To escape the ever-decreasing temperatures, we decided to take a long weekend to Texas – a state where we still have a lot of counties to collect. Texas has more counties than any other U.S. state – 254 in all. And it takes many visits to complete it. So, what better time than now?
We flew out on a Thursday night, rented a Silver Volkswagen
Atlas upon our arrival, and spent the night in Dallas at the Hyatt Place Dallas
/ Las Colinas. On Friday, we spent the day in the hotel, as I had to work. But
for dinner, we decided to try the Brasao Brazilian Steakhouse, which was
basically a block away from our hotel. If you like endless high-quality meat, I
cannot recommend anything higher. Be sure to check it out! After dinner we
toyed with the idea of picking up three new counties northwest of our hotel.
But instead, we decided to grab them in the morning.
On Saturday morning, we got up early to start our county-collecting day. We headed northwest through the city of Denton and continued on until we reached HWY 455. From there, we drove a few miles farther and crossed three counties within a few minutes of each other – Wise, Cooke, and Montague. They all met at a tri-point, a little northwest of the small city of Slidell.
From there, we doubled back east, driving (what seemed like forever) on the north side of the Dallas metro area. We eventually found ourselves on HWY 69 heading southeast, as we entered Rains County. At the city of Emory, we continued east and entered Wood County as we approached the Lake Fork Reservoir. From there, we continued on to the town of Winnsboro. Weaving north through the town, we entered Franklin County. Turning northwest, we found ourselves in Hopkins County one mile later.
For the remainder of the day, we headed mostly south, picking up Camp, Upshur (where we picked up lunch at the McDonald’s in Gilmer), Gregg, Rusk, Smith, and Cherokee Counties. As we neared the city of Alto, we turned left on HWY 21, drove about two miles, and crossed into Nagodoches County. We then turned around and headed back, moving south and west through Houston, Trinity, and Walker Counties. As we reached the city of Riverside, we were supposed to take a left turn to pick up San Jacinto County. Unfortunately, we weren’t paying attention and drove about five miles past our turnoff. When we realized our mistake, we double backed to Riverside, found HWY 980, drove another five miles, and picked up the new county. At this point, we had an almost straight shot to our destination city of College Station. However, we had one more county stop to make. As we headed west on HWY 30, we turned off on a gravel side road and did a few twists and turns until we crossed into Montgomery County. Much to our surprise, there was county sign and a paved road!
Our destination was the Hyatt House Bryan/College Station. However before checking in, we stopped at Texas A&M University. Why? We had to visit the grave of U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who is buried on the grounds. We only had about 30 minutes to spare. So, we did a quick run through his library building before walking around a small lake behind it to reach his final resting place.
That evening, we dined at a small diner-type place in Bryan called Third On Main. Their menu items are a little unique, but they were quite tasty. We recommend checking them out!
On Sunday morning, we set out for San Antonio. Our three-hour
drive was a straight shot, as we'd already been to all the counties in the area – a very unusual situation for us! So, off we went, stopping in New
Braunfels for lunch at Whataburger. Our hotel was the Hyatt Regency at the San
Antonio Riverwalk. We had some time to kill before check-in. So why not
get a few new counties? To that end, we found the Packers/Bears game streaming
on my phone., and as the Packers won, we picked up Bandera, Medina, and Frio
Counties, which are all to the west of San Antonio. When we drove back to the
city, we checked in and were happy to discover that our room faced the Alamo.
We’d visited the Alamo a couple times previously. Why not tour it again?
We walked the Riverwalk and basically crossed the street to get there. On the
way back, we stopped at Casa Rio for a Mexican dinner next to the river. We fed
a few chips to a giant duck named Howard.
On Monday, we started our trip back to Dallas. Naturally, we
didn’t take the direct route. To that end, we headed north on HWY 281 out of
San Antonio, eventually crossing into Burnet County. A few miles later, we
turned left on HWY 71 and drove straight into Llano County. At the city of
Llano, we turned north onto HWY 16, crossing into San Saba and Mills Counties. We
stopped for a quick snack at Donut City in Goldthwaite. I recommend the
Jalapeno bagel dogs. Great prices too! From there, we headed east on HWY 84,
entering Hamilton County. A few minutes later, as we exited into the city of Evant,
we entered Coryell County. From there, we went south on HWY 281 for a little
over a mile until we crossed into Lampasas County. At that point, we turned
around and headed on an (almost) straight shot into Dallas. There was one final
stop however. In the town of Hico, we got off the main highway, went east on
HWY 6 for about three miles, and entered Bosque County – our last new county of
the trip.
As we got into Dallas, we found ourselves with some extra
time before we needed to go to the airport. So, we drove downtown and drove
through Dealey Plaza, the site of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. We didn’t
have time to stop and explore some of the history there. We’ll save that for a
future trip. We did however stop for lunch at Heim Barbecue – right across the
street from Love Field. Again, we highly recommend it!
When it was all said and done, our weekend getaway netted us
30 new counties. So, what’s next? Well, we have a trip to Las Vegas, Utah, and
Arizona planned for late February. However, it won’t net us any new counties
because we’ve already finished all three of those states. County-wise… stay
tuned!
