Day 2 – Deep in the Heart of Texas

We are in Elgin, Texas tonight just east of Austin. It’s been a beautiful day with sunny skies and low 80’s. It did start out in the low 40’s though. Heated seats and cruise control are things I never thought were needed on a motorcycle, but I’m really starting to like those features, along with the quick-shifter and electronically adjustable suspension.

We have spent most of the day in Texas and we are both surprised how green and lush eastern Texas is. Trees, pastures, and cattle. Big ranches and huge ranches. And sometimes a lot of traffic. Despite all the beautiful scenery, l still didn’t get any pictures today. The big divided highways were very busy and the small two-lanes didn’t have shoulders but still had the 70 mph speed limits.

This blog will be a little different the next couple of days. It will be predominantly motorcycle content and not scenic travel…that will resume Monday with the hill country. You can tune out or not. MotoGP is incredible if you don’t know much about it. TBS network will carry Sunday’s race live mid-afternoon if you’re interested. TV hardly does it justice as is probably true of all motorsports. The speed and the sound just has to be experienced in person.

If Texas were its own country, it would be the 40th largest in land area. With an area of 268,820sqmi, Texas is second only to Alaska’s landmass. Texas also has the fastest average legal speed at 78.3 mph. In a stretch of toll road located between Austin and San Antonio, the speed limit is 85 mph.