On the Road

“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” Jack Kerouac “On the Road”

On the front seat of our rental car lay travel maps of Texas, this mechanical GPS device attached to our car’s windshield and the excitement of wanderlust that neither one of us could quite describe.

We had exactly 48 hours to explore the hill country of the West Texas Plains and we planned on using every second of time at our disposal knowing we may never travel these roads again (together) at this exact moment in our lives.

The Houston morning was cool and dry and dark, the street lights still working overtime in the early hours of dawn when my daughter and I picked up my nephew Danny.  The three of us drove due west on the I-10 watching the majestic Houston skyscrapers disappear into our rear view mirror.

Lauren and Danny cousins in their early twenties are old souls, in how each sees the current world and how each respects the world that came before their existence.  Danny spoke freely about what he’s been up to these past few years living life away from his parents, trying new experiences, living off the land, meditating, writing and playing his guitar daily.  Lauren also spoke freely about her last four years of college, describing the changes she’s experienced along with her upcoming plans to visit London, Istanbul and Barcelona as part of her spring study abroad program.  While each was clearly living different lives, they easily intersected at points of common interest.

For this part of our journey, I was merely a silent passenger, occasionally adding a comment but mostly taking a photograph of the countryside as we blazed down the highway.    The radio station’s country music set list was merely background filler as I intently listened to these kids older than their years talk about topics ranging from stargazing to Instagram.  When did these kids grow up and where exactly did those years disappear to?  Towns with weird sounding names flashed by as the sun finally made its daily entrance partially hidden by the thick cloud cover overhead.

Finally, our GPS announced that we had Austin City in our limits.

The big city was still and quiet in the early morning.  With only a few cars driving the intertwining and looping roads and streets in between the skyscrapers, we felt like we just had discovered this metropolis.  After a few turns, we arrived at the Austin Motel, a throwback motel motor lodge from the late 30’s, lines of slanted cars parked in front of a row of one room bungalows.   Located on South Congress Avenue, a place the locals affectionately call SoCo.   It was a five block avenue where time truly stood still!

After breakfast at the Magnolia Café, we ventured to Sixth Street, with its collection of neon, obscure,   bizarre and trendy bars and restaurants.  From the original Coyote Ugly bar to the ridiculous Museum of the Weird, this nine block district promoted the city’s unofficial slogan – Keep Austin Weird.  We walked along, Lauren and I taking photos of the city sleeping.  Old signage, funky bars, murals, antique cars, metal and cement, flowers and ivy covered walls…..all of these sights came into our respective camera’s focus. 

We stumbled into this cool music store, Wild About Music, soaking in all things music.  Starting to feel in touch with my (new) Inner Country Child, I purchased my very first western shirt.  We bummed around the store conversing with the shop owners.   Eventually, we said our goodbyes to Danny at the corner of Sixth and Trinity Streets as his roommate picked him up as they headed back to San Marcos together.  It was now just me and Lauren for the last leg of our road trip.

Our evening pub crawl started with beers and burgers at Hopdoddy Burger Bar.  Lauren talked about her upcoming spring semester of college.  With her soon-to-be last months as a college student approaching, life was starting to peek its way into her direct line of sight.  We gave blessings for 2013 and wondered how we would fare in the coming year.  After finishing dinner, we walked the Strand in and out of these quirky gift shops, a couple of tipsy tourists taking iPhone photos of this surreal existence.  I gazed over at the Continental Club but the bar remained dark.   We rested at the Snack Bar, enjoying more beers near an outside chiminea, just watching people stroll by, listening to a local guitar player singing country songs ten feet from our table, not wanting the night to end.

Finally, the Continental Club opened its doors and over 50 years of rockabilly and country music came rushing over us.  If the Stone Pony was magically transported to West Texas it might have looked like this dive bar.  All that was missing was a straw grass floor.  The list of legendary performers to play this shoebox juke joint was staggering.  We sat in the front row of high-top bar seats drinking $3 local bottles waiting for the band to take the stage.   It was the real deal.  The moment was not lost on us.  We were lucky to be experiencing the local scene.  And when the show was over we walked across the street back to our throwback motel.   Wow……

Morning came too quickly as we awoke to an incredible blue azure sky peaking over the downtown cityscape.  It didn’t appear real.  Was it a dream?  Was our adventure last night a dream as well?  We packed up our car and said our last goodbyes to Austin thankful for the memories it had provided us.  I thought I heard the Jon Dee Graham band playing a sad tune as we headed out of town.  We headed south on the I-35.  However, the fickle weather gods disapproved of our cheery disposition and rewarded us with a steady rainfall that led us directly to San Antonio, our next destination.   

After a hearty breakfast, we walked down Commerce Avenue in the misting rain, taking photographs of old Spanish houses, parks, old movie theaters and churches making our way to El Mercado.  I quietly watched Lauren pointing her camera towards the people, places and things on display at the outdoor Mexican marketplace.  This image instantly brought back fond memories of our family’s vacation to Cancun only two years ago.

Around midday, we shared drinks and appetizers 750 feet high above San Antonio in the Tower of Americas built for the 1968 World’s Fair Expo.  As the restaurant circled the city, we talked about our highlights of the trip and the fun we’ve had these past 48 hours, together running away from our responsibilities not knowing what we would discover next.   

Next we headed south alongside the San Antonio river down the Mission Trail, in search of four individual and distinctive missions that were built in the late 1600s and early 1700s.   We walked around quietly and reservedly photographing the fragile remains of these ancient civilizations with our expensive cameras and phones wondering what life was like here over 300 years ago.  Could these early pioneers ever have imagined their past would be on display for a bunch of tourists from New Jersey in the year 2013?  Again, I was reminded of our family’s daytrip to Chichen Itza in 2011.    

Our little (inside) joke between Lauren and I is we are “The Explorers”.   It was then that I secretly prayed she and I would continue to explore the world together, photographing and journaling the sights of our adventures together.   I thought of all the amazing sights she would get to experience studying abroad in Europe this coming spring, just months before she becomes a college graduate!   I wanted her to see all these things and more.  I guess that is every parent’s dream….for their child(ren) to see more, experience more, do more, give more, receive more than we did.  Today, I wished those dreams for my only daughter.  As she goes out into the big world all alone, I will stand by and patiently wait for her return to the States, so that she can tell me all the stories and share with me the photos of her journeys.

Stubbornly, I looked at my watch with the time signaling back to me that it was time for us to leave.

We made our way back to the I-10 this time heading due east back to Houston town.  Our car raced forward on the interstate, the road ahead of us appearing darker than the road behind us.  Once we were within approximately 80 miles of our final destination the car radio picked-up The Arrow 93.7 FM with the local DJ counting down the Top 20 Classic Rock album closing songs.  After a commercial break, The Who’s Love, Reign, O’er Me was suddenly blasting out of our car speakers, with me and Lauren singing along with Roger Daltrey, each of us remembering seeing this legendary band play this album in its entirety this time last year.

I felt compelled to take once last gaze into the rear view mirror watching the sunset form a mosaic of magnificent orange, red and purple hues behind us.  I suddenly felt a sort of redemption for the Galveston Island Christmas morning sunrise that never materialized due to heavy cloud cover.  Hendrix’ Are You Experienced was the next song played.  I motioned for Lauren to take a photo from her passenger seat side mirror of the painted sky behind us.

When she pressed the shutter of her camera, I knew in that exact fleeting moment, that I would remember our dad and daughter West Texas road trip for years to come………..

“I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.”  Jack Kerouac “On the Road”

Dad and Daughter

West Texas Plains

December 26-28, 2013