Seamus

Driving SA to Dallas on Thursday and am thinking about taking the 130 toll road to avoid Austin traffic. Options are to drive up 35 and cut over around Buda, or take 10E to Seguin and pick up 130 from there. Will follow 130 to its Georgetown terminus either way.
Anyone have recent experience and can offer tips/advice/caveats?
Thanks, pardners!

ChristieP

We always take the full length of the toll road to and from SA. It is money well worth spending to avoid the mess of I35 through Austin!

Seamus

Thanks, ChristieP - Do you go via IH10 Seguin, or do you take the little stretch of 45 to connect with IH35 around Buda?

BigRuss

We drove around LA on the Lady Bird once and through it once and the difference was . . . not that much. But we did that on Memorial Day week (not actual day nor weekend), not ON Turkey Day.

The trip all the way on 130 was long and it's a hike from SA to Seguin and then back up. If you go up I35 to Toll Road 45, that will take you to the 130 bypass and add less mileage and still avoid the traffic from Weirdville.

Connie

It sure is a long way around. We've never had much trouble getting through Austin on 35.

We have traveled other interstates on Thanksgiving Day and been about the only people on the road. It was great. Now coming back on Sunday was another story.

OO

Hi Seamus! Hope I'm not too late! We have done 130 for a couple of years now when driving to Dallas. I LOVE it and consider it well worth the price. It is such a relief when we get on it, after all the big rigs on 35! We take 35 to Buda, pick up 45 to 130 and go the length. We have toll tags because we are in Big D so often and on the Tollway. Coming south we reverse it, but we are only going to New Braunfels, unlike you. Staying on 130 longer going south would take us too far south of where we need to be, but not you, I don't think. It makes for a MUCH more pleasant trip. The less time on 35 the better we like it, doesn't matter how much it costs.

Seamus

Thanks, all.
OO - not too late, we leave in the AM. Last time I drove up 35 I swore I would never do it again. Think we will drive up 35 to Buda then swing over to 130.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

OO

Oh good--glad I wasn't too late! You will love 130. Wide open spaces. Traffic and stress gone. Safe travels and Happy Thanksgiving!

jayne1973

What is the toll in 130? We did it once before they started charging. I heard it was $30.

OO

For us to go north from Buda to the end, something over 50 miles, it is $6.76, as per our last toll tag statement.

jayne1973

That's not bad at all!

ChristieP

If I'm going to San Antonio, I go the whole length of 130. Thank goodness for it. I have sat in parking lot traffic on I35 in downtown Austin far too many times!!

Seamus

Hi from Dallas, y'all! SH130 was fabulous! Got on in Buda and rode to terminus in Georgetown, little to no traffic and I just may have worn the shoes with extra lead in the sole...made it door to door in exactly 4 hours.
Visited the Bush library at SMU yesterday - nice architecture, good propaganda. Campus is as lovely as ever. The Meadows is getting ready for a big Sarollo exhibition so many galleries closed. Today drove over to Ft Worth to see the Kimbell's new building by Italian architect Piano. Quite impressive, as was the Picasso and Matisse exhibition.

Lots of good food on this visit. Really good pizzas at Fireside Pies last night. Excellent dinner this evening at Toulouse in Uptown area - like sitting in Paris, almost. Bread was especially excellent, turns out it is the only thing not made in house. Comes from nearby Empire Bakery - closest I have had to Parisian baguette in the States.

OO

Hey Seamus! Sounds like an excellent trip. You are doing the things it's impossible for us to do there now with little grandkids. Of course they are pretty fabulous in themselves, but you do make me a little envious that that sort of playing is out of the question currently!

Just wait until you are able to get back on 130 going south. It's a little tricky...you have to watch for it, but by then the horrors of 35 have worn you to a nub and it just a total relief to get off that and on 130. Peace. No congestion, and an 80 or 85 mph speed limit. We did see a deer come flying across the highway our last trip this fall, just in front of the car ahead of us, so be on the lookout. Of all the times we've traveled it, that was a first, but it can happen, especially this time of year when the boys are out looking for their honeys!

Rich

Watch for the hogs!

Seamus

Boy, is that ever right, OO - seeing that sign for SH130 was like an oasis in the desert after the craziness that is IH35. This time we stayed on 130 all the way to I-10 around Seguin and backtracked a bit into SA. A few more miles, but they do fly by at 85 mph, and I was concerned that on Sunday afternoon 35 from Buda into SA would still be nuts. Even with the multiple horrendous slowdowns due to construction between Dallas and Georgetown we made it door to door in about 4.5 hours nonstop.

OO

Have you ever seen a US interstate in worse shape than 35 Seamus?! As many years as we've been driving it, it's never not been under serious construction in several long stretches, with those gawd awful concrete barriers making two narrow lanes with absolutely no room for error, and it's you and a gazillion big rigs, some of them doubles forming mini trains. NAFTA has turned it into a nightmare highway.

I'd heard about the feral hogs in that segment, Rich, but prefer dodging them to dodging 18 wheelers!

BigRuss

Now try that route in early summer (e.g., mid-late May) - whatever landscaping arrangements were made on SH 130 included an oceanliner's worth of sunflowers.