January 26-30
When Trip Advisor’s list of the best places to eat in town include a couple of truck stops, you know the pickings are slim. That’s what happened in Pecos, Texas.
Choices weren’t as slim as in Blythe, California, or Safford, Arizona, but close.
We found a good prospect. Stella’s Steak and Spaghetti House had a number of good reviews. It wasn’t far from us, so we followed Google’s directions to 317 West Third Street and found that Stella’s alas, is no more.
It has been replaced by Noodles & Dumplings. I had read reviews about that one, too. It is mainly northern Chinese, heavy on the chiles and therefore off the list for Joanna.
We were also looking for a store on the other end of Third where I could buy a bottle of wine. I couldn’t find that either.
We stopped at an Allsup’s convenience store that we had passed earlier. They sold beer, but no wine.
The lady behind the counter said I could find wine at La Tienda.
La Tienda? Is that a street?
No, a supermarket. We had passed it a little farther up Eddy Street.
We backtracked and I was able to get a couple of familiar Robert Mondavi wines, the cab and the pinot noir.
We came back to the Comfort Suites and walked next door to Dickey’s Barbecue Pit. I rarely eat barbecue outside North Carolina, so it hadn’t occurred to me to go there.
Joanna suggested we try it.
It was all right. The pulled pork was nice and smokey. The pork ribs were juicy and tender.
The green beans were done the old-fashioned way—cooked to death, which is the only way I like them.
It surely wasn’t North Carolina. I missed the vinegar and wanted Louisiana hot sauce instead of the tomato-based red gravy they use in Texas.
No hush puppies, collard greens, Brunswick stew, or black-eyed peas.
Get this: I thought it was a local joint. When I looked up the name of the place online to check my spelling, I found that Dickey’s is the largest barbecue franchise in the country. It has stores in 42 states, even two in New Jersey, and I never noticed the place before.
As I say, I rarely eat barbecue outside North Carolina.
I got some chocolate from the hotel lobby and continued to indulge myself with that pinot.
We’re in no hurry to get back to the blizzards in the Northeast, so we are stopping for two nights in many places along the way. That way, we’ll have time to take in any sights in the neighborhood. Or else we get to rest from highway travel for a day.
In Pecos, we rested.
The high point of the Pecos sojourn was a trip to Arti’s Italian Restaurant on Oak Street. As always, I was skeptical, and not for the first time I was surprised.
Joanna had eggplant parm with spaghetti. I had spaghetti and meatballs.
The meatballs were light and generally OK, but not as good as the ones Joanna makes. The eggplant was perfect.
The red sauce was savory and full of flavor.
The food would have gone better with red wine, but all the store had was beer. No ginger ale, orange or club soda, either, so we had to settle for water.
After dinner, we passed a small park with a Pecos Bill statue. Most of what I know about Pecos Bill is from a Disney short that I saw on TV decades ago.
The statue shows a man riding a fiercely rearing horse.
Another feature of town is an occasional giant cowboy boot, highly decorated. This park had a pair of them.
Next day we were on our way to Abilene. It was a quick stop on the way to Grand Prairie. I didn’t want to drive six hours straight through from Pecos to the Fort Worth area.
We had a quick, OK dinner at the Texas Roadhouse and left town the next morning before 11.
On the way, we pulled off the highway at a rest stop. This one had some information inside and outside.
The roofs of the buildings are designed to trap rainwater and convey it to large tanks. It is used to water the native plants on the property. The county, like much of the Southwest, is suffering a prolonged drought.
Inside are historic exhibits, including the story of the Ranger Field. It was a huge oil bonanza that, like most bonanzas, destroyed a local culture. One quote on the wall talked about farmers who became millionaires overnight and went through their fortunes to die as paupers.
The town became a mix of oil derricks, boarding houses, saloons, and bordellos.
One report said that so many outlaws hung out in town that the jail was full. Texas Rangers had to cuff their prisoners to telegraph poles. Sounds a bit hyperbolic, but then, I wasn’t there.
We looked around on the grass, but still have seen no rattlesnakes, even though a sign says they were watching us. So far the only rattlesnake we have seen on this trip was a skin tacked to the wall in the Abilene Texas Roadhouse.
I couldn’t reach it to tell if it was real or fake.
As we were going back to the car, Joanna noticed tufts of raw cotton on the grass. Right now, the cotton fields we passed are sheared off, a reddish brown stubble with stray white puffs here and there.
We didn’t see anything like that close by. Maybe the cotton was blown in from somewhere, possibly off a truck on its way to a mill.
Later we crossed through a mountain pass, and the entire environment changed. It was still arid and sandy, but instead of brush and yellow grass, there was an abundance of trees. Small, yes, but true trees, with trunks.
They were black after shedding because of the season, but numerous enough to carpet the valley floor. A bit like the pygmy forest in the Jersey Pine Barrens.
We reached Comfort Suites too early. So to kill time we took a short drive up the road. That brought us to Asia Times Square. Cars were backed up onto the street while they waited to get into the parking lot.
This was Saturday of the weekend before the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Tiger begins on Tuesday, Feb. 1.
We had to go into the parking lot on the off chance that we could park. Fat chance. We inched through and gave up.
By that time we could check in.
Just for the novelty of being able to walk out to eat, we had dinner at a KFC across the street. It was OK, but I’ve had my fill of that for a while.
Sunday, we wanted to go for a walk where the background music wasn’t Yahoos stepping on the gas. Kirby Creek Park was a few miles from the hotel, so we went there to find the gate closed.
We tried Asia Times Square again, just for fun. Still no parking available, but we found it easier to negotiate traffic. There is a dim sum restaurant, and also Vietnamese and Korean businesses.
We went to a nearby Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. The sirloin there is very good, a lot better to my taste than the steaks at Texas Roadhouse. The pinot noirs are OK. I had the Trinity Oaks. It’s aromatic and fills the mouth with flavor.
Here’s hoping everybody’s steaks and red sauce are wonderful.
Good night, all.
Harry has a date with a bottle of Campo Viejo Tempranillo.
Love, Harry and Joanna.
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