We arrived in Austin, Texas Thursday 26th of June in the late afternoon. Setup camp in a nice RV park only 10 miles outside of the downtown area. Went out for dinner and just relaxed the rest of the evening. Peter said he got the best night sleep yet since we left. The weather is not very hot and our coach temperature is a constant 76 degrees. Very comfortable.

Friday we had an easy morning and then set out to explore downtown Austin. This is a very funky city!

We needed to grocery shop so we went to Whole Foods. What a place!  We have never seen a Whole Foods as big as Austin's flagship store. You need a map to walk around.  Whole Foods had it's start in Austin and we found this old picture of the original store.

The first Whole Foods

Wow, free?

20 ft high wall of "living plants" Really beautiful!

Great way to get around Austin




There are food trucks everywhere with every kind of food you can imagine!

More great street food

Parking in Austin. Small rules!

                         

Great place for lunch

                   

Need I say more?

A condominium that was started and never completed has become the amazing Baylor Street Art Wall.
Crowded with photographers, tourists and the artists themselves, it's a great place to spend a couple of
hours.  The art is constantly changing so it's always a work in progress!

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Arrived Llano, Tx

We arrived in Llano, Texas Friday 29th of June. Llano is a small, old, sleepy Texas town with a population of approximately 3300 residents.We are visiting Linda's old friend Paul and wife Kimberly. Great people! They live on a farm they purchased last year. Paul from Long Island, NY has become the farmer and Kimberly is a OR nurse in a nearby hospital. They have a beautiful house with goats and chickens and sometimes unwanted visitors like scorpions, snakes etc.

2 week old goats

Mom with her babies

Goat with attitude

We stayed at an RV park on the river which was beautiful!

Paul and Kimberly took us to a place called the Slab.  Slabs of concrete were layed over the dry river beds to get across.  They've since made it more of a one lane road but it's still under water at certain times of the year.  It was really gorgeous.  There is a lot of flint which the Apache indians made into knives, etc., and

the rock is beautiful granite.  It was an amazing day.

Voted Best Bar-B-Q in Texas several years in a row is Cooper's in Llano.  It really was fabulous!!

Another favorite watering hole is Castell general store in a sleepy little town, but don't be fooled. On the weekends 700 people come on a Friday or Saturday to drink beer and listen to music. Even our little car would have parking problems. A really cool place!

Next stop Carlsbad, NM.  Come back soon !

We left Baton Rouge, La this morning for Texas. It lightly rained most of the way but travel speed was consistently 60 mph without any problems. We stopped for the night about 10 miles outside East Houston at a very nice RV park called "San Jacinto Riverfront RV Resort". It was still raining when we arrived and unfortunately, we leave for Austin in the morning. Would have been nice to have been able to enjoy walking the Riverfront. However, we'll be staying in Austin for 2 to 3 days before visiting our friends in Llano, which should be a lot of fun.

Here is the Route from Baton Rouge to Llano, Texas which is located Northwest of Austin:

It was amazing that Route 10, a major East/West thoroughfare, was in such poor condition. It took the first 30 or so miles before it became smooth driving. Imagine every 20 feet going over a cement slab that had a height change, bump-bump for 30 miles? Because we bounced around, we stayed between 50 and 55 mph the whole distance until it became bearable to drive.

Crossing from Louisiana into Texas at the " Welcome Center" we found a beautiful Texas Lone Star sculpture about 35 feet tall which was really striking and a sign we thought a little unusual for growing up in NYC. 

Our Rolling Ritz!

We arrived late yesterday (Sunday) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is muggy, worse than South Florida. We slept in and then went to a nearby Camping World to get a silly spare part. They didn't have the part so we went to another RV dealer who will order and drop ship it for us. All I have to do is give him a ship address, once I figure that out.

Here is our route from Navarre Beach, FL to Baton Rouge.

The Visitors Center in Louisiana has beautiful sculptures made from wood salvaged from the Katrina devastation. There is a tremendous amount of art that has been born from this tragedy.

Our first night out after five days of cooking in the RV was worth the wait.

Our Rolling Ritz!

We started our trip from home last Thursday and drove about 4 1/2 hours to Ocala and stayed in a very basic KOA campground overnight. We were really exhausted!  Driving the RV takes a lot of physical
effort.

The next morning we drove another 4 1/2 hours to Navarre Beach on the Gulf Coast.  I think it's hotter in the Panhandle than in South Florida.  We were stuck in construction delays west of Tallahassee and the outside temperature on the highway reached 107.9 degrees!!  That was hot!!

Here's the route we drove:

Driving this RV is a little intimidating but easy once I got the hang of it. 

Santa Rosa RV Resort Navarre Beach, FL

We were lucky to get into this RV park as there were a lot of festivals and competitions going on this

weekend.  Everything was booked.  This was a spot with a beautiful view of the Gulf Sound with

fabulous breezes which we needed in the 97 degree heat!

Getting set up for our stay.

Lilly spent most of her time under the RV (the coolest places around)!  If we could have we would have crawled under there with her!

Relaxing

We're finally settled in and Peter is thinking of Vodka and Pellegrino!