Austin or Bust

I left Tishomingo feeling a little battered and bruised but crazy proud of myself. It was getting close to my birthday and I decided I was going to spend it in Austin, a place I’ve always wanted to visit. With Mander’s new starter, we were sure to get there.

Along the way, I stopped in the small town of Granbury and found a great free campsite along the river. I spent a couple days putzing around and stumbled upon this neat old plane!

I enjoyed some great sunsets over the river and then it was time to move on.

I was told that getting a kolache at the famous Czech Stop was a must. I hope I don’t get an earful for saying so, but I wasn’t impressed. The ingredients are disappointing (they use food dye and other icky stuff) and it tasted like a pretty standard pastry to me.

I’m a big fan of Chip and Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper, so I was curious to see the Silos in Waco. I rolled up and it was crazy busy! On top of that, they were doing road construction so there wasn’t a great place to park Mander. I settled for a drive-by view and kept heading south. At this point, I was getting pretty close to Austin. Just one more drive day and I’d be there.

What was to be the last day driving to Austin, ended up being very hot and very, very windy. The stretch of highway 35 that heads into Austin is a pretty intense road. A lot of semis drive this route and it has dense traffic no matter what time of day. All of that combined made Moonchi upset and she let it be known. She peeked her head out from her panic room and let out some of the most dramatic meows I’ve ever heard from her. I thought for a second she might be hurt, so I looked for a place to pull off. I exited and parked Mander. I immediately checked on her and thank goodness, she was ok. She just really wasn’t into the situation. We took a nice long break so she could cool off and calm down.

When it became apparent that the wind wasn’t going to die down anytime soon, I looked for a place to stay for the night.  I found a rest area just down the road where we hunkered down while the wind continued to whip. It was *November 17th, I would be in Austin by the 18th and my birthday was the 20th. For not really having a plan, it was all working out just fine.

*You may have just realized how far behind I am on the blog! It sure is hard to live a life full of adventure and make the time to write about it too. Slowly but surely, I am catching up!

Please consider donating to my Gas Money Pool on Paypal by clicking here. Any donation goes straight into Mander’s tank. At 6 mpg it sure costs a lot to keep the old girl on the road. With your help, I can continue to collect stories and take pictures to share with you on my blog and Instagram. Thank you for being a part of my journey!

You can also support me by shopping my vintage clothes collection, Freedom to Roam. These clothes are found at various thrift stores across the U.S. and purchases help keep me roaming!

Until next time, much love and Mander on!