Crossing America by Rental Car

Saturday 18th October we said goodbye to our friends auto insurance specialist set off for Phoenix, a journey through insurance life desert with few places to break the monotony. On Sunday it was hot, a record of 101, so we only stayed two hours at Phoenix's interesting 145-acre Desert Botanical Garden, which features arid land plants from all over the world. They had lots of Saguaro Cacti, which grow to 50 feet and can be over 250 years old.

Monday we left Scottsdale and drove via Apache Junction and Florence to Tucson. A number of people had warned us there is little at Tucson and they were right! The journey on the Tuesday from Tucson to Tombstone was initially along Interstate 10, which was as arid and boring as we had come to expect, but Tombstone was a captivating place. We only wished we had driven the 73 miles to it the day before and skipped Tucson. It is a real bit of the old Wild West. The number of original buildings in the town is amazing. We did the OK Corral shoot-out visit of course, but this is only a donate car charity part of the history of a town that once boomed because of its silver mines. When they flooded everything changed, but the town still thrives, albeit on tourism. We headed back to the interstate and drove on to Lordsburg, New Mexico for the night through arid mountainous desert with occasional farms in lush irrigated valleys. At one point we crossed a 10-mile wide dust bowl with warning signs for dust storms.

On Wednesday for nearly 60 miles after leaving Lordsburg we were crossing yet more desert. At one point we crossed the Continental Divide, but apart from the roadside sign it would not have been noticeable. At Las Cruces we descended into a lush farming valley. Soon we crossed into Texas and were greeted by cattle as far as the eye could see and the nose could smell in stockyards by the roadside. El Paso is on the Rio Grande River. The Mexican City of Juarez across the river is said to be far nicer than El Paso, but the car wasn't insured for Mexico.

We were so keen to put the empty desert behind us that we left El Paso at 6.45am on Thursday for the 493 miles to Kerrville. Texas has a 75mph limit in low population areas, and that description certainly fits the "Big Bend" area. There isn't a single radio station you can pick up in some parts. An interesting episode was finding the Interstate shut down outside El Paso for US Border Patrol inspections. We stopped after 112 miles at Van Horn, thankful that we had decided not to carry on the day before and stay there instead of El Paso! The next place, Fort Stockton at 232 miles had to be an early lunch stop as there is nothing for another 107 miles! Fort Stockton is a relatively big place. It has the first supermarket and Wal-Mart since leaving El Paso!

Kerrville is the first town after the desert ends and it's a well-known tourist town in the Texas hill country. It is a rather charming example of small town America. Dating back to the mid 1800's when this area was settled by German immigrants, it has a well preserved main street area and the whole town has lots of mature trees due to its location in the Guadeloupe River valley.
Friday morning we headed to Fredericksburg. It is an even smaller town, but with a big Historic Main Street area. The town displays its German immigrant origins extensively; in fact finding anything but German food is quite difficult! The town has plenty of the usual antique and gift shops, and also a few beer halls! After exploring the town we continued on Hwy. 290 to Austin. There were immaculate farms and vineyards along parts of the road. Texas hill country deserves its reputation as a scenic area. It is amazingly different scenery from the desert only 30 or so miles to the west.
On Saturday we took a Duck Tour of Austin on a converted 1960's ex-British Army Alvis Rolls Royce powered amphibious troop carrier. After touring Austin's downtown and state capitol areas they drove us into the lake to give us a view from the water! After exploring the downtown area on foot, particularly the famous 6th street music district, with rain due on Sunday, we decided to explore two more small towns. San Marcos has a real Universal Lot style old-fashioned town square. Gruene is again German in origin dating back to the 1840's. All the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. Many are now antique and gift shops and others are restaurants. It was absolutely packed with weekend visitors. Some were listening to a live band in Gruene Hall, reputed to be the oldest dance hall and saloon in Texas.

On Sunday we headed to Luckenbach. It is a quaint General Store, US Post Office and Dance Hall dating back to 1871. It was made famous by two of its regulars, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings who wrote a hit record titled "Luckenbach Texas". It is a really quirky place, well worth the visit. Then we headed to Boerne, another historic town of German origin. It started raining so hard that we only stopped to fill up the car and pressed on to San Antonio.

Monday was ideal for sightseeing in San Antonio, sunny and in the low 70's. At the IMAX theatre we saw "Alamo - the Price of Freedom". The film tuned us in to the story of the famous siege in 1836 ready for seeing The Alamo itself, or the parts of it that still survive. Then we visited La Villita which is the oldest surviving neighbourhood dating from the 1750's that is now full of craftshops, galleries and restaurants. We also took a disappointing trolley tour that spent most of its time out of town. However the Riverwalk boat ride we took was excellent. The river is one level below the streets, and on either side are pretty flower lined walkways and many riverside cafes and restaurants.

