The trip to Austin

I've said goodbye to the folks in Albuquerque and moved on to Austin.  

It was an 11 hour drive through some of central Texas.  This is a place I've not been.   I was impressed with the scenery,  marred as so much is, with "green"  energy projects.  But rolling and green and pretty. 

The route took me through a lot of small towns and empty areas.   The towns that didn't look healthy has abandon store fronts and buildings and businesses for sale.   It looked like they had been for sale for a long time.

Gas was a bit spotty,  but I'm used to a station every 3 blocks and not every 50 miles. They do the fifty cent bump to premium here too,  as in NM.

There were areas that had middle sized cliffs that surrounded a valley.  Which are the evidence that in some prior times,  this dry area was once an ocean.   How can someone look at that and what had to cause it and suggest we wee humans can "ruin"  the earth or that this period of earth's geologic condition is perfect and we have to / should preserve it as is?

The car worked ok,  but there are still alignment / balance issues with the front tires.  They are starting to wear some on the outer edges and there are various singing noises at speed and a touch of steering wheel shimmy.  I should never had had them rotated.

I finished my second Jack Reacher book and started some light hearted drivel set in Florida.  The Reached one ended well as they all do. 

I've found that the books provide the means to remove the monotony from the driving.  Turn them off and I'm bored very quickly.  Back on and I don't mind rolling along. 

It also looks like the anti-lock (auto corrected to anti-social) brake system is a bit confused.   I've made an appointment for Monday to get it looked at.   If the brake system is going out,  it will be a few thousand to put it right.   The Gtis are known for this a bit.   Vw does proprietary programming and you are locked into their repair.  

There are a couple of dealers in town,  the yelp rating are about the same,  but only one can get me in this week,  so I'm doing that.

I had dinner with brother Ed last night.  We went out to the local pizza joint and we sparred over toppings.  Then back to the house to discuss advanced conservative theory and folks who don't seem to grasp the true nature of the political environment.

Then with Fox news playing in the background, the giant dogs demanding a smattering of attention, we chatted a bit and sought the news of the day on various electronic devices.

I've not watched much Fox News, but it was amusing and more light hearted than I would have thought.  Truly there is much to laugh about these days in re politics and election season.

The weather is a bit unexpected here too.  It's overcast and rainy.  I was expecting hot and dry.  It is hot a bit, in the mid to high 80s.  Not too bad and we got rained on a bit walking across the parking lot to the pizza joint.

We are off to the Top Golf establishment this morning and then we pick up Judy at the airport early afternoon.