Brushy Creek, Texas, June 2017

Brushy Creek

I never found the town center.  Have theorized it is really part of Cedar Park, but I'm not really sure.  I took a picture of the Elementary School insteand.  The whole area looks like developments with recent main road, but with rural (older?) roads around the edges.

Leander, Texas, June 2017

Leander

Although easy to miss driving on 183 (all you see is a 7-11 and a weighing station), this is a city that is increasing in size rapidly.  The "downtown" is still rather sleepy with several local businesses often in converted homes.  However, there is a lot of development in the area.

Round Rock, Texas, June 2017

Round Rock

This city has a much more modern city hall, right next to a business development building (and a parking lot).  The main street was full of local shops and appeared quite busy (although it was a long weekend).  I also discovered that the city center was not too far from where I got on the 35 to drive up to Dallas when I first moved down to Austin.

There were plenty of eating establishments to choose from, as well as sweet shops and other trinkets.  There were no bookstores that I saw.  I stopped in for a drink and then got back on the road.

Also, sorry about the blurry photos.  It was overcast and the camera had a hard time dealing with it.

Georgetown, Texas, June 2017

Intro
On June 4 and 5, 2017 I decided to start visiting other cities and towns in Williamson County, Texas since this is now where I live. Although I live in a rural area, I'm still part of the Austin developed area. Driving further away from the state capital puts me into decidedly rural areas, even within Williamson County. The cities and towns are listed in the order I visited them, except for a collection of peculiar locations listed as my last post.

Georgetown
This is the county seat so I found the county courthouse, effectively in a center square. In the square were many markers and some statues usually about people that were significant in the founding or development of Georgetown. One marker of more recent vintage was dedicated to a lawyer who was one of the first in the nation to prosecute the KKK. Around the central square were a wide variety of shops and some office fronts all for local businesses. There is a university in the town which I didn't visit, but I did make it to Lake George. I spent some time at the shoreline around a picnic area. Later I found out if I had driven in a different direction I could have gone over the dam that created Lake George.

Sunday August 10, 2014 Montana, Idaho and Wyoming

Left Great Falls heading down Interstate 15.  Part of this retraced my drive up from Alpine, but I kept going south into southern Idaho but took some other roads to avoid going into Utah (too far west).  I don't remember exactly where I took the pictures but I was obviously still in the Rockies.  I do remember that once I got off the Interstate I found a valley that looked almost perfect.  There were wheat fields on both sides of the road and a few houses here and there.  Further in it wasn't quite so perfect with at least one abandoned hotel and a somewhat cheesy water park before I found my hotel.

Saturday August 9, 2014 Great Falls, Montana

Today I went out to see several sites around Great Falls.  The first stop was a sculpture on the banks of the Missouri showing Lewis & Clark and Sacagawea looking upriver.  Up close the sculpture is abstract made up of metal pieces.

Next we went to the fishery and park around a river/spring that feeds into the Missouri.  It's right on the river and you can see various birds floating on or flying over the water.

After that we went down-river to Rainbow Falls, which wasn't much of a falls with the new construction.  A dam blocks off the river to feed it into a new generator plant.  The river picks up again around the bend but the falls themselves are pretty dry.  While we were at the lookout point there was a crowd of people who apparently just finished racing down the river.  There was a tent in the middle of the parking lot and a lot of people around it.  Other than overhearing some announcements, I didn't try to find out much more.

The last stop was the city visitors center which has a large traditional monument to Lewis and Clark near the parking lot and a life-size abstract Native American sculpture out front of the visitor center.  There is also a great view of the city.

All and all a nice relaxing day.

Wednesday August 6, 2014 through Idaho to Montana

Got on the road at 8:30 AM – earliest so far.  It turns out that Alpine is only a few miles from the border with Idaho.  Basically, I got gas at the edge of town, drove another mile or so and ran into a sign saying “Welcome to Idaho”.  The morning was overcast but not raining, at least to start.  The road ran next to the Snake River for some time.  I stopped and took some pictures of a dam across the river, but it was one of many dams from what a sign said.
I made it to Idaho Falls without much delay and immediately got on the I15.  I was expecting this to be the simplest leg of the journey.  Two things made this a bit of a challenge.  The first part was the rain.  It started again pretty much from when I got on the I15 and didn’t let up for about 70 miles.  It was heavier some times and lighter at other times, but it was pretty much constant until I got over the crest of the Rockies (there was a sign announcing the location of the Continental Divide).  Past that point the rain stopped almost immediately (at least that’s how I remember it).
The second thing that proved a bit of a challenge (at least in testing whether I can read directions) was the intersection of the I15 and I90.  It turns out there is about an 8 mile stretch where the two merge and to get back on the I15 requires that you go to surface streets (at least by my directions).  Getting on the I90 for a while wasn’t a problem.  Realizing that there was a turn while on the surface streets was.  I almost missed the turn mostly because I hadn’t read the directions carefully until just before the turn.
Back on the I15 I basically went over a series of mountains into different valleys – some developed, some not.  I also saw a second sign indicating I had crossed the continental divide.
Finally, after about 8 hours I sighted structures from the Great Falls Airport.  I keep forgetting that the airport is south and west of the city.  Total distance about 435 miles.