Texas, May 2012

Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star state. Texas has vast open spaces and great distances. The east of Texas is green with forests and fields with crops. The west is dry and with few cities. Texas is much larger than France in Europe and has 25 million inhabitants.
During our stay in the US, we travelled Texas three times in all: once from east to Austin and return, next from east to west and last from north to southeast.

Click each photo to enlarge

We hired a car and went from New Orleans through the state of Louisiana all the way to Austin in the heart of Texas. One of our owners has relatives living in Austin so this was a great opportunity to go and visit the capitol of Texas.
Here we are refuelling at Love's somewhere on the Interstate 10 motorway. We had hired a Chevrolet and it was a great car. Fast and swift.

Texas, May 2012

Having refuelled, we enjoyed some coffee and refreshments. McBear said he was going to have a look at something, so he left. Roger got suspecious. Shortly after, Roger sneaked out and found McBear studying a couple of huge trucks at the car park behind the petrol station.
"McBear, WHAT are you doing?" Roger started to tease.
"What? Oh... eh... well... I was just going to see if there were any changes..." McBear started to explain.
"CHANGES? McBear, those trucks look exactly the same as the ones you were studying when we toured Denver in 2008 and again in Chicago in 2009. They look exactly the same as the ones you were studying all the way across America in 2002!"
"Well, okay-okay! But it could have been they'd have some updates..."

We stayed in a lovely house in the outskirts of Austin. This was the home of the Larsen family. We had a great evening with mr. og mrs. Larsen and their lovely huge dog Lady.

Austin, Texas, May 2012

The next day mr. Larsen took us to downtown Austin for sightseeing. He showed us the capitol. It's an amazing building. On the front of the building is the seals of the six different nations which has ruled Texas throughout history: first the Spainyards, then the French, the Mexicans, then Texas as an independent nation, the Confederation (before the civil war) and lastly the United States.
On top of the capitol is the statue of a goddess, the goddess of liberty, however, we discovered she's an ugly looking goddess!

Nearly a week later we once again found ourselves crossing the Texan border along the Interstate 10 motorway. In general we enjoyed the views sitting on the backseat of the car or even in the front, however, there were times like this we had to enter the backpack, being carried to some place, get out, pose in front of yet another sign - this time the Texas border sign - and then return to the backpack!
"All this in and out wears out my fur!" Tom was moaning. "I'm a soft bear, you know!"
"Keep climbing!" McBear was complaining at the bottom as he was supporting Tom. "Each complaint you make seems to add another gram or two to your weight! Phew!"
"Hand me your paw," Roger said and helped Tom climb the backpack.

We stopped in Baytown not too far from Houston, the largest city in Texas. Here, we enjoyed lunch. We were driving a Nissan this time and it turned out to be a great barging.
We reached San Antonio and stayed with more relatives of one of our humans; the Pyles family. Mrs. Pyles made a fabulous dinner: Mexican enchilada and a gorgeous dessert with fresh berries. Yummy! McBear, surprise-surprise, had too much to eat and could hardly move. This time however, we refused to carry McBear to bed. Instead, as a lesson, we rolled him across the floor!

Sonora, Texas, May 2012

Next day we headed west along the Interstate 10. We stopped for coffee and for refuelling in Sonora, a small village far from other towns and cities. It seemed we had reached the wild west - at least the south west as some of the signs were written in Spanish.

In Fort Stockton we left the Interstate 10 and headed northwest on the 285 for the New Mexican border. The road seemed endless and dusty. Here we are in Pecos, 55 miles north of Fort Stockton.

Amarillo, Texas, June 2012

Having toured the Navajo Nation and crossed New Mexico from west to east, we reached Amarillo in the northern part of Texas. We stayed at the Holiday Day Inn and enjoyed a well deserved rest.
In the evening Roger fetched his western guitar and sang old goodies like "Is this the way to Amarillo" and "The yellow rose of Texas". Tom was singing along and he had a great voice. The rest of us were just humming.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in the western part of Amarillo.

Amarillo, Texas, June 2012

Amarillo marks the halfway point between Chicago and Los Angeles on the old Route 66. We went to see the remainings of what once was the famous road. Here we are on the 6th avenue near the city centre.

We started the car and headed east along the Interstate 40. Just east of Amarillo we heard a bang from the rear wheel, and we immediately pulled over. Flat tyre! And it was a Sunday and we'd expect garages to be closed! We managed to change the tyre and carried on another hour or two. Where would we get help?
In Memphis (no, not Elvis' Memphis in Tennessee) we were lucky to bump into a tyre station. We talked to the owner. He was about to close for the day but he could see we were in trouble, so he helped us replace the tyre. Phew! Saved by OK Tire in Memphis, Texas!

Quanah, Texas, June 2012

After the tyre had been replaced we were able to carry on. We stopped in Quanah to have a well deserved lunch. Quanah is an Indian name. In fact, there were lots of Indians in Texas in the 1800s.

Our last stop on the trip back to New Orleans was Greenville just north east of Dallas. To celebrate the success of our great wild west adventure, we enjoyed a great dinner: we had pizza from Mr. Joe's in Vernon, Iced tea from Starbucks, creme cheese from Amarillo and Beer from Albuquerque in New Mexico!

Greenville, Texas, June 2012

That night we all had a deep sleep!