It's Water Under The Bridge - DAY 4

White City Cavern Inn

Day 4 was probably the most sleep I ever got. After finishing the blog around 10:30 at night I went to sleep and woke up at 6:45 AM.

Went to check out the breakfast which included an apple, Cheerios and coffee. ☹

Ended up firing up the Nespresso machine, making a good cup of coffee and eating some fruit.

As I was leaving the White City Cavern Inn, I must admit I was surprised to see it was at full capacity.

When I checked in around 6 PM they were only two other cars parked, but in the morning as I left, there were about 50 cars. One by each entry.

I guess small motels still play a very vital role in the tourism business.

P.S. - I placed this picture here so the BLOG will use it as main pic. ;-)

AVOID Highway 128

I planned the route of the day which was supposed to be about 8 hours drive that ended in an exotic wildlife sanctuary. The first leg was on a very small New Mexico highway number 128 and I was expecting to have a pleasant quiet drive all by myself, as I always do on these very tiny roads.

Very soon after I realized that all the semi truck drivers DID NOT GET THE MEMO about staying away from small tiny country roads!

This small highway route must be the preferred travel option of every truck driver in America.

I don't recall ever seeing so many trucks so close to each other!! EXCEPT on the first trip when passing thru Chicago area - there were also a lot of trucks. But those were 12 lane highways connecting major populations.

While I did not take pictures of the traffic, I went to google MAPS and easily found areas of the route with multiple semi trucks.

Pecos River bridge

After 10-20 minutes of pushing my way thru all the truckers, I drove over the Pecos River bridge. I decided to do a u-turn and try and get closer to the river (for a photo) however my first attempt of taking a hidden trail met a locked gate. The second attempt met a trail that was too muddy for me risk Steele getting stuck. However, the third attempt I found a trail leading right under the bridge.

It was really picturesque. Check out some really cool pictures from here. Unfortunately this must be also the favorite place of all the narcotics users in the area because the amount of junk and booze and cans and bottles and garbage was awful. However, all the dirt and garbage aside, it was very worth the visit.

Jal state Park

After battling my way on highway 128th was all the semi trucks, I finally reached my first destination of the day - Jal State Park.

I stopped to get a famous boat ramp photograph and had a snack and all the time was wondering what the traffic is going to be like on the next leg towards Earl's BBQ. I specifically chose very small narrow winding roads to get close to nature and to avoid traffic. Guess I am a “Road Hog” – meaning I love to have the entire road (both directions) to myself.

Well – the route is what it is – and if there will be more heavy traffic – I will cope like all the “other” drivers.

Andrews TX – Mixing Oil and Wind

I was very happy (like ecstatically overjoyed) to find myself alone on the road again like it's supposed to be and for the next two and a half hours it was just Steele, myself and good’ol mother nature.

Just after driving through a city called Andrews Texas I noticed there were oil rigs pumping as far as the eye can see. It is difficult to capture this in a picture – but if you zoom in – you will see that the oil rigs are everywhere.

It was quite amusing that just after all the oil rig fields, about 20 miles later, we saw wind turbines, clean energy – as far as the eye can see

And then, just a little bit further, there were wind turbines galore and on the ground between them were the oil rigs pumping crude - - - and that just cracked me up

Big Earls BBQ - ROBY Texas

It was now towards (little past) lunch time and my next stop was Big Earl's barbecue in Roby Texas. Must say I was a little hungry after eating the “amazing” breakfast at the hotel.

Note to self - when traveling in the future, and a hotel/motel advertises

“FREE BREAKFAST INCLUDED” – lower your expectations by 9 out of 10 notches.

The reviews of Big Earl’s were ravishing - - boasting 4.6 out of 5 star ratings.

And the people wrote comments like;

· Probably the best brisket I have ever had

· Great brisket. The best I have ever had.

· Ribs were the best I've ever had..the Brisket was also amazing

So I had to try it out - right?

Reached the restaurant and waited 10 minutes for the guy in front of me to order for him and his wife as he had questions on every single item in the menu.

In the meantime I approached an elderly gentleman sitting down and I asked him….

“how is the food here?” and he replied the food is great but not the wait time.

I thought he said that because I was waiting sooooo long for the one gentleman to order, but it turned out what he meant was - - HE WAITED A HELLOF LONG to get his to go food packaged - and this is a barbecue joint - where usually the food comes out immediately.

Finally - My turn - I ordered half a pound of brisket, okra, chips and fried pickles, because I wanted to taste as much as I could from this amazing best in the west barbecue location.

Boy oh boy. Now I understood what the elderly man meant when he said the wait is the issue. After 32 minutes my order finally arrived. I was already drooling from hunger.

It absolutely LOOKED delicious.

So if I were to give the restaurant a score by the LOOKS - it's 5 out of 5 stars

But you can’t EAT the LOOKS.

The taste was incredibly awful. I took one bite of every item and ended up leaving the restaurant, HANGRY !!

So so disappointed

Home James

At least the 32-minute wait gave me ample time to make sure we can visit the exotic wildlife sanctuary which was our next and final stop of the day.

Turns out you need to do some prep work to be able to view these exotic animals and we will do it but in a few weeks

So, looking at the map - I made a decision to just hit pedal to the metal VIA Interstate 20 and make it home before sunset.

My wife of course was super happy as was I.

Even though this trip was only Thursday to Sunday, it feels like I've been out on the road for much longer than that.

This concludes the New Mexico Texas road trip.

Next week we have some commitments at home but the following week we will have a very interesting trip and I'll leave that as a surprise.