Driving north from Austin, heading for Waco, I cross the Brazos river. Just saying Brazos out loud: “I crossed the Brazos,” makes me feel like a cowboy. On the right just before the bridge is the Texas Ranger museum. It’s shiny and new and very big. I note, once again, that it’s real nice for a state to have money. Now my path diverges from the interstate and I take off across the strangely feature-free landscape to the east. There are more trees here, and some patches of green, especially after the recent torrential rains (the first since October for much of Texas), and most people probably prefer this terrain to what might be seen as the barren plains of Texas west of the Pecos. But, again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. This landscape is also littered with strip malls, convenience stores, and even big box complexes. T