 |
Relics from the Pecos museum in a room that included Masonic/Scottish Rite stuff (with a must read).
|
|
Roy Bean |
|
|
|
Make sure above you’re looking at the full panoramic picture of the Golden Girls of the West complete with totally inappropriate manikins.
|
|
Google Maps route out of Menard, TX.
|
|
Grocery store/bar parking lot I slept in next to this sign in the border town of Columbus, NM.
|
|
Sexiest picture I have of my bike; reclining in front of El Capitan and the rest of the Guadalupe mountains as the sun we were chasing set. Slept at the base of those mountains that night.
|
|
|
|
This place’s only claim to fame beside the jerky store next to this sign is that it’s the home of the fictional character Rambo.
|
|
|
|
New Orleans' skyline is barely visible in the left of the panorama toward the railing.
|
|
|
|
Chuck’s BBQ’s tagline is “The Best Smell in Evadale” (smell is two syllables and rhymes with Evadale). The only other institution in Evadale is a smelly MeadWestvaco paper plant across the street from Chuck’s BBQ.
|
|
Giant handgun (sculpture) pointed at Fiestamart is in the parking lot of a Texas bail bonds place without much explanation. Maybe it’s vestigial from a time when the place was a pawn or gun shop or maybe the message is “we’ll hunt your ass down”.
|
|
|
|
The world's largest BBQ pit could be yours for $350k. AND it's emblazoned with a giant Texas-shaped ornament on the end AND they have a sign blessing America and Chris Kyle (of “American Sniper" fame). Texans’ ingenuity at machining things in the shape of Texas never ceased to impress me.
|
|
I don't recommend the venison jerky from PJ's in Bowie, AZ (home of Rambo) but wonder if I'd shot my own deer and got it processed at Cactus Deer Processing (I think in El Dorado, TX) if that would've been better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a Javelina that wandered up to the general storefront in Portal, AZ.
|
|
Here's an absurd plaque portraying Robert E. Lee's daughter as an early civil rights protester; absurd because his only connection to the place was that Robert E. Lee had been stationed to that town in Texas before he was a Confederate.
|
|
Western sign for Grit, Texas. About 800 yards away in the background (beyond the woman following her wiener dog into the street, which was barking at me) is the eastern sign for Grit, Texas.
|
|
Hext, Texas the next town west of Grit. Home of the Hext Trading Post (BYOB), some dead rattle snakes, and their killers.
|
|
Among the first Yucca plants I saw. This was in a pass called Robber's Roost, which is west of Hext. Billy the Kid is known to have stayed in a Robber's Roost but I dunno whether it was this one.
|
|
Another road recommended by Google Maps in alligator country: a weirdly sentimental Skynyrd lyric about a she-gator protecting her young came on the radio about the time I was fording this creek which freaked me out because I didn't know she-gators cared about that until then.
|
|
Representative Louisiana convenience-store advertising: jazz-themed Philly Blunts (wood tipped y'all!), jazz-themed lotto tickets, filled-out-by-hand-on-fancily-printed poster for National Wild Turkey Federation event, New Orleans Famous Sno-Balls To Go, an insanely awesome and expensive used all-terrain vehicle FOR SALE!!!!, ABITA beer.
|
|
|
|
In a Texas convenience store you can not only buy camo ear buds but also a giant wooden be(fake)jeweled cross costing $29.99.
|
|
Bathroom at the Mayor's bed and Breakfast in Mason, TX.
|
|
The robot bartender encourages you to have your picture taken with it and I couldn't refuse.
|
|
Google-Maps-recommended 20 miles of unpaved road.
|
|
Good vending machine concept.
|