THE CAPITAL OF TEJAS

25 May 2013: Day  11 of 43 – Austin TEXAS.
Overnight in Houston TEXAS.
Today 315km, Total 4,595km. 

It was pouring when we arrived into the capital of Texas, Austin at around 4pm on 24 May 2013. Lucky for us that the storm caught us about 5 miles from our hotel. Since it continued to rain and our rooms where more like mini-apartments complete with kitchen, dishwasher, microwave and stove and the was a massive Wal-Mart just up the road, we all decided to have a home cooked dinner that night. After shopping we managed to get slightly lost for the first time but eventually made it back to the hotel to cook up our own storm. It was delicious – Olives stuffed with Jalapeno, Chilli Chicken, Chilli Porterhouse, Avocado Salad, Steamed Vegies and a huge tub of strawberries to finish it all off. Naturally plenty of wine to help us sleep better. The next morning it was grey and sprinkling so we headed for the Bob Bullock Texas Museum that I had read about. This museum is terrific and huge. It is downtown and  consists of three levels of interactive display that lay out the complete history of Texas and of course Austin. Bob Bullock was Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1990-1999 and was responsible for funding and building the museum so that future generations of Texan children could learn about the history of Texas. Back in 1528, the Spanish claimed Texas along with all of Mexico and called it “Tejas”. Spain and France consistently fought over Tejas until 1821 when Mexico won its independence from Spain and made Tejas a state of Mexico.

By this time Tejas was populated mainly by Mexicans but ironically had problems with “illegal immigrants” coming in from other US states. From 1835 there was a revolution in Frejas and it won its independence in only 18min on 21 April 1836 at the famous battle at San Jacinto where General Sam Houston defeated Mexican forces after they destroyed the 13 day siege of the Alamo just a month earlier. Stephen F Austin (former citizen of Mexico) was instrumental in lobbying for independence. Sam Houston became the first President of the renamed independent “Republic of Texas” and the capital named Austin to honour Stephen – a country in its own right – up until December 1845 when most citizens agreed to join the union to become the 28^th state of the USA.

This decision was largely driven by poverty and debt – Texas need money to rebuild and the American Civil War made things worse. After the Civil War the Texan population and economy exploded with the discovery of oil and the first oil well in Spindletop in 1901. Texas was also the main supplier of wheat, cotton and rice to the Union during and after the Civil War since although hot and dry, Texas has 23 massive underground freshwater lakes called “aquifiers” which enabled agriculture and the cattle industry to thrive. The first Texas cowboys appeared as Spanish Missionaries in 1730 and the first cattle drives started in 1866. 

This excellent and highly informative museum is very close to the Capitol Building, built in 1888 of pink granite and the largest of all state capital buildings. We drove around it as it was still sprinkling outside and ended up at the Whole Foods Market. This is a huge supermarket surrounded by extensive food stalls that sell only organic produce and products from wine to chocolate coated crisps. Austin is very big on organic food and is also now considered the new Gay Capital of America.

Austin is also popular for hard rock bars and pubs with two huge annual concerts. Bubba discovered a late night show as I was blogging that was interviewing an Energy Expert who said: the USA has immense gas and oil reserves still underground. If the greenies do not interfere there is at least 150 years worth of gas and in 10 years the USA will NOT have to import ANY oil!!! Amazing. So much for the "urgent" need for clean energy.
In the early afternoon we set out on our 3.5hr drive to Houston. By this time the clouds had lifted and some blue was showing but it was still a moist 32C outside.