good 90 minutes away.  We felt, given my proclivity for a lead foot, that we could make it there in time to catch the last elevator down to the caverns which was 5 PM.  Sadly, that was not to be.  My GPS address actually was taking us to the Admin headquarters of the Caverns, not the caverns themselves, which were another 20 miles down the road.    Adrienne called the ranger office and the annoyed man insisted we'd never make it.  Boo.

Well fine, then.  Maybe next time.  I was there last when I was a little girl, taking summer road trips from Southern California to Oklahoma with my Daddy to visit my Grandma Bess.  Adrienne has never been.  I thought it would be a great place to visit.  Sigh.

So, we kept barreling down the road towards Texas and to connect up with the Interstate at Fort Stockton where our hotel room was waiting.

We anxiously kept watching for the Welcome to Texas signs as the border rapidly approached.  But you know what?  No sign!  For a state that thinks so very highly of itself, there was no freakin' sign to welcome visitors to their state!  We were NOT AMUSED TEXAS!!!!  No sign meant no picture with my selfie stick.  Sheesh.

We kept flying down the two-lane highway, passing semi after semi at a good clip of about 90 miles an hour until we finally reached Fort Stockton.  It's mostly a roadside stop with a string of national hotel chains along the side road and a very few food joints and gas stations.  We checked into the brand new Best Western and enjoyed a lovely room, hot shower and an excellent hot breakfast the next morning.  We even had a waffle shaped like the state of Texas.  Sure, they make waffle irons that look like Texas, but no welcome signs.  Priorities, people!!!!

After breakfast, we hit the highway, headed for Austin.  It was to be about a 5 hour drive or so.  The speed limit on Texas highways is 80, which meant that a cool 90 was the norm out there.  However, the roads were pretty wide open and I found myself pushing into the 95-100 range quite often without even realizing it.  Luckily, we ran into absolutely NO state patrols along the way, in fact, I saw none until after we had arrived in Austin.  The quick speeds allowed for an early arrival into Austin.