The first thing we did was invade
my house. The other occupants thought I’d be gone the entire day, so I’m
sure we surprised Rob when we came barreling in the door. Rob then quickly grabbed his bowl of cereal
and removed his bathroom-clad person to his room. We took enough time to
loiter at the house so the family could get the nickel tour. My parents
had seen pictures of the house, but it was nice for them to see my abode in
person.
With the house located off of Anderson Mill Road ,
it was pretty simple for us to pick up Route 620 and head west towards our
first destination. The section of 620 we were on was pretty sparse, as
there were only a few some housing complexes from here to intersection known as
Four Points. Mary did notice the driving range, and wanted to be able to
get a round of golf in while she was here. She’s got a collapsible golf
club which she brought with her. Past the intersection which makes up
Four Points, we continued west into a more affluent section (known as Lakeway).
With the rolling hills, and expensive-looking lake-front houses, this
reminded us of sections of Lake George back in the Adirondacks .
We passed the massive Mansfield
Dam, but a quick turn to a side road brought us to the parking area overlooking
the structure. It was a nice high elevation everyone could use to get a
view of the Texas
hill country. The sun was warm and beautiful this day, and we all had to
get out and soak it up. As I’d been here for a short time, I’d adapted to
the nice weather. Everyone else was enjoying the warmth, but if they were
still in New York
they’d be bundled up in their winter coats right now.
Mary produced a beer from a cooler
she’d stashed in the car. I did let her know this was a public area, and
there was a park and boat launch area nearby, so she should keep the can out of
site. While I didn’t see any signs that said anything, there may be
ordinances about open containers here. Mary then proceeded to pour it
into a water bottle for camouflage. Funny how I’m the one who’s
acting like the responsible adult here.
Mansfield Dam was completed in
1942, as a series of dams built as part of the way to control the flooding of
the Colorado River . This created an area behind it known as the Highland Lakes Lake Travis Sacandaga Lake back in New York State
I did mention to the family that
I’d driven over here a few months back, and the spillways were open. That
was a pretty interesting sight to see the mist created by gallons of water
flowing over the dam, and crashing down far below the bridge (which winds its
way in front of it).
A gate was blocking access to the
top of the dam, for safety and security reasons. When the dam was first constructed, the main
road went across the top of it, but traffic congestion forced the construction
of the bridge that loops around the front of it. In the center of the
parking area where we were was a small hill with a single tree on. While there were a few other trees here and
there, this was the highest elevation point we could reach. We could see
all the houses along the shore, most of which are private residences.
Looking past the Dam (in the direct
which we’d driven to get here), we could see there was a marina in one of the
inlets. As it was close to where the road was, we figured it we
back-tracked a little, we might be able to get to it.
But something else attracted our
attention. Towering over the house-filled hills was a large lighthouse.
There’s not much navigating which would need to be done on a confirmed
lake area, so we doubted it was a real lighthouse. We figured it had to
be a private residence, so it was interesting enough for us to get closer to
it. We drove down a few roads here and there, which brought us to the
entrances to gated communities (that we didn’t have access to). There was
no way to get close to the thing, but it then occurred to me what it was.
It was a water tower painted to look like a lighthouse. That was a
pretty clever way to blend it into the surroundings.
Our next objective was to get the
marina. We went back along 620 a little bit, and I didn’t see any roads
that matched what was on my MapCo book. As the boat launch was on the
side of the Dam we’d just left, it made sense there were no roads down to this
inlet. But if people were going to park their boats here, then there had
to be a way to reach it. I had Bruce pull into a church, which faced over
the lake. We might be able to find a footpath going down. We didn’t
find one, but the family enjoyed the exterior design of the church at least.
Some of the trees on the hillside obstructed the view of the marina.
If there was a way to get to docks, then it was inside a gated community. A sign mentioned this was the Marshall Ford
Marina. Marshall Ford was also the
original name of Mansfield Dam.
From there, I decided to give them
a whirlwind tour of the layout of the Austin
area. We backtracked to Four Points, and got lunch at a Subway. It’s amazing that adults wanted to into the
liquor store next door and grab stuff this early in the day. I pointed out we can get that closer when we
return to the hotel. So once my charges
were packed back into the car, we picked up Route 2222 (so we’d go down one of
the most extreme hills in Austin ),
and then went south on 360. Yeah, this was the same drive I took to work,
and the family wanted to see my place of employment. Not too far after
turning onto 360, we crossed a section of the Colorado
River . We went over the Pennybacker
Bridge we went over had a similar
design to the Twin Bridges (just north of Albany ,
NY Austin was still hilly,
but we had enough elevation so the family could see how far that terrain
continued to extend. This area was known
as West Lake Hills.
Soon we arrived at my work. A
one-story brick building really wasn’t much to look at, but it was nice to show
the family the place where I was busy making money. Unisys is a technical support company that
takes contracts from various businesses or entities. I work on the
Homeland Security (TSA) account, doing password resets for drones at the
Pentagon, and walking airport security people how to reboot the screening machines.
From seeing how much the people charged with protecting the safety of our
country are complete and total morons, is it any wonder I drink when I get home
from work?
There really wasn’t much to see in
the area, so we hopped on Mopac and shot northward. As we crossed Town Lake
(which technically is another section of the Colorado River), it allowed the
family to get a nice view of the Austin
skyline. Continuing on, we passed the
military installation of Camp
Mabry
Mopac (which is owes its name to
the “Missouri-Pacific Railway”) is also known as Loop
1. But as with most of the roads in Austin ,
there’s another name, especially when a new road is built to connect to an
existing road. Also, the routes have
different names in front of the numbers (thus slightly varying signs). 620 is technically “RM 620” (for “Ranch to Market Road ”), some
others start with “FM” (for “Farm to Market”), and some don’t even have letter
designations. So I’m not trying to be
repetitive when I keep saying “route” here, but that was the easier way to refer
to the roads.
At one point Mopac became Route
1325. I don’t think I saw any signs changing, but we didn’t think
anything different of the two-lane divided highway becoming a regular two lane
road. Next thing we knew the road we were on had brought us almost to the
front door of a business. It looked like
Dell. After a consultation with the
MapCo book, I quickly figured that we’d ended up in Round Rock. A couple
of quick right turns got us on to Interstate 35, which we took south until came
to it’s exchange with 183. A few more turns took us down Burnet Road , and
then Braker, which brought us back to the hotel. Can you say that was a
pretty roundabout way to get back?
We loitered at the pool for a
little bit to cool off after being in the car most of the day. We opted
for the early dinner, and were told where a Fuddruckers was (as that was a
burger chain the family liked). I hadn’t eaten at one before, so it was
fine by me. The closest location was nearby on Anderson Lane . We consumed mass
quantities of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. I found the food to be
okay, but it really wasn’t that impressed by it. It was food, and I was
hungry, so I was good. I also made sure
to take the family over to corner store so they could obtain some cold
brew. Priorities, people. Secure food first, then booze. Now my friends see where I get this from.
For current information on the places visited or mentioned:
Sacandaga
Reservoir: http://www.edinburgny.com/ReservoirHistory.html
Marshall
Ford Marina: http://www.marinequest.net/marshallford/
Twin
Bridges (Thaddeus
Kosciusko Bridge
### 30 ###
No comments:
Post a Comment