So It Begins... [Belton, TX]

I like driving. I like taking pictures. I also like writing. I live in Texas. It's only taken me about ten years to combine all these things into a blog. It's only really been possible in the last five years, though, so that's an excuse for you. This weekend, though, I was writing in my 'travel' journal and thought, "Ya know, you could be blogging this, too. Somebody might find it interesting." I already have a blog but it's sort of a mish-mash of a bunch of different things. I got the hankerin' to put something together that would be strictly about travelling.

Since I don't like travelling in general, I tend to stay in one place. Luckily, that one place turns out to be Texas and Texas is, if you haven't checked a map lately, really big. If you want a peek into how my brain works, it's totally okay for me to travel in-state because I consider it 'local.' Much in the same way I would balk at spending $100 for one item from one store but have no trouble spending $10 in ten different stores, I'll go places here that I would never do when I lived in New Jersey.

For example, yesterday, on a whim, I drove 144 miles. That was just wandering around, but let's say I drove 122 miles and then turned around to go back home. Had I been living in New Jersey, still, I could gone anywhere in this circle:

Where you can go in 122 miles

I tell you this: I wouldn't go anywhere on the edge of that circle. Not only because a significant portion falls into the Atlantic Ocean, but just because I wouldn't think of driving to Albany. Or Connecticut. Or halfway through Pennsylvania. It just wouldn't happen. A trip like any of those would require planning and supplies. But here, in Texas, it's a matter of thinking, "Hey, I think I'll drive around a bit."

Yesterday I drove up I35 almost to Waco before heading west to Moody. I don't actually remember what road I took to get to Moody but I do know that when I turned around at a Family Dollar Store I ended up going back the same way that I came which ended up, somehow, not being the way I got there. I'm also surprised at how many dollar stores end up in the seemingly middle of nowhere. 

Anyway, I turned back onto SH317 which, eventually, runs right into I35 to the south. Had I turned left (or hadn't stopped at all) I would have ended up in Crawford which is something I had been planning to do for a couple of weeks now. I had I gone to Mexico Lindo for lunch and read my notes I may have gone there. But I didn't. I headed south on the highway that Wikipedia says was designated in 1939. It is a long, straight, small stretch of road with not much besides horses and cows to look at. It does have a high speed  limit of 70-75MPH. I wonder what it looked like back in 1939. I wonder if it was even paved in 1939. 

Texas State Highway 317 runs through Belton. I have been to a park on a lake in Belton, but I hadn't been in the city itself until yesterday. SH317 runs through the downtown section which is the 'original' town. It's got old buildings that look neat. It also had a park that I could see from the road so I turned off, parked, and took some pictures.

Brown Pigeon. Or Dove. Take your pick.

Chinese Goose

Muscovy Duck

Yetti Polk Park is on Nolan Creek

Another place I wish I had stopped to eat lunch at

Nolan Creek runs through Belton. I really love it when water runs through a town. Granted, it's no San Antonio, but it looks nice and if you ever want to be near water to hear it gurgling, well, you can do that. I really wish I had spent more time there and explored the downtown section. 

It's not the best entry for a travel blog, but it is a start. I have a whole list of places that I'd like to visit one day so I hope that this blog grows quite a bit.