Day Three: Texas is Killer

Now I like Texas for two reasons: Matthew McConaghey and beef brisket. But those two reasons are eclipsed by the fact that driving across Texas is the most taxing, boring thing ever, if you don't count waiting at the DMV or DEERS office.

We drove from Texarkana, Arkansas to Las Cruces, New Mexico. The drive on Interstate 20 through Texas was SO MUCH BETTER than the drive through Interstate 10 - at least there's a slight improvement in the scenery. We stopped in Fort Worth for lunch at Angelo's Bbq, which was the best beef brisket I've ever had. They also are famous for their smoked turkey and chicken, and wow, they were definitely drool-worthy. We got the meals to go and ate at this charming little park that had a pretty pond and lots of shade, since it was over 100 degrees and sunny that day.

The dogs loved hanging out at the park for a little bit and definitely enjoyed the scraps of barbecue that we gave them.

We were going to stop for the night in El Paso, but I read reviews for numerous hotels and the area just seemed pretty, well, ghetto. The whole city is just too huge and since Mexico is like right there I didn't feel too comfortable staying there. Plus the reviews said that most of the hotels are in bad areas, and since we were schlepping most of our wardrobes with us, we didn't feel comfortable leaving our stuff in the car ovenight. So we decided to continue on to Las Cruces, which is only about 40 minutes outside of El Paso (most of those 40 minutes is spent driving through El Paso since the city is so damn big). Oh yeah, and if you ever get the opportunity to drive through El Paso, there's a bunch of lights on a mountainside on the Mexico side that someone artfully arranged to look like a, uh, weiner and balls, in the throes of passion. Quite an amusing sense of humor, those Mexicans.

When we were about fifteen minutes outside of El Paso, we were stopped to get gas at this rundown gas station and all of a sudden we saw this wild pig trot out in the middle of the gas station, and then it was followed by another one, which was running full speed ahead. That one was immediately followed by a guy with a shotgun who tried unsuccessfully to shoot at it. Then we saw a praying mantis hanging out on the window of the car. Those Texans know how to put some excitement in their lives.