Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > November > 23 > Entry
Notes on East Texas road trip
Five hours to Nacogdoches. Five hours back.
Toll Road 130 is handy for reaching U.S. 79, my preferred route to deep East Texas. You skip the whole Round Rock mess.
Construction has slowed drastically in Hutto. Suburban boom looks half-undone due to the financial meltdown.
The only pockmarks seem to be made of metal: Mobile homes, abandoned industrial sheds and billboards, although thankfully few of those. Of course, much of the mining damage near Rockdale and Jewett is hidden from road.
Loops around larger towns, such as Palestine, are there for a reason. Take them if it’s possible.
Highways 84 and 69, then Texas 21 arc around to Nacogdoches. I’m not sure it’s the quickest way, but looked lovely going and coming.
Nacogdoches, historic toehold for the Spanish, then restless Americans in East Texas, has grown enormously since I last lingered there. The courthouse, including a savvy contemporary art center, is thriving. The drag along Stephen F. Austin University has grown up, and the campus itself has expanded, grown more dense — I was befuddled by the grand new student center. Suburbs stretch north. It was easy to get lost.
With its wide, clear shoulders, U.S. 79 is good for cooling tempers. When a faster car approaches a slower one, the latter simply pulls over, as if it were a 4-lane highway. Almost every driver who passed me waved his or her thanks.
What’s the best way to access Central Austin from Toll Road 130? I swept up U.S. 71, but until they extend the freeway from Riverside Drive to the toll road, that will always remain a stiflingly clogged rout
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By Easy access
November 24, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this
This is how to go to avoid all stop signs and signals on frontage roads and arterial roads. You are on SH 130 headed south from 79. Exit at SH 45 N --another toll section -- and head west bypassing more traffic in Round Rock and that mess at Interstate 35. Exit at the Loop 1 (MoPac) toll section just past La Frontera. it only goes south. This will dump into non-tolled MoPac around Parmer Lane. You are good to go from here to Central Austin off MoPac.