I live in the east Texas Hill Country and work professionally in Austin. It takes me 35-40 minutes to transverse the 29 miles on the traffic of IH35 and back roads (on a good day). Let me tell you, if it rains, leave an hour earlier, and hope there are no accidents on the way. IH35 has been closed a few times that I've travelled it. Get used to finding ways around the traffic backups (I carry a map of the area at all times). Don't rely on the radio stations for updated traffic reports. There's a lot of talk about the new 'Texas 130' highway that will bypass Austin to the east so there may be some help with the congestion. Downtown Austin can be a nightmare during rush hour and almost always is. I stay away. Other than the morning and afternoon rush, and sometimes during lunch hours, it's really not so bad at all. Pickups, trucks and SUV's are predominant over cars. Speed limits are on the higher side. This is a fast growing area and the roads are having a tough time keeping up. Of course you could say people like me just add to the problem, but I heard one too many "y'all come back now"s so I decided to, and stay. (OK, stop with those Yankee jokes. I heard enough of them on the CB before I got my Texas license plates!) Speaking of licenses, I had a fun time getting mine. You have to have insurance to get inspected, inspection to get registered, registration to get your driver's license, and license to get insurance. Huh? It turned out my insurance company never asked me for my TX license, took my NY license, and they called me to tell me the big office wouldn't accept it until I had a TX license. They didn't tell me how I was supposed to get it without insurance. I got away with it since I had the temporary insurance card. Neat thing is, where I live, if you pass a pickup going the other way, they just might wave... first. If you're driving on one of these farm roads, and someone sees you coming up on them, they might pull over and ride on the shoulder until you pass. You do it for them, and they thank you. Keep an eye out for loose livestock.