Today we got up and drove to a highly rated BBQ place called John Mueller Meat Co. It's literally a backyard BBQ in a vacant lot in a somewhat sketchy neighbourhood. They only cook a certain amount of meat each day and once they sell out of something, it gets crossed off the menu board. We get a combo platter to share of beef short ribs, brisket, and pork ribs with some bottled sodas to wash everything down. This place is rated nearly perfect for a reason. I never want to eat any meat again because it will pale in comparison to this amazing BBQ'd meat. It was the best thing I've ever eaten. The other 2 guys had similar opinions. A perfect finish to our journey through Texas.
We clean up and hit the road to New Mexico. Along the way we pass through a little German town called Fredericksburg which looks super neat and quaint however may be built as a tourist town. Then we hit a long stretch of highway. Car set to cruise and just logging miles. On the plus side, the speed limit here is 80 mph so that helps cover distance quicker. At one point we drive past a sheriff SUV parked in the meridian who pulls out and starts to follow us. We were a couple miles over the limit but nothing warranting being pulled over. We debate what's going on but can't figure it out. The SUV pulls up right beside us and the cop looks into our car and at us then drops back and flicks on the lights to pull us over. Nick pulls onto the shoulder and stops and up walks a surprisingly attractive female cop to the passenger window. She asks for Nick's license and the car registration then asks which of us are carrying guns. We say none of us. She says "okay what about concealed weapons? I'm going to need them taken out and to see your registration for them." We go uhhh none of those either... She doesn't let up "Well knives then, y'all must have some pocket knives on you or something right?" Again, no, we have no weapons. She seems shocked by this (We are in Texas, I guess) and tells Nick to step out of the car and go stand back at her SUV. So he does and Matt and I can hear her interrogating him, asking about the car, what we were doing here, where Nick was from/born, where we had been and where we were going next. A few minutes later she comes up to our car again and asks for mine and Matt's licenses. She checks them then quizzes us with similar questions to maybe see if our stories matched Nick's I guess? We have nothing to hide so tell her where we had been and what was up next. She goes "So what, it's like a lifelong dream of y'all to drive across America or somethin?" We go uhhh, I guess? She returns everyone's IDs and tells us to watch our speed and have a good trip. We get driving again and Matt and I ask Nick what she said when he was back at the SUV. Apparently she told him he was going a little quick but that we looked suspicious as did the Florida plates on our rental car. Very odd. So we set the cruise control at exactly 80 (which realistically is plenty fast) and carried on.
Then came a long boring stretch, only mitigated by a good selection of music, including our trip song "I Love It - Icona Pop ft. Charlie XCX" which we play at LEAST once per day while driving. It's a good pump up song. Sadly, there are no longer any waffle houses in this part of the country so that road game has ended. Still working on replacing it with another equally common chain. We stop in a little place called Fort Stockton for dinner and randomly choose a Mexican place called Mi Casita. We learn as we go inside that it's been voted the best restaurant in the county for several years running, so we lucked out with some very tasty Tex Mex. We fuel up and notice gas is the most expensive besides Miami on the whole trip here. Odd considering all the oil in Texas. We carry on through to Carlsbad, only stopping for a photo at the Welcome to New Mexico sign, which is riddled with bullet holes. At the hotel in Carlsbad we plan the next few nights and gets hotels booked. Tomorrow we head through Roswell up to Albuquerque then West from there.
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