8-20-12 BBQ
Late to rise on Monday, we forsook breakfast and opted for lunch from one of the few remaining open-pit barbecue establishments in DFW, Smokey John's. I'd been craving more BBQ since Longview, and Smokey John's did not disappoint. Fatty brisket, sausage, mac & cheese, collard greens, corn bread, and sweet tea, all lovingly prepared by family hands, according to family recipes. Best meal of the year? Maybe. After we had thoroughly gorged ourselves, we just wandered around, trying to kill the time until rush hour let up. The rest of Monday doesn't really matter, Smokey John's just overshadows everything else.
8-21-12 GO WEST
I tried to get up early so I could hit the road before it got too hot, but what with goodbye's, restocking, and traffic, I didn't escape the clutched of Fort Worth until 11:00. Happy to get off the interstate, I jumped on US 180, a west-bound arrow of a road that would take me straight to New Mexico.
The trip counter rolled over on 2000 miles in Lamesa, TX, a charming town about an hour east of NM. It was near enough dinner time that I asked the gas station attendant where I could find a good home-cooked meal (is that too cheesy?), and she directed me to Jalisco, a Guadalajaran taqueria. Not exactly what I had in mind, but whatever. Pretty standard Mexican fare. I'm sure there's a distinct difference between Guadalajaran enchiladas and Yucatan enchiladas, but I sure couldn't taste one.
Bloated with beans and tortilla chips, I made the final push for the border, and crossed over into Hobbs, NM, where I found respite from the glaring, orange check engine light that had been nagging me for the past 30 miles. The Autozone computer told me it was something to do with the catalytic converter or the oxygen sensor. The same generic diagnosis that stopped me in bumville, Arkansas on last summer's roadtrip. With no noticeable performance issues to worry about, I moved on towards a little picnic table marker I had seen on the map, just outside of Loco Hills, NM.
Highway 529 got really dark, without the moon to lend an eerie glow. I pulled over to rest my eyes, and was immediately engulfed by the night. Eventually the stars started to poke through the black, and then the hazy glow of the Milky Way. The only sounds were the very occasional passing truck, and the spooky, disembodied wail and groan of a nearby oil derrick.
It was starting to get late, so I drove the remaining few miles, hoping the people of Loco Hills were still picnic area patrons. Sure enough, a blue sign pointed me to a barren roadside collection of tables and benches that looked to me as good as a Motel 6 for the night. I curled up and closed my eyes, hoping this wasn't one of the favorite spots of the more loco inhabitants of Loco Hills, New Mexico.
8-17-12 MAGIC MIRROR
Woke up early on Friday to take Jordan to the airport. He's off to the wedding of one of our friends from our Africa days. The wedding is in Chattanooga, and he back-tracked the steps of my three day journey in about two hours. After dropping him off, I aimlessly wandered around North Dallas for most of the day, seeking free wifi and AC in order to update the blog and pass the time until Cara got off work. She informed me that I would be accompanying her and another friend, Kristin, to a twin-themed party that night. We decided that I would carry around a mirror, and everyone at the party would laud my cleverness. Maybe they did, but I spent most of the party catching up with Kristin (who didn't know anyone there either) and trying to avoid getting wrangled into "Twin Twister" and "Twin Ping-Pong" tournaments.
8-18-12 WHEN IT RAINS
Saturday was rainy and lazy. Pancakes and coffee at Cara's, followed by a movie and a couple hours of sitting around. Well, I sat around while Cara cleaned. Dinner from Torchy's Tacos, a food truck concept from Austin that spread to Dallas and traded wheels for a permanent address. Delicious. I maintain that the taco is one of the world's perfect food items. With the evening slipping away, I decided, on a whim, to drive down to Waco (about 100 miles south of Dallas) to see some college friends who are in studies at Baylor's Truett Seminary. I rapidly began to regret my decision as traffic slowed to one lane on I-35E. When I finally made it out of the jam, the heavens opened up and torrential rain and winds turned the routine drive into a white-knuckle hell-ride. Thankfully I made it in one piece, despite hydroplaning a couple times. Gotta keep things lively! Hit the sack after catching up with the guys over beers.
8-19-12 YUCATAN
Sunday morning was church with the guys, followed by a generic lunch. I had to take my leave of Waco after lunch, since I wanted to take the long way back to Dallas, in hopes of better scenery. What I got was cotton, sorghum, and black dirt, all bisected by Osage hedgerows. The fields were neither the perfect grid of the Midwest, nor the haphazard "anywhere we can" fields of East Tennessee, but a happy medium.
I wandered my way back to the big city, due to pick up Jordan from the massive airport that evening. Having witnessed rush-hour traffic the night before, I decided to camp out at a coffee shop around the corner from the airport to await his call. Amazingly, it only took me two tries to find the right terminal, and we were back on the road in no time, Jordan regaling me with tales of his wedding-weekend shenanigans. With nothing better to do, we drove to Fort Worth and wandered the streets for a while, stopping to marvel at the unattended perilousness of the Fort Worth Water Gardens.
Dinner was some pretty delicious taco/burrito fare from a Yucatan-inspired place down on the college's main drag. A main drag that was more-or-less deserted, but for a mysterious line of students that wound around two blocks. Mumford & Sons concert? Fixie Bike workshop? Free tickets to Brooklyn? We'll never know. The events of the rest of the evening escape me, but we ended up back at Jordan's place, playing video games until the wee hours of the morning.
