Best of Daytrippin' 2015
Rain, potty breaks, and sand dunes make traveling Texas better
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Sept. 11, 2015
The Best of Texas Daytripping
This encompasses a lot of ground. As usual, we've seen new destinations open and some old favorites improve. If I had to choose three things that thrilled me this year they would be:
• Five-year drought finally over. The late Texas author J. Frank Dobie said, "Texas is in a perpetual drought broken by an occasional flood." The map in the Texas Drought Monitor for May 21, 2015, showed no part of the state in extreme drought conditions for the first time since November 2010. That meant swimming holes were active again and the East Texas blueberry crop was one of the best in recent memory.
• Safety rest areas on I-35 opened. Driving Texas' Main Street from Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth at least once a month, it's hard for me to find nice things to say about the interstate. It will be another two years before the construction is completed, but in the meantime we're finally seeing completed sections. Best of all, the rest areas north of Georgetown and south of Hillsboro are open. With my tiny bladder, that's a real time-saver.
• Mustang Island State Park grew by 690 acres. One of the best state parks on the Texas coast now encompasses 4,783 acres of dunes and beach. Best of all, it was paid for by two polluters on Corpus Christi Bay. As Port Aransas and Corpus Christi continue to grow, this section of the island will remain wild.
1,259th in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips" columns, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
