Texas Highways

On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, my wife and I were rambling along the Highland Lakes in the Hill Country, driving northwest from Lake Travis toward Buchanan Lake. Naturally, I got hungry.

We made our way to a restauran...

As a kid in the 1970s, I marveled at the shiny dome of granite at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, which looked to me like the shell of an enormous, pink, half-buried tortoise. Climbing Enchanted Rock seemed almost unfathomable, like scaling Everest, and I half expected to see tiny pixies waving magic wands when I looked for

For travelers exploring the revitalized Hill Country town of Brownwood, Intermission Bookshop offers a quiet space for reflection. The name is an ode to the building’s past tenant, Queen Theatre, one of 13 cinemas that operated downtown in the 1940s. The theater also acted as a respite for World War II soldiers stationed at Camp Bowie. The bookshop, o...

If there’s one consistent routine I have while traveling, it’s visiting a local bookshop. I’ve explored some of the most famous bookstores in the most well-traveled cities: City Lights in San Francisco, the Strand in Manhattan, Shakespeare and Company in Paris, and Powell’s in Portland. While they’re all worth visiting and certainly live up to their illustrio...

More on the state’s indie bookstores, storytelling champions, and literary destinations turning the page

The theory holds t...