This year, I was given the opportunity to attend NI Week in Austin, TX. I did this in 2008, and have made many trips to the Dallas area, so I wanted to take a different route than last time. I went out US-380, then turned on US-87 and headed southeast. This earned me quite a few new counties on HF.
I left around 8:00am, and by midday, I was in west TX. I snapped a few photos along the way.
As I crept east, the land became more hilly and much more covered with trees. This is why I don't chase in East Texas! Anyway, I did pass over a steel girder bridge somewhere along US-87 that I liked.
Once in Austin, I attended the conference, met all sorts of new people, and got a few things done while at the hotel. Even though this gallery is called 'Austin 2010', here is the only photo I took of Austin itself.
After the conference, I drove up to the Dallas area to visit Matt, Mindy, and Ian. Along the way, I decided to stop and look for the Branch Davidian Memorial. Once I got there, I saw why it was so hard to find- there is almost nothing there marking its location. There is a new church built directly over where the old structure burned. There is a memorial at the gate, and that's about it. I was amazed at how small this place actually was- the TV crews were so far away during the Federal invasion that it made this place out to be some giant fortress. When you get there, you see that it was a slightly larger-than-average church. There are large trees all around the 'compound' that are older than 17 years, and don't look burned or bulldozed, giving a relative size to the place. You can also walk along and tell that there is concrete below your feet, below the few inches of dirt and grass. That's about all that remains of the old Branch Davidian Church.
After a pleasant visit with my friends, including a trip to their respective companies and a steak at Willie Nelson's bar, I headed east through the backroads until I got to I-10. From there, I went back the way I've gone before, sleeping along the roadside as I got tired. Here is a photo of sunset somewhere near Brownfield, TX.
