Remembering

Although I've never seen a movie about the Alamo it is one of those epic pieces of American history that everyone has heard about but not very many know anything about. Similar in a way to Lewis and Clark. So history nerd that I am I walked into and immediately got lost in the Alamo. They have done a great job telling the story of a rather insignificant event that led to a pretty historic victory. What I gathered from the monument was that Santa Anna's vicious treatment of rebels so angered the Texans, or Texians that when Sam Houston met Santa Anna on the battlefield the battle lasted less than 18 minutes. Anyway,LOVED the Alamo and San Antonio. After that we set out to finish off Texas. East Texas is one of my favorite parts of the trip. It is so green despite the current drought, the people are friendly, and the air smells like roasting, smoking, or grilling beef. One of the main motivating factors for the ride was to eat some delicious BBQ and we decided to start trying some out. The first we tried was Bill Millers BBQ. It is kind of the fast food of BBQ. It wasn't very good. We biked into a town called Luling and met up with a guy named Mike at the grocery store who is also an avid cyclist and he showed us around town and told us one of the best BBQ places in Texas was just across the street. In fact there were two really well known BBQ places in this tiny little town, but only one was open on Tuesday and they happened to be open for breakfast. So I ate breakfast and then went to City Market. Inside there were two sections; the smokehouse where the meat is cooked and sold and then where you can buy sides. The guy selling the brisket was rude, always a good sign, and slopped my beef on some paper with a few slices of bread took my money and I went to find a place to sit. It was the best beef brisket I've ever tasted. thinking about it makes me hungry and sad. Then we got on our bikes to ride. I then realized that a breakfast like that is a perfect way to start your day if you're planning on sitting on the couch and trying to catch flys in the drool coming out of the side of your mouth. Despite our gastronomical setback we still made it where we needed to and ended up sleeping behind some semi trucks behind McDonalds.