I was out running some errands this afternoon. As I was driving home, I was headed south on 360 and I was reminded again of just how very beautiful Austin is. 360, also called Capital of Texas Highway (which I just love, for some reason), goes through the rolling hills in Northwest Austin. You can see the limestone that forms the hills, and if you’re on a bicycle, you can hear the water in the limestone. The stretch of road just before my turnoff looks south toward the hills, and on a hazy day like today, it’s gorgeous.

Made the turn onto the relatively small (one lane each way) street that I live on. Although it’s narrow, it’s got a fair amount of traffic. The road is nice; 100-year-old live oaks line both sides, and many of the buildings are built from the local limestone, so they fit in well with the landscape. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something, so I hit the brakes. Just to the right of me, perhaps a foot away from my car, were two deer standing on the side of the road.

It was simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking. This is not a rural area, and this road, as I said, has a fair amount of traffic–and most of the drivers are moving well in excess of the speed limit. It was easy for me to stop from 30 mph when I saw the deer, but would someone going 50 even have seen them, let alone stopped? What about someone on a cell phone who wasn’t watching the road?

I hope the deer find their way back to the hills where they live, which I think is probably on the other side of 360. And I hope other drivers have the experience I did–seeing them and stopping to let them pass. I smiled the rest of the way home.

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Stacia Seaman