Texas, land of cobbler! Austin to Dallas

We're halfway there!!

Yesterday morning (I'm a day late in posting this..) we took over at least 3 blocks in front of the Capitol in Austin!  It was pretty impressive!  But then, it's the same story every morning…lol!  I never heard an official count, but I'm thinking there were easily 500 cars lined up.  And of course we got our police escort out of town. It's always fun taking off from a town and waving at everyone!

Our first stop out of Austin was the Franklin Drive-Thru Safari!  I don't think they knew what they were in for when over 500 MINIs showed up at their door!  The zebras seemed especially excited for some reason, and a cute little javelina (I think) also came running to greet us!  There were so many MINIs lined up on the highway waiting to turn in to this place that they finally had to get the Sheriff's Department and the Fire Department to help with traffic control.  Fortunately, we were in the front third or so of the pack, so from the time we pulled in to the time we pulled out, it was about 1 1/2 hours, including taking a few minutes to park and check out a few more animals, gift store, etc…  

It was sooooo fun!!  We had the top down, so we were greeted face to face by camels, deer, cows, llamas, donkeys, buffalo, and a pretty scary ostrich!  

After the safari, we veered off of the route for a bit to visit my cousins, Barry and Peggy.  We were so close to "The Ranch", and I knew Barry would be so upset if I didn't stop, so we did.  He was so excited to see us!  And he just loved BlackJack!  He said he was going to run right out and get one for Peggy!  We could only stay a couple of hours, as we had to catch up with the rest of the MINIs in Dallas.  Barry was really disappointed we couldn't stay for dinner.  t think I saw a tear in his eye as we drove away…   Hopefully I'll be able to stay with them on my way home.  Maybe even for a week or more, instead of just a couple of hours!  (Thanks for the tea and snacks, Peggy!  Oh, and the awesome cobbler!!)  

The evening event in Dallas was in true MINI style!  We had a Texas sized party at Gilley's, complete with mechanical bull, live music by Mickey Guyton and band, and more awesome food!  And more cobbler!!  Lol!  I've had 4 different cobblers in the last three days!  

 This was Barb's last night, and she was glad to get to go to Gilley's!  It was a fun time, for sure!!  Tomorrow is Memphis, and I'll be sans co-pilot for a couple of days before I pick up my friend, Cindi for the next half of MTTS.  The adventure continues!!