Cannon ball, Day 4 San Antonio to Lafayette LA

We are getting a late start... Its 9:30 before we start to load the car... Again, we are headed East on Hwy 10...   If we can find it... In the meantime we are wandering through the streets of San Antonio... It's heritage as a Spanish pueblo reflected in streets that wander, cross, made worst by freeways which disrupt the somewhat organic street pattern...  Some one way, some not... The painted lines on the streets are worn, to the point of missing, adding an element of anarchy...   We find a freeway, get on, in the wrong direction, get off, get on in the other direction...   The phones tell us to head towards Austin, the wrong direction, before turning south... We accept the phone's knowledge... Even though, earlier in the trip it for a time refused to acknowledge  that Hwy 90 extended beyond Langtry...

We drive past the former Pearl Brewery... I spot a Pabst Blue Ribbon ("PBR" in the modern vernacular) sign on the building... This worries me... Pearl, while not a great beer, was a Texas icon, not the equal of Lone Star, but a Texas beer icon… and lord knows, Texas needs its icons... At least the water tank is still painted as a Pearl can...   The waffles at breakfast at the Best Western this morning were shaped like a map of Texas... it is all about Texas.

Now, a bit after 10:00 we have regained I-10...

This part of East Texas is a mix of farms, mostly hay, and field of stubble that is likely some sort of feed, corn or sorghum, light industry, off ramps gas stations and fast food... We just passed a McDonalds with a truck entrance... (New Braunfel in case you want to look it up)... As we get further from San Antonio, there is less industry, more forest...

"It's a Small World" has come up in the rotation, likely from Gina's IPod... The diversity of the music cannot be under estimated...

We have just passed "Tiny Texas Houses",   A business that apparently builds Texas themed garden sheds... Or maybe more... Tiny Texas Houses have been designed and built with 99% vintage salvaged materials. Each hand-crafted Tiny Texas House is a unique piece of sustainable, ...  Small buildings, small houses, from recycled material...   They have a blog... is all about Texas...  http://tinytexashouses.com/category/blog/

Back to the road…. Here in Texas, the trucks rule, or at least think they do... We are in the fast lane, behind an oversize load, on a 17 axle rig, passing other trucks, blocking the road... His lead pilot car, yellow lights flashing many vehicles ahead... The speed limit here is 75... But the effective speed, thanks to the trucks, and the cars that hit the brakes every time they spot a Texas Ranger, is closer to 65 mph...

Now passing Columbus Tx, an old school billboard for "Picket's Bar B Q,  "U" Will Love it... "  Promising, until "U" figure out they are located in the Shell station... A nice clean sanitized shell station.

Now 11:40, 70 miles out of Houston... Light industry along the road again, mixed in with the fields... I hesitate to say farms, for few barns or houses are to be seen... the Billboards are entertaining.... Billboards for Taxidermy... Affordable rates...  "There are no cops hiding behind this billboard". 50 mile out we start to see oil wells...

Gina is coming down with something, likely a sinus infection, so near Katy we peel off the interstate, for a CVS pharmacy, with a "minute clinic" in search of antibiotics...     While she waits, Steph and I go in search of a Starbucks... Coffee for Steph, hot tea for Gina... We go from the CVS in a strip mall, to a Kroger's (with a Starbucks) in a strip mall, past a Dr.'s office, a dentist office and a swim school, all in strip malls... And churches, several churches in strip malls...  Somewhere I read that Houston is the largest metropolitan area in the US without zoning or other land use planning... If this is the result, I would like to go on record as a strong believer in urban planning...

It is green here... A sharp contrast to Texas West of the Pecos... It looks much more hospitable, until you ( or is it "U") open the car door, and realize how bloody hot it is... With the humidity it feels hotter than the desert.

Now, 1:50, Gina has seen the nurse, has her antibiotics (for a sinus and double ear infection) and we are off... It's my turn to drive...

Back on I-10, With me at the wheel it's a hard, fast run to Louisiana... We arrive at the hotel at 4:30... On time (as if that mattered)...

We fuss about... We discuss where to eat, we go "downtown" in search of food... We find cafe Jolie... We dine... It was good... ( beyond good, one of the special meals of my life... I want to bring the Lovely Tina here....)

Gina has gone from "I am on the wagon train to Hell, and I am going to die" to "Life is good, and let's go have fun (not let's party) but let's have fun...."

We explore down town Lafayette, and find Café Jolie and have a wonderful meal… world class in rural Louisiana… as one might expect from Cajun country…

Back at the Hotel... The girls watching TV... The Olympics… Me blogging.... The conversation revolves about dinner... All agree it was was good...

Tomorrow, Cajun country, New Iberia, Morgan City, and sometime early afternoon, New Orleans...