Travelling West to East Across Texas

If you do go to San Antonio, we would highly recommend staying at the KOA on the east side of town. Very nice CG, easy pull-thrus for short stays, convenient to Interstates and best of all there is a city bus that stops right outside of the KOA main gate. The bus takes you directly to the center of the historical/tourist area of San Antonio. It is so much cheaper than parking downtown and great to avoid driving in the city. The KOA gives you a bus schedule and instructions.

Well...I feel that I now have the definitive answer. Some pretty cool sites in the Western part of the state, but other than interesting cities, everything is going to look about the same. I've crossed Texas a number of time and just thought maybe I was missing something. I know there are a few gems here and there, but the scenery is what it is towards the mid and eastern side of the state.

Thanks for all of this tips and insights. 3 Days to cross Texas on a two-lane road? Gasp...I would lose my mind!

One of these trips I want to meander along the shoreline. I think that would be a pretty cool trip. Some day.

See if you can snag a spot at Monahan's White Sands State Park near Odessa. Memorably cool, especially for your son--you can slide down the dunes on plastic coasters that they rent. Oil workers keep the place nearly full, but we got a spot when we needed one and we were glad.

head down 17 to Fort Davis and see the fort as well as the McDonald Observatory. From there, head down on 118 to Alpine. Stop at the Chihuahua Desert Nature Center on the way. From Alpine, get on 90 and make your way back towards San Antonio. Make sure you stop at the Pecos River overlook, Langtry to see the Judge Roy Bean museum. Once you hit San Antonio, you can make lots of decisions on how to get to Louisiana and what to see along the way.
IMO, this is good advice.
Going down 90, there is Seminole Canyon State Park about 7 miles north of Comfort, TX which is sorta out in the middle of nowhere, but there is a canyon with ancient pictographs there and you might be able to take a walking tour of them.
East of Del Rio about 35 miles is Ft. Clark Springs..it is an old army fort that is now an RV park and resort.

I would head down 17 to Fort Davis and see the fort as well as the McDonald Observatory. From there, head down on 118 to Alpine. Stop at the Chihuahua Desert Nature Center on the way. From Alpine, get on 90 and make your way back towards San Antonio. Make sure you stop at the Pecos River overlook, Langtry to see the Judge Roy Bean museum. Once you hit San Antonio, you can make lots of decisions on how to get to Louisiana and what to see along the way.

I've always thought San Antonio an interesting place, enough so that I again and again drive two days each way to visit for a week or two at a time.

Goliad is interesting, a state park built around one of the river missions, and a fortress from Texas independence days.

Houston/Galveston area is interesting, another place that I visit repeatedly. Houston is a bustling city with an international, multicultural population, but it does take some time there to catch on to what is happening and learn how to appreciate it.

But most of these bigger places are connected by Interstate highways. The state and U.S.-numbered highways in Texas work pretty well for north-south routes, state keeps them up because they are the main roads, Interstate network is sparse for that direction. The best of the east-west routes got overbuilt by I-10, I-20, I-30.

US-82 goes across the extreme north of the state, in the east. You can catch it at Lubbock and take it to Texarkana, if that's where you are going. I can't promise you any better scenery on US-82 than you would find using I-20/I-30. Since you are going to S.C. you maybe don't want to be much further north than I-20 anyway.

Coming out of Carlsbad puts you on US-180, almost parallel and somewhat north of I-20. You could follow that across to Fort Worth before picking up I-20, but you will be in the same scenery you would have on the Interstate: high desert progressing toward scrublands, then prairie, then woodlands in the eastern part of the state. East of Dallas, US-80 takes you to about the same places I-20 goes, just at a slower pace.

Crossing south of I-20, US-84 will take you through Waco (home of Dr Pepper and the Branch Davidian massacre), then Palestine (a lovely small city in cotton country) then across Louisiana south of Shreveport to enter Mississippi at Natchez. Then you might take the Natchez Trace Parkway up to I-20; this is a popular scenic route through Mississippi.

The difference in these highways from the Interstate would be going through all the towns and small cities, rather than reading the names on the exit signs as you zip by at 70 mph (or maybe 80+).

I find it all interesting, this part of the country, land, culture and agriculture. I find prairie and desert to be scenic. Part of why I choose to live here. Trying to remember what interested me when I was fourteen, other than fourteen-year-old girls. I know I didn't think much of desert and plains landscapes, that didn't start to grow on me until I lived on the plains for 20 years and learned to understand the nature of the land and what sort of people the land created.

Don't forget it takes three days to cross TEXAS on two lane roads...

See the BATS in Austin as well every evening they fly out from under a bridge. Thousands and thousands of them.
Fredericksburg Texas is an interesting town in Texas with great German food.

<<(I guess today's 14 year olds may not have the same fascination with the 'Old West' - but it sure is an important park of our history - JMHO)>>

It's sad, but I was just thinking the same thing. I grew up on Gene Autry, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, the stories of Judge Roy Bean, Davy Crockett and the Alamo and so much more. I don't think my son has hardly seen a western (other than Cowboys and Aliens) in his life.

Alamogordo: check http://www.wsmr-history.org/directions.htm White Sands Missle Range Museum

Don't Forget the Alamo!!! http://www.thealamo.org/ Remember the ALAMO

AND - about half-way between El Paso and San Antonio, just a few miles off of the Interstate 10 is the wonderful oasis in the desert that is Balmorhea State Park. Plan to spend the night there and you may stay several days!! And the stars at night are truly a sight to behold.
AND...Check the San Antonio Visitors bureau for interesting events and happenings while you are there.
(I guess today's 14 year olds may not have the same fascination with the 'Old West' - but it sure is an important park of our history - JMHO)