To West Texas

So the plan for Thursday was a leisurely 575 miles from Austin to Van Horn. Before we get to that though our favourite city in our our favourite state gets one last mention. The second night in Austin started off in similar fashion to the one before, in the same bar actually. After 3 pints (Miller High Life for Neil and EG and Lonestar for SS) we decided we'd have to push ourselves and see what the town really had to offer.



What we found was that there was lots and lots of the cheapest alcohol any of us had even seen this side of the iron curtain. Plus some excellent street food.





The finisher was surely the two Kamikaze's we had on a rooftop bar none of us can remember the name of. It was pretty much a margarita. Only the strongest, tastiest margarita you ever had.





That about sums that up. So now to Van Horn with a quick (150 mile) detour to MOJOland and visit to the home of the Permian Panthers. It my seem like a long way to go for high school football, especially since school isn't in for another 6 weeks, but for us coming so close without a visit would have been unforgiveable.

Anyway before that we had a lot of ground to cover. Driving south on I35 from Austin we soon start to see the landscape change towards the Texas we had heard about in the movies. Rolling green hills were replaced by sandy soil and the vegetation seemed to get lower to the ground with every mile.



We quickly made it to San Antonio but turned sharp right before we really got into the city and rejoined the I10. We had left the road back in Louisiana but it coulnd't be more diferent to the humid swamps we endured there. Almost as soon as we turned west the desert opened out infront of us.



Every turn in the road seemed to offer a stretch longer and straighter than the one before.



It was breathtaking.



Finally after 150 miles or so we were ready to head north-west to Odessa and our date with the turf that spawned the Friday Night Lights franchise. Suzie SatNav had been quiet for a long time and the long straight roads must have got to her. The exit she told us was 18 miles away, she suddenly decided was 400ft infront of us (in fact it was about 400ft behind us). This was a potential flash point in our already strained relationship with Suzie but it was a real blessing in disguise. 12 miles later we took a smaller c-road off the interstate and it turned out to be golden.







Back on track and now cruising to the soundtrack from FNL we rolled through some old fashioned oil country and were feeling good. Odessa was approaching





It was bleak and there was little of the MOJO pride we had expected to be on show at every turn. Nevertheless we pushed on and managed to find the home of our beloved Panthers.



Sadly Ratliff stadium and its 19,302 seats was tighly locked up for the summer and we could only view it from behind a chain-link fence.



It was definitely worth it. The atmosphere of the place in the late afternoon sun made us long for the sights and sounds of a friday night in the fall when all the local diehards would make the place rock.



150 miles to Van Horn. The sun was setting and as we chased it westwards it dropped slowly and gave us 2 hours of beautiful Texas skies.







We finally made it to what turned out to be little more than a truck stop town on the Texas mountain trail. Motels, gas stations and fast food plus our little camp site. It was actually perfect.



After 12 hours on the go there was just time for a Subway and a 6 pack under the stars.



Goodnight Texas. We had to leave but it's safe to say we'll all be back.