I can't think of any riverside we have ever been to that is so picturesque, whether you see it by daylight or at night when the twinkling lights in the trees and the lights from the cafes, restaurants and river boats add a magical dimension. We had a delightful meal at a riverside table at sunset as the lights started to go on.

On Wednesday, all the way to Corpus Christi on Hwy. 181 the flat landscape was neatly tended lush farmland. Corpus Christi has a huge oil refinery that dominates the road into town. The only thing that appealed to us was the USS Lexington, a retired World War ll aircraft carrier. It was very interesting to look around this enormous aircraft carrier and read of its exploits in the war against Japan. We continued up the coast to Rockport, which is a nice little Texas Gulf Coast resort with a revitalised downtown that is home to a growing colony of artists and craft people.
Driving on Thursday along the coastal highway was unlike earlier parts of Texas with flat coastal land, sometimes neatly farmed and at other times marshy. As we approached the southern tip of Galveston Island we lost count of the number of refineries and chemical plants that we passed. Thankfully there were none on the island. It is over 30 miles from the southern part of the island to the city and at first there were only a few beach homes interspersed with long stretches of totally deserted beaches. After settling into a motel, we went to see a film at the Pier 21 Theater called "The Great Storm" that tells the story of the hurricane that hit the city on September 8th 1900, causing 6,000 deaths. After the storm the city built a 17 feet high seawall and raised the land behind it. The business district on the bay side suffered least, so many of its buildings survived. An old style diesel powered tram runs around the historic area on tramlines set in the road.

On Friday to avoid the long drive around Galveston Bay we took the free 20-minute ferry from Galveston to Port Bolivar. The ferry weaves in and out of the huge tankers entering and leaving the Bay. We then drove along the coastal peninsula until we had to head inland to rejoin the interstate for the last few miles in Texas. Entering Louisiana we left the interstate at Lake Charles and took the quieter rural Hwy. 14 to Lafayette. The scenery was very mixed with sugar cane and rice fields, cattle and nodding donkeys. That night we went out to dinner to PreJean's, an award winning Cajun restaurant that features live Cajun music every night. We had an enjoyable meal accompanied by foot tapping music from a three-piece band.

Lafayette and the Parishes immediately surrounding it are the spiritual home of Acadiana. Acadians were French immigrants to Nova Scotia who were banished in 1755. Many eventually headed to Louisiana. Finding New Orleans already settled, they settled around what is today Lafayette. This is the origin of Cajun cuisine and Cajun music. On Friday we saw two fascinating films at the Jean Lafitte Cultural Center. One was about the Acadian's exile from Nova Scotia and their arrival in Louisiana. The other was about the Atchafalaya Swamp. We had an interesting visit to Vermilionville, a Cajun-Creole Heritage Park and explored Downtown Lafayette before driving out to Breaux Bridge and St Martinville, two of the well-known Cajun towns just outside Lafayette. That night we returned to PreJean's to have a final Cajun dinner.
On Saturday it was foggy when we set out. There is no alternative to the Interstate, which for 16 miles crosses the Atchafalaya Swamp on a low bridge. In the fog the swamp looked quite eerie. We turned south to follow the Mississippi River to the outskirts of New Orleans along Plantation Row, a Louisiana Scenic Highway. The rural parts are quite scenic, but there are also lots of petrochemical plants along the riverbank. Because of a 20-feet high flood protection levy you cannot see the river from the road. We had an excellent guided tour of the beautiful Oak Alley Plantation, which was built in 1839.

Then it was back on the Interstate to bypass New Orleans, which we had visited earlier in the year. Leaving New Orleans the Interstate crosses Lake Pontchartrain. We said good bye to Louisiana and turned onto Hwy. 90, a Mississippi Scenic Highway. After reaching the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian the road runs right alongside the beach to Biloxi.

Sunday we had a lazy day in Biloxi and explored one of the local casinos. It was rather small compared to Las Vegas. Leaving Biloxi on Monday we meandered along the Gulf Coast, through Mobile, Alabama and crossed the state line into Florida. We paused to explore Historic Downtown Pensacola then we crossed the causeway to Pensacola Beach and continued meandering along the coast to Seaside, the forerunner of developments like Disney's Celebration. It is certainly attractively done and is located on a beautiful powdery soft pure white sandy beach. The rental rates for the properties would make vacation homeowners in Orlando weep with jealousy. Unwilling to pay their rates we got a beautiful room in a Quality Inn right on Panama City Beach for only $39.

Tuesday morning we saw the Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico from our balcony on our last day on the road. We rejoined our outbound route at Appalachicola and passed once again through Carrabelle. This time we spotted the "World's smallest police station" that we had missed on our outward journey. It is literally a phone box! We ran into torrential tropical rain between Perry and Crystal River. What a way to welcome us back after nearly seven weeks, but after Crystal River it was sunshine all the way home. With some additional stops and exploring, the trip ended up being a total of 7,827 miles. Did we enjoy it? Yes, immensely. Being on the road became a way of life after a while and now the only question is "where next?"

Tim Hubbard

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