Wyoming Welcomes You

In Cheyenne, we top off our fuel and water tanks, we are good to go. The temps have jumped up to 55, it's sunny, with no wind and a very pleasant day. When we stopped at the port of entry to get our WY permit, they inform us there are “several” storms on the way. Why naturally , we wouldn’t to just have ONE storm, now would we? Do we know how to have fun, or what?

As we head north, the temperatures have risen, to a surprising 60 degrees. The skies are still cloudless, and there is still very little snow on the ground and not much on mountain peaks in the distance either.

The big concern is with getting out of the job site, the drive leading into the power plant is steep and although they had it well sanded on our last visit, once we get unloaded, we won’t have the added weight on our trailer to give us traction.

We pass a sign for the Oregon Trail Ruts historical monument. I can not fathom the hardships the pioneers endured trying to cross this desolate area in a covered wagon. Its unbelievable that any survived the harsh conditions and dangers the wagon trains encountered. Even today, there is literally, nothing for miles.

The upraised road barriers are a constant reminder of how badly the conditions can deteriorate. If the weather reports are correct, in less than 24 hours, those barriers will be in the down position and the roads shut down to traffic.

We push on northward.

The Rockies

Yesterday morning we finally made it into Amarillo but the majority of the roads were still closed. It took us about 3 hours to make it into the parking lot of the Flying J, there were big trucks parked three wide in the roadway, and trucks parked on the fuel island, creating one huge log jam. The state police were not happy campers and neither were a lot of truck drivers!

As we watched the news reports on the TV in the restaurant for the Fargo area flooding, the newscaster mentioned another major winter storm to hit the area on Monday. When we got back to the truck, I checked the forecast for Gillette, WY again and they are calling for another major storm/blizzard for Sunday night into Monday…………SWEET!! Just what we need…..not.

Gillette, WY, land of blizzards and no cell phone service.

We made great time, finally getting through the rest of Texas, through about 60 miles of the panhandle of Oklahoma and into Colorado. We found a rest area about 50 miles south of Denver, and called it a night, we had a good ride and got in about 415 miles, we will tackle the rest of the trip today.

When you get about 30 miles south of Denver;, you can see the vista of the Rocky mountains rising in front of you, its an unbelievably beautiful sight. Having grown up in the Catskill mountains of New York, I am no stranger to being surrounded by moutain views, but they in no way prepare you for the sight of the Rockies. Now I know why they are described as majestic. It is a good description for something so beautiful it almost defies description.

I remember coming through during the summer, when its 80 degrees and you can still see snow on the highest peaks. Our Catskill and Andirondack mountains, while beautiful in their own right, look like hills in comparison. I can certainly understand living there and enduring the winters in order to have that view every day. Its soemthing I would never grow tired of.

This morning the views do not disappoint, the sun is just starting to rise and the highter elevations are all bathed in a rosey glow. The sky is clear, and it looks like another beautiful day, we are hoping to make it to Gillette and our power plant before the storm hits.

There is very little snow on the ground here in Denver, but I am sure that is all going to change the further north we travel. The temperature is dropping rapidly, its down to 27 right now and falling.

Texas blizzard

(this is actually yesterday's post, I wasn't able to upload it before)

Texas has some unique road signs. Many of their secondary roads are called Farm-to Market (FM) or Ranch-to-Market (RM) and then the number of the road. Some roads are also called spurs. It is an absolute must to have an individual map of Texas, our atlas just wont do the job, especially with a permitted load. We traveled mostly on secondary roads yesterday, probably doubling the amount of miles we need to drive. it’s a nice scenic cruise, but slow and fuel consuming. One can not imagine the immense size of Texas unless you’ve seen it this way.

Texas, I think, is the only state that all posted speed limits are five miles slower at night than the daylight hours, for both cars and big trucks.

Fortunately, we are routed through Brady, home of our favorite BBQ place and we take a quick stop in for bite. Normally, we are fighting daylight and try not to stop until sunset, but we had to make an exception this one time.

We get up at sunrise this morning and its down to 32 degrees, a big difference from yesterdays temps in the 80’s. . We head out into a light rain, directly into a strong head wind which is slowing our progress considerably. We are keeping our eye on the blizzard they had in Denver yesterday, we were hoping to get that far today, but this wind is going to play a big role in whether or not that happens. We actually pass a sand truck but no evidence of ice………….yet.

The contrast of colors in Texas is amazing,. You have deep rich jade green of the irrigated hay fields, the red ochre of the newly plowed earth, or the black earth that you find in the southern Texan cotton fields. The beige field grasses, interspersed with brown, black, white, grey livestock. Purple, pink and yellow road flowers, patches of white cotton in all the nooks and crannies.

Now the long rows of emerald green and terra cotta red furrows are lined with white snow, resembling a flag. We trudge a few more miles and now we know why the salt shakers were out, the road is nothing but ice. We pass 2 more sand trucks, it would be nice if they were in front of us though.

