etc, etc... That's how we drive in Texas!!

Left Louisiana and headed to Marshall Texas.  While Marshall has some great BBQ, it has absolutely NO beer selection... after a long drive all I wanted was a locally made beer.  I drove to 4 supermarkets, 4 liquor stores and a pharmacy before finding a 6-pack of micro brew... a Real Ale Brewing Company variety pack.  It was tasty too.

From Marshall we popped up to Jefferson... a very cool little town about 15 minutes north.  The original draw was the historic buildings, such as this one...

But as it turned out there was also Kitt's Conbread Sandwich and Pie Shop that specialized in corn bread sandwiches... that's right, sandwiches with corn-bread instead of regular bread, you can do that!  They were awesome, and so was the key lime pie.  Jefferson seemed to be an antique shopper's paradise.

BIG Drive across Texas to Fort Worth to see the Hegerfelds.  Chris is an old friend from high school and it'd been 3 years or so since I'd seen him.  We really just wanted to see their dogs, and their awesome neighborhood that's packed with bunglalows.

Chris and Shannon took us to this awesome lunch place in Ft. Worth... it's an empty lot that got filled with a bunch of food trucks and picnic tables.  We had deelicious tacos and some local brew.  Then we headed down to The Stockyard, where they used to ship and process cattle, and where they now sell beer on the sidewalk.  Every day they walk these longhorns down the street to give folks a little show.

As we were leaving the Stockyard, there was a guy in a jeep next to us that was really antsy to get going.  He jammed on the gas, jumped the sidewalk and flew off the curb onto the road, spinning out and sticking his arm out the window making the "horns" formation with his hand.  At the stop light he leaned out, all smiling (and likely drunk), and yelled "SH*T YEAH!!!  That's how we DRIVE in Texas!!" and then peeled off.  Awesome.

We realized we are starting to run out of time, so we left Fort Worth and made another big drive all the way across to Carlsbad.  There's absolutely nothing out there but oil wells, tanker trucks, pumps, natural gas flaring, and the stink of all that.  It reeeeally smelled like crap out there and I thought the drive might never end.

Rolled into Carlsbad - a crap little town with very expensive hotels - and after looking at a "budget" hotel that was an absolute dump we found a historic bank building that had been converted to a hotel.  For some reason I was thinking we'd be in t-shirt and jeans weather, but it was COLD.  I needed a hat (since I shaved my head) and there was snow on our car in the morning.

Headed off in the morning to Carlsbad Caverns... totally different from Mammoth Cave but still incredible.  It didn't hurt that our tour only had 5 people.  Photos couldn't do it justice, you just have to see it yourself.  Here's an attempt at a shot of the "drapery" formations on the ceiling.

After the caverns we shot on over to Las Cruces - via El Paso - to get in a good position to visit White Sands in the morning.  El Paso is across the Rio Grand from Juarez Mexico, which you can see from the highway.  Both cities are complete and total dumps in my opinion, but Juarez is worse by a healthy margin on account of the whole cartel related killings part.

It's monday night and we just got back from a local brewery/restaurant - High Desert Brewing Company - and had an very good meal and some great beer.  The Pats were killing the Texans and I didn't have the heart/guts to announce to the crowd that I was a Massachusetts boy.  Turns out tonight is our anniversary!  Neither of us ever really knows quite what day it is.