Good drives near central Texas - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

davemon · 08-13-2010, 12:24 PM

Looking for some good overnight, day, or weekend treks around Austin and central Texas. Google searching directs me to obvious choices, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Corpus, Port Aransas, Galveston. Been to Johnson City as well.

I know about nothing of Texas... so looking for some lesser known suggestions or suggestions from people who really enjoy driving. I'll camp, or I'll hotel it. Not particular here.

Thanks!

timothy · 08-13-2010, 12:54 PM

There are some great roads in the hill country west of Austin. Have you heard about Boxstoberfest? http://boxstoberfest.com/ The annual Porsche event is coming up in a few weeks. There may still be time to register. Even if you can't make the event, prior year driving routes are posted so that's a good place to find some ideas.

davemon · 08-13-2010, 01:20 PM

Thank you for reminding me of Boxtoberfest, just signed up.

RandallNeighbour · 08-13-2010, 03:16 PM

The closer you drive to Houston the worse the roads become... straight...flat...poor pavement surfaces, and the humidity is stifling 10 months a year.

Stay in the hill country to get any assemblance of "twisties" that one would readily find in mountainous areas like North Carolina, Colorado, or Northern California, etc.

Texas isn't a boxster sort of state if you ask me.

stateofidleness · 08-13-2010, 08:41 PM

hill country is beatiful. san antonio? pfffft. stop and go traffic and dumb drivers

boxstoberfest is always a fun drive!

seningen · 08-14-2010, 07:38 AM

Dave,

Boxstoberfest is a must -- you will have a blast and be introduced to some great roads west of austin.

www.boxstoberfest.com

they have a secret sunday day trip -- my guess is they will take you down
to Harris Hill Raceway in San Marcos -- which will be a blast!

I would be attending -- but it conflicts with our LeMons race in Houston.
The 924S is coming along nicely.

However, I think 3 of my Boxsters will be in attendance,
my wife's 99, her sister's 00, and my S (driven by my mother-in-law)

Mike

Mike

davemon · 08-14-2010, 10:03 AM

Signed up for the fest, now I'm soliciting navigators.

Mike, I'll keep an eye out for your cars, too bad you can't make it but I'm sure the LeMons will be fun too.

Quickurt · 08-14-2010, 01:47 PM

I seriously crashed my 73 914 2.0 around Fredericksburg. I can't remember the road, it was in 1986, right before the economy forced our move back to Florida. The entire Fredericksburg, Kileen area has some great hill country roads. I used to love the road going out to Bear Creek Estates, and beyond, on the Southwest side of Austin.
There are also some really fun roads from Brenham to COllege Station, around the multitude of small lakes and rivers. Do a google earth to find the best ones.
I use google earth to find the smallest and twistiest roads to take a trip where the drive is the main point of going. You can turn on Satellite image and zoom way it to make sure the roads are paved. I make a sheet with directions of where to turn, how far (basically) it is to the next turn and take it to Office Max and have it laminated for $2.00. I now have about twenty of those "rally" sheets.

:dance:

stateofidleness · 08-14-2010, 01:52 PM

post them

Quickurt · 08-14-2010, 02:05 PM

I'll consider that, but they are all for north Florida and south to central Georgia.

stateofidleness · 08-14-2010, 02:06 PM

aww, thought they were texas routes.

schnellman · 08-14-2010, 05:36 PM

My wife is from Austin and I lived in Texas for over ten years. I've driven from Houston to El Paso and from Texarkana to Del Rio. The one thing you need to keep in mind that distances in Texas are on a totally different scale than the rest of the lower 48. When you lay out a trip make sure you understand the distances. Having said that, I vote for the hill country west of Austin. Higher altitudes and lower humidity. Houston is for masochists in the summer.

Scbrindley · 08-15-2010, 06:41 AM

I have done tons of drives around the Hill Country. Check out these specific locations for some great roads,

Devils Backbone
Twin Sisters
Willow City Loop
Hamilton Pool Road
Crabapple Road

Just a few good ones....join up with our local PCA chapter; Hill Country Region. We do some great drives and always find some interesting locations.

SB

seningen · 08-15-2010, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scbrindley

I have done tons of drives around the Hill Country. Check out these specific locations for some great roads,

Devils Backbone
Twin Sisters
Willow City Loop
Hamilton Pool Road
Crabapple Road

Just a few good ones....join up with our local PCA chapter; Hill Country Region. We do some great drives and always find some interesting locations.

SB

Just keep an eye out for the weather as a lot of those hill country roads have
low water crossings and it doesn't take much this time of year to flood out.

As far as rallying goes -- find a cute little honey --- and on the second
leg through drop her off shopping in F'burg. Then do the second
half of the rally yourself.

Great for driving -- hard on navigation :-)

BTW: my CLH was my wife last year -- and although challenging -- not sure
I'd recommend solo rallying - esp trying to mark off the cattle guards.

Glance at instructions, accelerate, shift, mark cattle guard, brake, down shift,
cattle guard, hard turn, cattle guard, back on the gas, up shift cattle guard,
hard brake, Down shift, more brake, low water crossing, hard gas, cattle guard, sweeping left, hard right, bump, hard left, brake cattle guard, bump, cattle guard, accelerate ..... rinse and repeat. A blast to drive. hard to navigate

The only saving grace was that you knew you should have an even number
of cattle guards :-)

Mike

mshassere · 08-15-2010, 07:51 AM

Glad y'all are coming. We have around 110 folks signed up right now. 3 distinct drive options, a great dinner, and a whole bunch of door prizes.

The routes are going to be fun this year. A mix of some roads we have been on before, and some new twists and turns. The gimmick rally (clue based route in the Hill Country) is going to be fun for those who choose it.

Just so all know, shirt order date cutoff is tonight, dinner and lunch cutoff is Aug 27.

Fredericksburg Inn is full (we even added an extra 10 room, but they all went in a day). Inn at Baron Creek has a few rooms left.

If anyone has questions or wants more detail, check out www.boxstoberfest.com, or email me at shassere@gmail.com