We arrived at our campsite by noon, dropped off the trailer, and went to the local Toyota Dealership to have my 10,000 mile oil change at my current mileage of 11,500. We were quite happy to sit and wait for them to do their work as we had good reliable WiFi the entire time. We have not had good, reliable wifi since I left Pensacola so there was much to do. In fact, we were just a bit disappointed that they finished their task so quickly.
Then we drove down town to tour the Texas State Capitol sitting on a hill in the center of Austin. It was originally chosen to be the site of the Republic of Texas. It is a massive building with approximately 18 acres of floor space or 192,374 square feet of available office space. When completed in 1888, the building contained 392 rooms, 18 vaults, 924 windows, and 404 doors. Approximately 566 feet in length, 288 feet in width, and 302.64 feet from grade line to the top of the star on the Goddess of Liberty atop the dome, it is taller than the National Capitol in Washington, D.C. In fact, like several other state Capitol buildings, the Texas Capitol surpasses the National Capitol in height, rising 14.64 feet above its Washington counterpart. It sits on 22 acres of tree lined approaches, gardens with plaques and statues scattered on the grounds. We walked around and took some pictures. Maddie was frightened—a constant state of affairs!
It was only a 5 minute drive to the Velvet Tacos where we had delicious tacos as our “cultural experience”. The weather was perfect to sit outside with scardy-cat Maddie sitting on my lap
We had to get drive through rush hour traffic to get back to the campsite where we did some organizing and getting prepared for the coming dry wilderness camping.