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this guided tour (you can also drive through in your own vehicle), we saw large collections of oryxes, giraffes, sheep and goats and deer of many stripes, black rhino, ostriches and emus happily grazing on almost iridescently green meadows. It was chilly for late March in Texas, so the animals were all frisky and wont to approach the open-air safari vehicle in search of a snack, which was provided by the driver.
Eccentricity, weirdness and historical arcana are common on U.S. 281. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to encounter a resonant juxtaposition the next morning when we stopped at nearby Fossil Rim State Park, where regional scientists have uncovered some pretty convincing dinosaur footprints. Just outside the park was a large, sleek structure with a large, sleek sign that read, “Creation Evidence Museum.”
The 281 is as easy to get in and out of as your driveway, has maintained most of its lumpy and verdant scenery largely without the intrusion of billboards and, most improbably, is rarely crowded. This may simply be because the big trucks use the hellishly congested I-35 several miles to the east, but I like to think it’s because we Texans treat the 281 as a state treasure and don’t overstay our welcome.
At Burnet (100 miles south, population 5,000) we stopped for a grease fix at Storm’s Drive-In, where I prefer the fried chicken sandwich to the basic burger. Storm’s is a cultural as well as a culinary inspiration. It has stood up to McDonald’s and the like for decades and seems to be going strong.
We headed west to Lake Buchanan (pronounced, for some reason, buck-ANN-in) and the Canyon of the Eagles Resort and Nature Park, a monastic assemblage of lakeside duplexes with no televisions or phones and an
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