And so it goes…late Sunday night I found myself packed in the back of the biggest van I have ever seen, making my way from the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport to Steven’s house, whom I am helping drive is car back to San Diego from Dallas. Payment, 18 or so back issues of Art Culinaire…enough to make any chef drool.
Those who have made this trip before can attest to the boredom and monotony that can infect you while driving for a complete day just to find yourself still in Texas. To try and combat this I planned some culinary stops along the way, as Steven used to be a decorated chef in his own right.
First stop is BBQ in Abilene, TX. Award winning and great reviews on the Internet. So I plug in the address to my iPhone and we make our way through this dusty little city to find….an Italian restaurant in place of our BBQ destination. Dejected we scurry to find another place to eat, and are offered a “drag race” with a West Texas local aboard his sidecar toting Honda. Honda vs. Porsche Boxster S (300+ hp)…guess who was victorious?
We stumble into a Chinese restaurant and I mow down some spicy Lo Mein noodles and the coldest Bud Light outside of Star Bar. We bail and I start snapping photo’s of old, run down motels that seem to predominate the landscape here. Seems like the economic downturn started decades earlier here than the rest of the country.
Back on I-20 and topping speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour (in some spots) we try and make the best of a very mundane drive. 4 hours into this stretch, we stop so I can pound a Chelada and to give the car a bit of a rest. 100 miles an hour seems fast, but when you are passing prairie and broken down homesteads it still seems ad time is creeping by. We try and stop in Odessa to check out Meteor crater, only to find it closed on Monday’s…strike 2, with the first being the BBQ restaurant.
The Chelada is had in Van Horn, TX which is perched along the I-20 in the middle of West Texas. Motel signs dot the landscape, the only reminder of the properties that were torn down long ago to make way for a grass covered field. Thank Buddha we are not here a month or so later, as I am sure the heat would be unbearable! The only thing on our minds is arriving in El Paso and our second dining destination, Cafe Central. Cafe Central has been nominated for a James Beard award this year (2009) and we are hoping it will be the crown jewel of a culinary tour wrought with disappointment.
Speeding along to our destination we see something off in the distance, on the other side of the freeway…a solar car! I have seem images of this for years and both of use are very excited to see this actually on the road. We make the decision to turn around and catch up to it, so we can get some images of it driving along. Steven whips the car around and we accelerate to 120+ mph, chasing a car that maybe is cruising along at 25-30 mpg. 5 minutes later we catch up, snap some images then pull ahead and pull off the freeway, awaiting its passing. I have to say that it was a great moment watching this single seat car powered by nothing else other than the sun to pass by, a small parade of cars and trucks following along at like speeds.
We let the solar car pass, jump the medium and scream on to get to our final destination on day 1…
next, El Paso to San Diego (in one day!).
Cheers,
chefRob
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