Road Trip 2018 - Day Three, Moving On To Louisiana

Today was another day for covering a lot of distance. We moved on from the Texas Hill Country on to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Louisiana is one of a few states Captain Spouse has not been to and one of only two states I had not been to. Well make that only one (Alaska now). It was around a six and a half hour drive. We are staying in a very nice Airbnb apartment here for a couple of nights with one full day to check out the town.

Before we left the Hill Country, there was one last town we wanted to visit, Gruene. As it was Sunday morning, we had the place pretty much to ourselves which was good because it was clear that when it got busy it would be like the other towns of the Hill Country that had turned us off. More on this below with pictures. But first time for a little rant.

Please take the following with a grain of salt for it is totally unscientific and based on literally two days of experiential data.

What the heck is wrong with a certain class of man in Texas. I speak of the male who lives in the highly populated areas (I will define them as Austin/San Antonio/Houston as we were not in or near Dallas/Fort Worth) who feel the only way they can prove they are 'a real man' or 'are some kind of stud' or 'my XXX is bigger than anyone else's' is by buying the freaking largest, most powerful pick-up truck they can and then driving it at obnoxious speeds, tailgating other people in intimidating ways, trying to show how big their whatever is?

It was weird. You know these people are not the kind who use their pick-ups for real work. We were all over West Texas where people work hard at agriculture and oil & gas and no one drives like that. In fact we've been all over the West and Midwest and never seen this behavior. And you know what? As soon as we got over the border to Louisiana, the behavior disappeared. People still had the big trucks  and liked to drive fast but felt no need to intimidate anyone. They were content to let the traffic open up before picking up their speed again. Toward the end of our day after 3 hours driving in Louisiana, someone big ass truck was again barreling down on me riding my tail. I got over. Texas license plates.

Pictures

Sunset from our hotel in New Braunfels

Welcome to Gruene and its famous Water Tower

Things start slowly at the General Store in a town with a zillion restaurants and bars

Getting to work for the Sunday Brunch rush

The historic (well everything in the town is historic!) Gruene Mansion Inn

Vasily, if you are still following this, see, I learned!

Always love catching people

Saw this group of ladies

And was taken by their boots

Turns out they are a family from Omaha

Three Generations!

The Mom was on her way to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta with her husband

I educated her on the State Question (red or green) and the way to show you really know (Christmas - red and green!)

Windmill

Misc