Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

Houston, Texas, Jan. 28 — With some time on my hands, I had the chance to visit one San Antonio attraction I hadn’t done earlier in the week, the Tower of the Americas. Ironically for me, I was there too early and had to wait until it opened. After it did, I spent time looking at the history displays at the top and the skyline outside, although it was too windy to be in the outer portion.

Tower of the Americas

But as I headed north, the GPS’s frontage road issues bit me again. I spent 15 minutes getting on and off TX Loop 1604 before finally arriving for a dinner meeting — only to find that plan needed its own audible. Texas Roadhouse in Texas? How meta.

Going north, the sprawl never really stopped. It was at least three lanes one way the whole way to Austin. I filled up in San Marcos, then made my way right past the hotel I stayed at my first two nights and right back southward on US 183 toward I-10. While this may seem counterintuitive, it accomplished my major goal: I have now traveled all of I-35 in Texas and have it continuously from its south end to Wyoming, Minnesota, excluding both I-35E routes. (Des Moines to Austin, excluding that portion not part of the Kansas Turnpike, was almost entirely covered in one shot with the Houston Bowl trip.) Continue reading →

San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 27 — I-35 turns pretty rural just 10 miles from the international border, but has some impressive interchanges at the loop north of the city and the Camino Colombia. The welcome center is at Exit 18, where US 83 splits off. About 25 miles in is a federal inspection point.

¿Donde está el baño?

And then, a lot of flat land, much like Iowa in winter when there’s no snow and no crops. The semi traffic was heavy, which is obvious given I-35’s key role in NAFTA. I was grateful I had reversed course to be traveling northeast on this segment instead of southwest. The sun behind me was much more calming and made for easier driving. Although it’s still January, this far south I got more time before sunset than in Iowa.

I reached Exit 111, US 57, with minutes of daylight to spare. (But not enough daylight to avoid blurry pictures, it appears now.) I headed west to the only nearby signed intersection on the route, nearly getting blinded by the sun in the process. There was a noticeable amount of traffic for the location and time of day. With that, I got a few miles traveled on one of the shortest, least accessible US routes in the country. Continue reading →

Laredo, Texas, Jan. 27 — It’s more than a thousand miles to Iowa. It’s 700 to Mexico City. It’s the end of January, and it’s 84 degrees.

Here, at the doorstep to Mexico, Interstate Highway 35 finally rolls to a stop.

Four stoplights separate I-35 from International Bridge No. 2

There’s no “End” sign, just the freeway itself coming from a depressed grade up to stoplights with overhead and ground-based signs pointing to the bridges or US 83’s journey farther south on this side of the Rio Grande. On this day, the humongous Mexican and American flags were not flying to delineate the border, but the casas de cambio serve about the same purpose. Continue reading →