Welcome to Texas!

The Farm-to-Market road system is all over Texas, and sometimes localities will re-name sections of these roads, but they will retain the FM designation, too. In some areas, cattlemen used their influence to use the term "Ranch" instead of "Farm" in this road system, as Texas ranchers do NOT like to be called farmers. Notably, these rural FM roads do not always have any paved shoulders, and may have 70 MPH speed limits, so are not universally good for cycling, though some are great for cycling; local knowledge is important.

To be clear, I am not in the Austin area, but farther east, and looked in this thread to pick up pointers for myself.