wakesetter93

After entirely too long at home, the GF and I are off to South Texas for a quick weekend getaway with the dog and some of her friends from college. Armed with negative Covid tests and the need to escape our condo, the GF planned a quick rendezvous trip with her college tennis team prior to one of them adding a new member to the family. Given that we were working around schedules from Austin, Houston, and Dallas as well as the pre-baby timeline, we decided on Surfside Beach, just south of Houston. Gulf Coast beaches aren't anything to get excited about however, coupled with the fact that we had been stuck at home for entirely too long, it made for the perfect, quick, weekend road trip and a great tune up before our Cancun/Tulum trip in a couple of weeks.

wakesetter93

Year end is a busy time for both the GF and I so, despite our best efforts, we ended up pulling out of the driveway about half past five on Thursday afternoon. We had the typical Dallas afternoon traffic leaving the city and, thanks to the crazy Waze initiated detours, it took us almost an hour to get clear of the downtown area despite living about ten minutes away. Our German Shepherd, Gumbo, was unfazed by the traffic and quickly made himself at home in my backseat.



As mentioned earlier, it took a decent amount of time to get through Downtown Dallas and onto I-45 South, a road I haven't traveled in quite some time. After weaving through Dallas "COVID" rush hour traffic we had the car pointed south towards Houston.







We had initially planned on grabbing a room on the south side of Houston Thursday night which would have prevented us from making a 5 hour drive after work from Dallas, but, a good friend of mind from grad school caught wind of my plan and was kind enough to invite us to stay the night with him, the Mrs. and his new baby girl.

Leaving Dallas before "rush hour" we were hoping to make good time and get into Houston at a reasonable hour, to not disturb the baby, we decided a quick stop at Chick-fil-A was the best best. However, we encountered a very disorganized drive-thru that put the typical efficiency of Chick-fil-A to shame. From the lady taking our order not being able to find the items we ordered on her tablet to not having a working credit card reader we ended up spending almost 20 minutes at the Corsicana, TX Chick-fil-A. With food in hand, we were back on the road, headed south.





About an hour north of Houston we made the obligatory stop at Buc-ee's, the world's largest gas station, to let Gumbo stretch his legs and take a bathroom break, as well as one for us. Buc-ee's is a great representation of the phrase "Everything is bigger in Texas". The largest Buc-ee's stores feature over 120 gas pumps and the cleanest restrooms on the road. They serve a wide variety of food and snacks and have a huge assortment of gifts, it's almost like Wal-Mart built a gas station except it's clean and more efficient. Until you see it in person, you can't truly fathom the size.

After a quick stop, we were back on the road headed to Houston.













Once we made it into town both the GF and I got the chance to say hello to the new baby and hit the hay early as we both had some business to conduct in town the next day.

offerendum

In this traffic conditions the sports-mode is unbeatable

wakesetter93

The sport mode makes this thing a ton of fun to drive. Was my first road trip in it since I got it back in April, only has 3k miles so I’m still
breaking it in.

offerendum

Many cars are more or less only driveable in sports mode. My last Audi was hard to drive in sports mode on a daily basis, as it opened the exhaust flap and the gear worked like maniac (mostly 1st gear in the city). But from time to time it was fun.

wakesetter93

The thing that bothers me the most is the auto stop/start. Thankfully there’s a button to turn it off but I have to do it each time I start the car.

wakesetter93

The next day, both the GF and I had a long day of meetings while Gumbo kept himself busy with my buddy's dog in the backyard. I still had some work to attend to but, thanks to the Wifi in the car, we managed to hit the road just before 4. I was surprised by the traffic in downtown Houston given the fact we hit the road early and most people are still working from home. We spent a decent amount of time stuck in traffic but, with the GF driving, i was able to finish up some work and browse FT on the drive south.

Gumbo, worn out from his visit with another pup, once again settled into the back seat for the drive.















As we headed south, through Lake Jackson, we ran into some of the massive petrochemical plant operations that line the coast in this part of the country. Dow Chemical has an entire ship channel dedicated to their operations down here. We also passed one of the original, much smaller, Buc-ee's stations as the road narrowed and we approached the end of the land and the "town" of Surfside Beach.

















We arrived at our AirBNB for the weekend right as the last rays of light were disappearing behind the horizon.

Fredrik74

I travelled through Dallas and Houston two years ago on a road trip. The traffic there is the worst I've ever been in. Regarding Gulf beaches I only saw Galveston and it was low season. It didn't look so bad IMO but not as good as the Florida panhandle.

In any way considering I live somewhere where beach season is roughly late June to mid-August I think it sounds perfect to be able to have a beach holiday relatively nearby so late in the year.

worldtraveller73

I had forgotten what sun looks like having been stuck in Vancouver, BC, Canada for almost 9 months now.

Looks like the start of a great break!

Travel safely.

theshaun

Hey! It's been sunny this week!

wakesetter93

The Houston traffic puts Dallas to shame, but we managed to make OK time through it. The water is too cold to get in but the dogs seem unphased.

We’re currently drying off inside after our “bonfire” got rained out on the beach. Hopefully we have better weather in Mexico next week!

krazykanuck

you're only saying that as a DFW resident give me Houston over your spaghetti bowl disaster of interstates and tollways any day!

wakesetter93

Let me get whatever you’re smoking, whoever designed the Houston interstate system was higher than the moon!

TGarza

Buc-ees stalls have an indicator light to let you know which stalls are occupied. The stalls are more European in style without the gaps to prevent peeping toms. The New Braunfels location is the largest store at 68,000 sq ft.

Short hair Francis

wakesetter93, Great Start to the Trip
Agree with what you guys did, if you need a trip with friends to stay sane then a PCR Test before going is the safest bet for now

Gumbo looks so cute and calm in the back
Stay Safe

How much Lysol and Clorox Wipes did you guys bring to wipe down the AirBNB?

You 2 can say that again, I'm really starting to regret delegating more YVR time this winter
At least I had my share of HKG beaches and Tan in the Fall before I came back

Especially a stretch in Mid November, what was it?
4 Hours of Partial Sunshine through 10 Straight Days of Overcast and Rain?
What a reminder why I moved away from this place many eons ago

Ok the Texans need to organize a Freeway DO at the World's Largest Gas Station when this is Over LOL
Instead of bikers, it will a 1000 Luxury Car Rentals