The roads get worse the farther north we go. We are first on the scene at a vehicle roll-over. I grab our first aid kit and work our way over. The wind is blowing stinging pellets of snow at us as we skate over the vehicle, it’s a U-haul that passed us a few miles back. Luckily the passengers escaped injury. Another motorist stops, he is a doctor, but thankfully his services aren’t needed. We have the couple come in the truck to warm up while waiting for the emergency crews to arrive.

We are very low on fuel, and are trying to make it to Amarillo. We warn a big truck heading southbound of the emergency vehicles and they in turn tell us all the roads in Amarillo are closed down. I checked the weather for Denver, never thinking once that I would need to check Amarillo. I do so now and there is a blizzard warning in effect. That delay cost us precious time and now we don’t dare take the chance making it to Amarillo and the truck stops. Luckily we find a small shell station that has diesel and we pull in and have to shut down probably for the day. If we get stopped with an over size load, no only will we be fined, but they will probably suspend our permits.

We are shut down for the remainder of the day, and for the night. All we can do is hope that conditions clear early tomorrow morning.

Finally........

We finally were offloaded a little after noon today. Here is a shot through the windshield at some of the mayhem at the job site. It was just total chaos there today. They are just starting this wind farm (you can see the bottom of the first tower hanging from the crane). This site is supposed to be about 190 towers!

We take an over dimensional load going to Gillette, Wyoming. I quick check the weather forecast and it looks like Gillette is safe from any more blizzards for the next few days, this will deliver on Monday. We have been to this site before, its a large power plant. Although it is God's country there, it's pretty far off the beaten path. We know it's going to be a challenge finding something new in the area after this load, but it's pretty slim pickings, so we take our chances with it.

We get to our Laredo yard about 5:00 and get started on securing the load. After that its on with our over sized banners, flags and lights. As soon as we get our Texas permit in the morning, we can head out. There are five of these loads sitting in the yard, that means 5 drivers going to the same place, 5 drivers that will be looking for new loads on Monday. We will all be constrained to following the routes set forth on our permits by each individual state and numerous curfews.
Even if we did already have our Texas permit, we would have to wait for sunrise before we could venture out, and we are required to stop traveling come sun set.

Let the games begin!

Joe Cotten's Barbecue

Another long day of sitting and waiting. Thank goodness for sporcle.com.

Finally about 3 pm, someone came over and told us that they would be unloading us tomorrow (Wednesday). Sigh. The wind has died down but we had a few intermittent rain showers today.

Well, it could be worse, we could be in Wyoming or South Dakota where a majority of roads are closed due to a major spring blizzard. Up to 14" of snow and wind gusts of 70 miles an hour.....uh huh, yup, as much as I love Wyoming, I'm sure glad we are in Texas right now.

We took another ride to Corpus Christi and found a restaurant in Robsville, TX called Joe Cotten's Barbecue, which opened in 1947. Now that's what we are talking about. It smelled and looked like the real authentic Texas barbecue that we have been looking for. No menus here folks. The plates are $11 and you have your choice of brisket, pork, sausage or ribs, or any combination. We all go for the ribs, brisket and sausage and we are not disappointed. Our waiter brings our food out right away, no plates either, our food is served up on double sheets of waxed paper.

The meat is tender, well seasoned and pretty much cooked to perfection. Plates include the ever present pinto beans, a slice of white bread, a slice of whole wheat bread, a slice of tomato and onion, a pickle and a jalapeno pepper. After a few minutes, our waiter asks if we would like more to eat, its pretty much an all-you-can-eat concept.

Our 'que cravings have finally been satisfied. ahhhhhhhhh

Bad, Bad, 'Que, Bill

There is a large BBQ chain in Texas called Bill Millers BBQ. We have been wanting to try them for the last year, last night we finally got the chance. We drove down to Corpus Christi, passing the USS Lexington on the way. Our search for BBQ ended at a local Bill Miller BBQ, and the absence of any BBQ odors should have been our clue to keep truckin' on by.

We thought that Bill Miller would be a good bet, there are about 70 locations in Texas. In actuality, it's the Burger King of BBQ. It's fast food and tastes like it. We were with another one of our drivers and none of us enjoyed our meal. It's got to be pretty bad if Joe doesn't like their BBQ. Our sides, cole slaw and potato salad, were hands down the worst yet.

The big question is, are all the Bill Miller's this bad??

Here we go again...........

We had an 8 am delivery appointment here in Taft Texas at this new wind farm site. Its a wind site, so out come the hard hats and safety vests.

Generally with the wind farms, they are almost always verrrrrry slow and think nothing at all about having us wait all day to get unloaded. Right now we would settle for just having to wait all day.

