Texas 2024:
Day 2 - Austin, TX

	Thursday, April 11, 2024: The rain had stopped overnight, and we were up early and back on the road by 7 AM. After driving for several hours, we stopped at a Love's travel plaza for a quick bathroom break, ...
	... and looked over their selection of round tubular foods being cooked on rotating bars. There were quite a few that looked really tasty, but since we weren't hungry, we just filed away the information for future use.
	Just after 9:30 AM, we passed the exit to Conway, Arkansas. That's relevant to us because Claire has an admirer who lives in Conway, and she checks in with us occasionally to ask when there will be new photos of Claire available.
	We whizzed by Little Rock, Arkansas.
	Just before noon, we pulled up behind a semi hauling a load of young chickens, and every now and then a cloud of feathers would be blown out of the trailer and across the lanes of traffic. As we passed the truck, we noticed that the chickens themselves appeared fairly relaxed, like they were taking a ride to Grandma's house.
	Pretty! There was a field of yellow wildflowers under the trees for a mile or two, ...
	... just before we reached Texarkana.
	We love driving through this city because part of the city is in Arkansas and has red Arkansas symbols on the bridges leading up to the state line, ...
	... and then there are blue Texas emblems on the bridges after you cross over to the Texas side.
	Speaking of which ... Welcome to Texas. We always laugh at the "Drive Friendly - the Texas Way" slogan at the bottom of the sign.
	This was the first of several billboards that we saw using the 2024 total solar eclipse as a sales pitch for religion.
	A few hours later, we saw evidence of recent flooding from rains that had ended the previous night.
	Hey! It's a Tellaro by Thor Motor Coach, the sister model of our beloved The Ocho, which was a 2020 Sequence 20A. We miss The Ocho, but we also very much love tent camping and our road trips in our mini-van.
	Just before 2:30 PM, we got our first glimpses of Dallas, Texas.
	Texas was really cashing in on the eclipse-related advertising.
	Check out the robots mural on this building!
	This is the Reunion Tower, a Dallas landmark.
	O! We watched an acrobatic plane write a large "O" in the sky.
	Somehow, even though it wasn't on the way to south Texas, we ended up at the Black-eyed Pea in Arlington. Weird. We ordered one meatloaf entree with fried okra and broccoli rice casserole, and one veggie plate with fried okra, broccoli rice casserole, mashed potatoes, cinnamon apples, and mac and cheese.
	Yum! There's nothing better after hours and hours and hours of driving than the soft rolls and corn bread from the Black-eyed Pea. Our waiter, Archie, was great and we think we recognized him from our last visit.
	We ate most the meatloaf, saved all of the broccoli rice casserole and some of the apples, but we consumed the rest of the food, all without somehow getting a photo of any of it. D'oh!
	There was heavy traffic leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but we were soon through it and back on our way south.
	This was the last eclipse-related billboard that we got a picture of.
	We stopped at our favorite rest area on I-35 South. We had stopped in this rest area for an overnight on our very first trip down to South Padre Island in The Ocho back in 2021.
	I-35 is part of the Monarch Highway, ...
	... and informational displays told us that the migration path of monarch butterflies follows roughly the same path as I-35 as they travel from Canada to Mexico and back each year. To help them along their path, Texas plants wildflower seeds each year as their part of a virtual garden path that stretches for thousands of miles up the United States.
	The grass between the rest area and the highway were filled with these lovely blue bonnets and ...
	... red wildflowers ...
	... and pink oenethera.
	This area was part of the Chisholm Trail, the path of an annual cattle drive from the ranches in the Rio Grande Valley northward to trading posts in Kansas where the cattle were loaded on to railcars for shipment east to fetch better prices.
	Oh, no. Whataburger.
	During our last trip here in early 2023, we had become addicted to the Dr. Pepper shakes, having them many, many times throughout our time in Texas. We were unable to resist their siren song ...
	... and treated ourselves to two small shakes. Luckily for our waistlines, we weren't as thrilled by them this time and declared that these would be our only indulgence this trip.
	We passed by Baylor University, ...
	... and then towns named for Tom's relatives. First up was Lorena, Texas, ...
	... and then the combo of Bruceville-Eddy. Not all the spellings were correct, but the sentiment was there.
	As we neared Austin, we saw a daring aviator in an ultralight flying not far from the highway.
	On the eastern bypass around Austin, we passed Tesla Road, ...
	... and then Tesla Gigafactory, ...
	... and an entire lot filled with Cybertrucks!
	Later that evening, Tom discovered on Google Maps that the top of the Tesla Gigafactory looks like this.
	The sun set as our drive wound down, ...
	... and we stopped for the night at another Motel 6 in Buda, Texas. We had driven almost 800 miles in about 13 hours, and we were exhausted.
	We took a moment to enjoy the spectacular sunset before we got into our pajamas and turned in for the evening.  Day 3 >