Finishing off the Texas BBQ trail, on Saturday, we drove south to Lockhart again. This time it was to take in the Saturday morning farmer's market and to hit Smitty's again (it has been two years!). The farmer's market was quite small, one block with about 10 or so small stalls but it is early days in the year at this time. Smitty's, well, it was Smitty's and it was fabulous! We happened to arrive just as one of the BBQ masters was working on the pit of ribs...
... and it was all good from there on.
Sunday we headed north to Arlington as we had tickets to see the Yankees and the Rangers play Monday evening.
However, we had a bit more bbq business to finish up. Instead of heading up the freeway, directly north from Austin, we drove east to Elgin to the Southside Market for a bbq lunch before heading north. Once again... fabulous.
Thus ends this year's visit to the Texas BBQ Trail. Still a couple of places to get to but you have to leave something for next time...
In Arlington, we stayed at the same place as two years ago and yes, it was too early in the year for their pool to be open. Never mind that the afternoon temperature topped 90 degrees. Oh well, it is kind of a handy place, quite close to the Rangers ball park and a large shopping mall. Monday morning the car went into Nissan for an oil change and look over. All is well in that department.
The ball game turned out to be a special night. Pre-game, it was the official Pudge Rodriguez retirement announcement. COOL!.. The procedings ended with Pudge throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. He went to the mound and Ian Kinsler went behind the plate... just as Pudge got ready to throw, the announcer said "... wait, there's something wrong with this picture..." at which point Pudge went to home plate and Ian ran out to second base where, to the delight of the sell out crowd, Pudge fired a bullet to second, right on the base. WAY COOL!
Anyway, for the game there were a few things we were hoping to see...
- Sabathia pitch for the Yankees. YES, he did.
- Darvish pitch for the Rangers. No, he didn't (Holland started for the Rangers).
- Jeter get at least one hit. YES, he did, He went 4 for 5.
- Hamilton hit a big blast homer. YES, he did.
- ARod hit a big blast homer. YES, he did (but Brian missed it due to being on a search for a souvenir helmet ice cream!)
- Mariano pitch in relief for the Yankees. (YES, he did and got the save)
Tuesday we headed east toward Tyler where we had heard about Stanley's Famous Pit BBQ and boy, did they not disappoint! We got there a little late and they were sold out of ribs but the rest was fabulous...
... so we must return and get there early. They open at 10:00 for lunch and the guy said they usually sell out of ribs by about 11:00.
After that great lunch we continued south and stayed at the KOA in Rusk for the night. What a great location, and extra bonus, they have a large salt water swimming pool. What with it being still early in the season, once again we had the pool to ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Wednesday we headed south to Houston to prepare for James and Melissa's wedding on Saturday. Leaving Rusk we wanted to stop, for lunch, in Huntsville as the "New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbeque" is rumored to be the best of the best of Texas BBQ. ALAS... NOT TO BE for us this trip. Turns out they are only open Thursday through Sunday. OK, it goes into the "save something for next time" category.
The rest of the week was spent getting our things in order for the wedding, having lunch with James a couple of times (Melissa was busy with the wedding details). Looking forward to seeing James' family again and of course seeing Melissa and meeting her family...
In Houston we stayed at the LakeView RV Resort in south Houston. We stayed here two years ago at which time the pool was way to warm. This time it was much cooler and much nicer (it could have still been a few degrees colder for our tastes). Good convenient place to stay. The first couple of nights we were a bit towards the back of the RV park and a tad far from the restrooms. We asked if we could change and they were able to move us to a spot right near the restrooms and backing onto the lake... very nice...
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