Monday Meanderings - 6.4.2012

Wow. Lots of travel the past couple of weekends, and if you know me you know that's not my style. But sometimes you  have to do what you need to do. Last week was a trip to see some of the grand-kids, and their parents, of course. This weekend Barb and I celebrated our 50th by returning to the coast, though initially some 70 miles south of where this all started. More about that on Wednesday.

On the route to Lubbock when you get on I-20, you normally can look off to distant mesas and see miles and miles of wind turbines. This last trip we could hardly see the mesas. Smoke from the Gila Forest wildfires had reached from the far eastern edge of New Mexico, across that state and well into Texas.

Always enjoy satellite radio in the car on those long road trips. For Memorial Day weekend, you had your choice of a channel devoted to Pink Floyd, a channel for the Allman Brothers, and another for the Beach Boys. There may have been others featured, but you can only listen to one at a time.

So, if you are driving down the highway (obeying the speed limit, I might add) and two State Trooper cars tuck in behind you, and it is a two-lane highway with limited passing opportunities, what do you do? Is it legal to drive on the shoulder to let the car behind you pass? I was taught that it was polite to do so, but is it actually legal? Do you want to find out with two cop cars behind you?

Then after several miles, when you see the 2nd cop car behind you making repeated swerves onto the shoulder, how fast do you pull over to let them pass? Still don't know if it's legal, but it was certainly permitted.

On the trip to the coast, we taste-tested another of the big BBQ names in the Luling/Lockhart area, City Market. Better tasting brisket than we've had at either Black's or Kruez's. Like many of the purist places, It's served on butcher paper and you eat with your fingers. You do get bread or crackers; pickles and onions if you care for them. There are standard sides available, but the word is that one should forego them and concentrate on the meat. Unlike Kruez's, there is sauce available - a very tasty mustard-based concoction. However, when all is said and done, I think I still prefer Rudi's extra lean, and knives and forks.

So we're waiting for the ferry to take us over to Port A (a wait of more than an hour; must be summertime), and a guy driving a pickup a few vehicles in front of us jumps out and makes a mad dash to a near-by porta-potty. In a few minutes, he comes out, sees that the line hasn't moved a bit, so he strolls back to his truck to the applause and honking of those in line.

Port A beach report:  Back hoes have scrapped up seaweed and sand and made big piles every hundred yards, but all that did was make the beach hard to walk on. It sure didn't make a dent on the accumulation of seaweed on the shore. With the heat, crowds, rough beach and seaweed, I give it a C minus this trip. But the seafood was great, as usual.