At noon, we finally get the heads up that we won't be unloaded today, its a slim chance for tomorrow, they are hoping for Wednesday. Imagine if you would, a sandy flat open field, and all you can see for miles are plowed furrows (I'm thinking cotton) huge silos and some construction equipment. We are miles from anything and the wind is coming off the gulf at 30 miles an hour non-stop. We might as well be parked inside a wind tunnel. There is a high wind weather warning for today, with a possibility of storms for Tuesday and Wednesday. One good thing, our truck will probably be more aerodynamic after the sand blasting its enduring. The sand has magical properties and is able to manifest itself all over the inside of the truck, covering everything with a fine layer of grit. The wind is buffeting us like a ship at sea, and the ceaseless roar of the wind grates on ones nerves.

Its not going to be a good day, no matter how you look at it. Time really is money in this industry, and its not doing us a bit of good to sit here idle. We are waiting back to hear if and how much detention pay we will recieve. Meanwhile there is a laundromat, or, as they call them in Texas, a washateria, right down the road, so we will get that done later.

Our mission yesterday was to find some ‘que……..its almost a sin to be in texas and not have ‘que. I think that’s the problem with the northeast…….there just aint enough 'que. You will find some of the best BBQ at these little roadside restaurants with a pit, smoking in the back all day.
You can smell it for a mile, and if it doesn't make your mouth water, you need to be a vegetarian. God bless Texas.

We were finally able to find a real honest to goodness Texas roadside 'que right next to a small truck stop. It was called Hinze's and it was located on Highway 59 near Wharton, TX.

We were a little disappointed, the portions were small for the price. Joe had ribs and brisket and I had chicken breast. Although not as tasty as some 'ques we've had in the past, the meat was moist and not dried out. Texas 'que differs from some other 'ques in that its smoked with a dry rub. The sauce (served on the side in little paper dixie cups) was reminiscent of chili. The sides were great though, the macaroni salad, baked beans and cole slaw were awesome. I think we are just spoiled from that great 'que we had in Brady last summer.

Yesterday we were more than a little surprised to see a rather large black bear laying on the side of the road. There is a town in southern Louisiana that has bear crossing signs, but we just never thought of Louisiana and Texas as a place with a large black bear population.

While we are on the subject of barbeque, here are some recipes to get your taste buds hoppin'

Joe’s Favorite: (If you sadly don’t live within driving distance of a Famous Dave’s , then you need to move close to one. Until then, you can order your very own sauce direct from Famous Dave’s here: http://famousbbq.com/)

They also cater, so holler at ‘em the next time its your turn to have folks over for the game.

Famous Dave's Jumpin', Juken' & Jiven All Day Beef Brisket and Secret Moppin' Sauce
Chef Famous Dave Anderson

Secret Moppin' Sauce:
3 (20 ounce) bottles Famous Dave's BBQ sauce
2 quarts water
1 cup beef stock base
1/4 cup Kahlua
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 sticks (1 cup) butter

Beef:
Whole brisket
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
1/2 cup Rib Rub

Sauce: Combine all ingredients in stockpot and mix well. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Yield: 1 gallon.

Beef: Ask butcher to remove most of the fat from a whole brisket, leaving only 1/4 inch to help preserve the juiciness during the cooking process. Have butcher separate brisket into two muscles, the flat and the point. Hand rub each brisket with garlic and Rib Rub. Start the smoking process! Smoke briskets for a minimum of 8 hours, keeping the temperature from 180 to 200 degrees F.

After 4 hours, start mopping with sauce every hour. After 8 hours, briskets should be almost black. This blend of smoke, rib rub and sauce forms a crunchy exterior called 'bark.' To ensure brisket turns out tasty and tender, wrap each brisket in a double layer of aluminum foil and pour 2 cups of Moppin' Sauce over brisket. Seal foil tightly and return to grill at 200 degrees F for 3 hours.

Remove briskets from aluminum foil and cool down. Once cool, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, re-smoke over indirect heat at 225 to 235 degrees F for 2 to 3 hours or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.

Let stand for 15 minutes before slicing. Slice just before serving to preserve juiciness. Save the 'burnt ends' for yourself, they're the best part!

Servings: 12 to 16


Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken

Roast Chicken Seasoning:
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup paprika
1/2 cup lemon pepper
1/2 cup Mrs. Dash original blend

Mix all ingredients. Store in a covered container.

Roast Chicken:
1 (6 pound) roasting chicken
2 (16 ounce) bottles Italian dressing
1 (8 ounce) bottle lemon juice
1/3 cup Roast Chicken Seasoning

Place the chicken in a 2-gallon sealable plastic bag. Pour a mixture of the Italian dressing and lemon juice over chicken, turning to coat. Marinate in refrigerator for 3 hours, turning every 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from bag and drain. Season generously with 1/3 cup Roast Chicken Seasoning. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange chicken on a rack in a baking pan. Tent loosely with foil. Bake 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 170 to 180 degrees F, removing the tent 20 minutes before the end of baking process. Let stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Yields 6 to 8 servings.

Makes me wish we brought our little propane camp grill with us. sniff.