It must be a long day... I didn't see the map to which you were referring...
Although, I did find a lot of interesting reading!
At any rate, while I
love backcountry drives, I have to balance that against my need to get to my (already reserved
) hotel room in Ozona by day's end. That's why I'm picking mostly-direct routes. It's just me in my heavily packed Dodge Dakota for an 850 mile 2-day drive each way, with no relief driver. And given the route(s), it's not really feasible to change halfway through.
However, the end destination of the Davis Mountains is well worth the effort!
Actually, the trip via San Antonio isn't bad, and I avoid most of the heavy traffic by taking the Anderson loop around town (US 59 / I-610 / I-10 in Houston is generally worse). This year, I was going to take TX 46 from Seguin to Boerne as an alternative. I've yet to fully decide.
In regard to the central Texas route, I'm mostly wondering about :
TX 30, Huntsville -> College Station - Two lane, mostly?
US 190 / US 79, College Station -> Austin area - Lots of stops?
US 290 west from Austin -> I-10 - Multilane, but lots of stops?
At least, that's how it looks to me after "flying" over them in Google Earth...
Thanks.