From the description on TexasEscapes.com I wasn't expecting much in Nix. From our previous experiences in Donahoe and Stringtown I was expecting even less. In fact, this little expedition was intended to be just a quick jaunt out to peak around and see if it would be worth revisiting when we had more time and preparation. So I hit up mapquest, got the directions and we set out west for Nix, TX.
See? Not too much there. Still an interesting little adventure we had. We did good making it out to Lampasas. Easy trip taken quite a few times before. Usually I take a left on 183, but mapquest said "right" so right we went. Right into construction. Wasn't terribly bad and traffic moved along nicely. The problem came when I realized that there weren't any street signs up along that stretch of construction. Still we moved ahead and kept along the road. We passed a couple of historical markers that were on the wrong side of the road. Figured we'd get those on the way back. One of the things I love about Texas is these near-deserted back roads. A person can just go out and drive. The country is nice, the air clean, and the lack of people is divine. So we're driving down 183/190 looking for any C.O. roads with numbers matching the ones I've written down. We drove quite a ways and ended up in Lometa. Quiet little town catering to the ranchers spread out in this area. We did, though, find one of the C.O. roads we were looking for! So first chance I got I turned around and took the road.
This was nice. At first. The fences were a tad disconcerting, then the more disturbing sight was . . . well, the lack of sight. No houses. We'd pass a driveway gate and mailbox every now and then, but not too many. The road got smaller and less maintained. The trees canopied us in parts and coupled with the twists and turns of the fast-diminishing road I was becoming more than a little nervous. More so when we came across two teenagers on dirtbikes. They were just sitting off to the side of the road, staring. We passed them without issue, but then they came barreling down the road at us! They passed quickly and disappeared around the bend. This was both a relief and the start of nervously waiting to barrel down on them. Which we did in fact. One of the dirtbikes had cut out and they were again off to the side of the road. I maneuvered through them, made almost unbearably creepy when the presumably stalled bike owner cut across us to get to the other side of the road. I was ready to throw it in reverse and head back (even though they easily caught up to us before) if he just stopped there blocking our path. He didn't, though, and we kept on our merry way. I was ready to turn back soon anyway. We had almost hit our halfway point of gas, but Aaron insisted I push forward. Keep going. I'm glad he did because maybe three minutes later we found what we were looking for. The Nix Store!! TexasEscapes said it closed in 2005. Perhaps it did. But behind the big gas pump to the right, in the stores window, was a brand new "Open" sign. We didn't go in to confirm. Just took our picture and headed back.
And there it is. We didn't head back the way we came. Instead we continued following the road and wouldn't you know it, we ended up at the street we were supposed to have taken up! Was a quicker way back and when we got back to 183 we saw where we would have turned if the street signs had been up in the first place. Along this road I took another picture. I don't know if it's technically in Nix, but it's still nice.
So there you have it. The first trip where we set out and actually found exactly what we were looking for.
