Albufelubland

We're in Texas. And we're stuffed with brisket.

Albuquerque New Mexico is a beautiful medium sized city sitting at the foot of a mountain in central New Mexico. We stayed 3 nights in the city with my aunt and uncle's good friend Peggy, a native of new mexico whom they visit every year. Peggy welcomed us with open arms, tortillas, chile and guac. She sent us out the first night with her niece who showed us the downtown strip, the old town which is made up of traditional southwestern buildings and is only a little spooky at night and the frontier restauraunt, a local hangout for university of new mexico students.

Peggy took us on a driving tour of the city and along the rio grande river. Surprisingly, to us, new mexico had some extremely vibrant fall coulours. Bright golden leaves on every tree. Central New Mexico has a very high elevation (albuqurque is higher than denver) and consequently gets some real fall weather. Heck, we went up the mountain one day and found ourselves in a winter wonderland. We're talking freezing weather and a good 5 inches of snow on the ground. Winter is so beautiful in bite size doses.

New Mexico is particularly known for their chiles which are unlike any I've ever tasted before. They're made primarily from pureed chile peppers which are roasted for different lengths of time in order to create both red and green chiles. This makes for a very vibrant spicy taste on the much lighter side of texas chili. Sits better imho.

After leaving the warm hospitality of Albuqurque, we spent a day in Santa fe where we pretended we were aging yuppies. Beautiful place, a little quiet, looks like a lot of fun twenty years from now. You know, when I can buy stuff at the art galleries that line every street. Santa Fe is the state capitol with the highest elevation and is home to some of the oldest buildings in the united states. The state capitol itself is a beautiful brand new building housing a great collection of local new mexican art. We went to the georgia o'keefe museum, which had a stunning collection and a gene Hackman narrated documentary and visited the supposedly oldest church in the united states. Like I said, it was an aging yuppy day.

After staying a night outside Santa Fe we left New Mexico for Texas. The panhandle of Texas ia the flattest expanse of nothing (narrowly beating out South Dakota) we've hit on this trip so far. We stopped for lunch in Amarillo where I indulged in another ungodly meal: Fritos pie. You take fritos (yes THOSE salty snacks) pour chili on top and melt some cheese (this particular concoction had added chopped brisket). O man this stuff makes you feel warm (and fat) on the inside. The fritos stand up well to the chili mixing crunchiness with heartiness and gooiness from the cheese. The artificial barbecue taste seeps out of the fritos and into the chili and wow. So good. I feel like every meal I have in Texas I find myself thinking "damn, Cam-ron would love this stuff." Bold unrestrained flavours. That's what Cam-ron and Texas are all about.

That night we arrived in Lubbock Texas staying with Shannon's friend Chris. Now we did not expect much from Lubbock, home of texas tech University, but apparently the town expected a lot out of us. One of Chris's friends was having his 21st birthday party and had rented a "party bus" for the night. Said Party bus was a converted old-skool RV (chrome plated all-over) with bench seating for 20 people in the back, ambient red lighting and a banging sound system. The night turned out to be a crazy one, hitting all of Lubbock's hotspots in a bus full of great people happy to take in two weary roadtrippers. Lubbock has never seen a better wednesday night. Heck we had so much fun we decided to stay an extra day! (actually there was a freak sleet storm in texas that kind of forced us to stay but we did have an amazing time)

From Lubbock we crusied down to Midland. West Texas loves their high school football. So much so that they build 15 00 person stadiums for it. This is that Friday Night Lights stuff you see on TV, no joke. We were lucky enought to see a game between the best (Odessa) and third best (Midland) teams in the district. We ended up sitting with Odessa fans who outnumbered the homeside and getting into that game as much as anyone there. High fives and chest bumps as our Odessa Broncos won a nail biting 28-21 game with some trick plays, expert passing and powerful running.

Now we're in Austin and have been for a few days. The drive fom midland brought us to our first authentic barbecue stop: Cooper's Pit BBQ in Mason. A shack with a gigantic bearded pit tender and some darn juicy brisket.

Big thank yous to Peggy for her unsurpassed New mexico hospitality and to Chris and the Lubbock crew for a darn comfy couch and a great night out.

Don't keep it too real,

Chris