Sunday (2/15/08) I helped Victor in Tucson for half a day before heading East. My original plan was to camp outside of Carlsbad Caverns and checkout the caverns the following day. I chose to bypass that and a trip further south to Big Bend National Park for a night in a bed, at a hotel, with a TV and shower. It was a great decision. I don't have the cash to be throwing around for hotels every night but this was a special occasion (a week of hard work... do you feel the pain?)
I drove the short 4.5 hours on I-10 east out of Tucson toward El Paso, TX. I arrived, showered, and hit the sack early.
Monday, I headed out of town toward Austin, TX, a little over 570 miles or about 8 hours. I was a little concerned about this portion of the trip because I haven't really tested the Honda for a prolonged period at high speeds/rpm's, and, if you've ever driven through Texas, you understand that it might be 100 miles between "towns" that have "repair shops".
I made it to Austin unscathed after a rather uneventful trip. I was starving and I knew the right man to call, my low-end brethren and cohort in The Adam Stern Trio (henceforth known as AS3), Mike "Spanky" McClure. Spanky is a born and bread Texan... I try not to hold that against him. He's proud of his state, his Cowboys football, his college football, and his BBQ. Before I headed out of town, Spanky hooked me up with a little cash and a request, "Get you some BBQ, boy!" I pulled into Austin on hwy 290 and hit the first place I saw, Donn's Texas BBQ. Donn's happened to have a featured spot in a great BBQ documentary I saw a few weeks ago called, "Barbeque: A Texas Love Story" I pulled into the parking lot and found it to be completely empty, always a bad sign in my book. I was wondering if the place was even open. I went inside to find a pretty modest, clean place that was, for the most part, unimpressive... so was the service. I ordered some brisket, which, I've been told is the thing to order in Texas. I got some mac 'n cheese and baked beans as a side. They asked me if I wanted sauce (a strange question, I thought) and I accepted. Sides... boring. Sauce... boring. Brisket... wow! tons of flavor, moist, perfect coloring, good enough to eat without sauce, a concept that is completely foreign to this mountain dude. I love my sauce! Not the best overall BBQ I've ever had, that award goes to Moe's BBQ in Vail, CO but it could have been the best brisket I've had.
The sides were unimpressive, the sauce was bland, the brisket kicked ASS!After I ate entirely too fast, I met up with my friend Lanny Boyer and his fiancee, Christina. They treated me to a few $1 Lone Star beers at the BS Cantina, a cool little watering hole in downtown Austin with a great patio that was dog friendly.
Speaking of dogs, the photo at the top is of Lanny and Christina's dog, Maya. I got really lucky with this picture as I have a digital camera with the slowish delay between when I hit the picture button and when the camera takes the picture (how do you like that technical explanation?)
No comments:
Post a Comment