Texas Highways Magazine April 2021

Over the past 11 months, I have often been in awe of the tenacity of our staff members and their unwavering commitment to producing quality work despite the myriad obstacles presented by the pandemic. But I’ve never been quite as proud and humbled by their unflappability as I have been over the past two weeks as they finished this issue during the unprecedented winter storm. Like millions of Texans across the state, many of our staffers lost power and water for days. And like millions of Texans, they persevered and looked for ways to help their neighbors. Managing Editor Kimya Kavehkar, who lost power for 14 hours, opened her home to another editor who was without power. She also put in extra hours taking on the work of team members who…

For Sarah Bird, growing up before the internet meant most days were spent outside on unsupervised adventures. “That was our social life, being outdoors,” the Austin-based author says. “And not everybody has that now.” She wrote about the need for ample outdoor time through the lens of the forest bathing trend for “A Long Soak in a Sea of Green” (Page 32). “We’re in this moment of amnesia about how much we need to be outdoors,” she says. “Forest bathing is a version of a message that we keep having to be reminded of.” Her experience taking in the sights and sounds of the wilderness made her appreciate the forest bathing programs state parks have been implementing. “As a publicly funded program, you can’t reproach it,” she says. “And as…

The well-written piece concerning lucha libre was one that I enjoyed reading. My brother-in-law, Ray Villareal, has written several young adult novels that deal with the concept of wrestling and that explore the importance of choosing the right friends. D. Scott Gonzalez, Dallas Noise Complaint I just finished reading the March 2021 issue and loved it! The luchadores, the wildflowers, the Wendish and German history, the Guy Clark biopic that I can’t wait to see. But I have to take exception to one little thing: the last item in your list of “Camping Forget-Me-Nots” [“Intro to Campology”]. People who play radios or stereos outdoors in public places are spoiling for others one of the most beautiful aspects of being in nature: the sounds. Kirsten Miller, Austin That Doesn’t Grow on Trees I learned this story while…

A retention pond in the Grand Oaks neighborhood of South Austin makes for an unconventional muse for Theresa DiMenno. The Houston-raised, Austin-based photographer says she’s always enjoyed taking pictures of life in her own backyard, and the past year’s COVID-19 lockdown has made her even more appreciative of subjects close at hand. “The pond is just a nice little respite in the city,” DiMenno says. “I walk there to get exercise, and since it’s got a green space next to it because of a pipeline, it’s open and I can shoot sunsets and sunrises. I think what made this sunset even more interesting and dramatic is it was in late June when a Saharan dust storm was blowing through.” See more of DiMenno’s pictures in the photo essay “The Tones…

Virginia Parker Condie and her teammates set two records as they paddled to a fourth-place finish in the Texas Water Safari in June 2019. Racing 260 miles in a canoe down the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers, the foursome became the first all-female team to finish the race in under 40 hours and the first all-female team to finish in the top five overall. Her love of canoeing the San Marcos spurred Condie to move to the riverside town of Martindale in 2013 with her husband, Andrew Condie, also a competitive paddler. Founded in 1855 by a Mississippi settler named Nancy Martindale, the community farmed cotton and became a center of hybrid corn and cottonseed production in the 1960s. Farms still blanket the area, while river sports also boost the…

My mom always said an anthill in Houston may as well be a mountain. She longed for majestic landscapes found on postcards of the California coast or the French countryside. Instead, she spent all 68 years of her life surrounded by the comparatively flat terrain of Fort Worth and Houston. She complained, but she never left. She was surrounded by anthills instead of Alps, but Texas was her home. Unlike my mom, I did eventually leave Texas in search of grander vistas. I followed the well-worn path to California, the one so many before and since have traveled. Once there, I was sure I would never leave. Humidity was generally low, city streets smelled like jasmine, and bursts of magenta bougainvillea seemed to bloom year-round. I figured I’d be one of…