The goto diner in Fredericksburg is Andy's and it was not as scruffy as I had hoped, but it was good. Then a stop at the tourist info place and watched a movie about the history of the town.
We had a big miles day so off we went across what started as pretty rolling, grassy Texas and ended in dry scrub and lots of oil / gas drilling. Half way into the day we started noticing a lot of truck traffic on the small two lane roads. We finally started to see drill rigs, oil pumpers and gas lines everywhere. When Deb started looking for motels in Carlsbad, she noticed the prices were high and when we got there, we realized the town was over-run with oil/gas field workers. This town is in a boom, much like Williston ND and parts of Pennsylvania.
We did get a room, but we look out of place not driving a big pickup truck. The woman checking us in said they can't keep the grocery stores stocked since there are so many people in town the last three years. She said the town population went from 36K to 93K in three years. She gave us a place to eat with a good salad bar and we got there early enough to miss the crowd. We chatted up a couple at the next table who were working in the new boom and they filled us in. The can make as much in three months as they used to make in a year. They tried retiring but came back to do a short stretch which turned into a year. One of their sons works near here and started a business with just he and his wife three years ago and now has 50 employees. Nice weather, nice drive, nice day.
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