Working on the basis we didn’t want to drive/fight traffic for more than 500 miles, or about 6 hours a day, we thought Waco, TX would be a good stopping point before barreling into San Antonio.  However, there were no rooms with any of the Hilton Group hotels in Waco – wonder why?  Nearest spot to stay was Temple – a totally unknown to us – but as there were a couple of good restaurants close to the hotel, Temple it was.  “On-On” across Louisiana on I-20 – a pretty dismal drive with flooded fields and depressed/depressing towns including the dirty, grotty city of Shreveport with its horrible road system and, incredibly, a shimmery, gold multi-story casino glaring at us from among the downtown buildings . So happy to put Louisiana behind us and cross into Texas.  The first thing that you notice when you cross the state line is the speed limit goes up to 75mph.  The second thing is that the number of pick-up trucks goes up by 50%.  We turned off I-20 and headed through Tyler, Athens, and Corsicana to Waco.  These towns appeared to have seen better days with many of the old downtown buildings needing work. All of them ringed by the strip-mall, fast food, car dealership mess that blights just about all of America’s towns and cities. Being on major roads does not give you a good impression of the country!  But we were trucking along and the driving was relatively stress free – that was until we hit I-35!! What an absolute nightmare!  It seems I-35 from Dallas to Austin is under perpetual construction and has been for many years, and will continue to be for many more years.  As we ground to a halt in the middle of what looked like a war zone you could see nothing but stationary traffic, half demolished fly overs, and miles of dirt. Apart from screwing up your travels and making you really angry, it was depressing.  I’m sure the locals have their rat runs around the I-35 mess, but it still must be hell for them.  When you see this devastation you know where road rage comes from!  Anyway, we went from stopped, to crawl, to moving, back to stopped etc., etc., along 35 to our Temple exit, only to find it no longer existed!  Yep, totally gone amongst the on-going road works.  At this point a pick-up truck came blasting through on the hard shoulder and as it passed the car in front red and blue lights came on.  However, the traffic was so packed that the cop couldn’t chase him – hope he got his number. What was it I said about road rage?!  Just then an exit came up so we got the hell off I-35 with a vow to never return – ever! We had the hotel address programmed into Elsie, our reliable GPS system, and as we hit roads unknown she suddenly started giving us instructions.  It was now rush hour in Temple as we ducked and dived through a series of roads, when suddenly we saw the shining oasis of Mr Hilton’s Garden Inn!  We dragged our overnight gear into the hotel feeling we had just completed a major trek rather than a 500 mile run through middle America.  Last time I felt like that was in Nigeria after doing the Warri to Port Harcourt drive with darkness coming on!  In our room we immediately opened a bottle of restorative red wine, and drank it in a relative short period of time. We felt better!  Considering the traffic and wine consumption we chickened out of the Italian restaurant we had picked, and dined in the hotel with some more wine.  Food was not bad and we really did feel better. That was for sure!