Lubbock to Austin -- home!
The Lubbock sunrise again greeted us with squadrons of sandhill cranes; Val loved it. And again the La Q fed us well. Everyone showered, we packed quickly, and were off for the final push home by 10:30. We decided to follow the same roads home we had taken to reach Lubbock -- which was not the route I mapped out, but was easier (if a bit longer), driving Route 87 all the way to Brady, then 71 to Austin.
Last minute edit #1: this is a fairly new La Quinta, less than a year old, and every bed has a memory-foam style mattresses, a material which was developed by NASA. A clerk told me this is the only hotel in the chain with only these beds. They are quite comfy, but it's easy to sleep without ever rolling, thus cramping an arm, and the mattresses have no "give" at all -- no springs to feedback bounce, so the recumbent individual has to do all the work, scooching over or getting up. It takes getting used to. I'd tried them in stores but never had slept on one before.
South of Lubbock -- well, north as well, really -- is cotton country. I waited for an opportunity, and finally a tiny rest pullover appeared, and we stopped for a bit. We took pictures of the cotton fields and closeups of the cotton bolls. We even picked two small branches with cotton blooming, something I normally do not condone, but this was for Amalie's show and tell so it's educational. It was fun, and a short break from the road is always welcome, but we got dozens of sticker burrs on our shoes and pants.
Amalie stands in not-very-tall cotton.
Puffy!The sparse towns rolled by -- Tahoka, Lamesa, Big Spring. We pulled over here for lunch, which was pleasant if unmemorable. Off again, we were this time prepared and eager to see the wind farm in the daylight. Sure enough, we soon saw the giant turbines come into view. One row stretched right across the highway, the nearest tower maybe 100 yards to the west (it's hard to estimate the distance, there's nothing for comparison or scale). We stopped for pictures, and just to admire these spinning giants. I couldn't hear them at all. Not only are the turbines efficient and effective, they are majestic. We saw many more for many miles, mostly along a ridge to the west but some eastward.
I love these things.
More power to you.Last minute edit #2: In addition to the giant turbines, there were plenty of oil pumps, some running (the summer's price hike had made turning on just about any well profitable again, and even with prices down, some are still worth keeping in operation, apparently). So, within just a few acres, it was possible to witness industries from the 19th (cotton), 20th (oil), and 21st (wind) centuries. Cool.
More miles ticked past. Sterling City, then San Angelo. We stopped to tank up, gas below $1.50/gallon. The day was getting long and we wanted to give the kids a stretch. I managed to spot a schoolyard about two blocks off our main road, and found it without too much doubling back. It had a big playscape and a large athletic field. The kids got plenty of air time, running about, Amie doing the monkey bars, Carson finding his treasures -- beads, bits of plastic, and so forth. Val took a stroll down the field, then told me to as well. It was a good stretch, get some blood pumping, and the skies were clear and sunny, though it was still windy. We rounded up the kids after more than a half-hour, and got back in the Civic.
We passed through Eden, and at Brady we turned on to Route 71, which would take us all the way back to Austin. The sun went down, and the evening skies gave us a spectacular show -- the waxing crescent moon riding near to Venus and Jupiter. While astronomically insignificant, it was a delightful show, and gave a good sense of interplanetary scale. (And although it looked like a "frowny face" here, it appeared as a smiley face Down Under.)
Llano appeared just before 7:00, and hurray! Cooper's was still open. Both kids had dozed off, so I placed a take-out order -- beef ribs, brisket, pork ribs, potato salad, and an ear of corn for Carson. We were underway again within minutes, seventy-five miles from home.
We reached the Travis County line, then Austin's city limits. We stopped for cash. We stopped for milk. We didn't need anything else immediately. We turned into our neighborhood, our street, our driveway. It was around 8:30. Home at last, a really great trip, but glad it was over and we were back.
The barbecue was fantastic.
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