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Today’s goal was to get from Colorado Springs to Fort Stockton, TX.

I started south and my first meal of the day came in the small town of Trinidad, CO, just north of the Colorado/New Mexico border and Foodio54 recommended Black Jack’s Saloon. Both the inside and the outside were decorated with a frontier theme and I decided to order the “Black Jack Burger.” It seemed as though the burger was very thin, however I think it’s shape was deceptive, instead of being thick it was flattened but of a pretty reasonable size and was very filling. Overall it was pretty good, but I wasn’t blown away.

In New Mexico I wasn’t sure if I would go through Roswell, NM or if the previous day at Area 51 was enough alien stuff for the trip. Since I was in the area I decided why not just get something to eat there. Roswell is supposedly the location of a crashed flying saucer in 1947, although the official story is that it was a weather balloon. In any event the town has certainly embraced the folklore and had many alien gift shops and many of the other businesses in town have alien themes. Foodio54 recommended Pepper’s Grill and Bar. Pepper’s is a Mexican restaurant, however they couldn’t resist adding an element of alien stuff for the tourists by having t-shirts that said “c-Alien-te” Clever

Alien promotions aside, Pepper’s was a fantastic Mexican place. It was absolutely packed when I went in there and for good reason. I ordered the New Mexico style steak enchiladas which were fantastic. Additionally, I typically despise baked beans, and a few places have given them to me unsolicited over the trip forcing me to taste them just in case. Every other time so far I have been reminded that yes, I really don’t like baked beans but at Pepper’s they were cooked in a chili sauce of some kind that made them actually pretty good. If these guys can make baked beans that I like that’s just amazing!

I then headed for the Texas border as the sun started to set. I reached the Texas border a bit after sundown and stopped my car at the border to get a picture of the welcome to Texas sign. I live in Cleveland, which isn’t a huge city, but it’s big enough to obscure most stars, right before I got back in my car it struck me that out in the desert wilderness I could see thousands and thousands of stars. I turned off the car lights for a minute to see if I could see more, which was kind of creepy out in the middle of nowhere. I then headed into Texas.

In Texas, the most bizarre thing happened. Along the side of the road for miles and miles there were hundreds of rabbits. None of them were in the road, they all seemed to be very disciplined about standing 2 to 3 feet off from the shoulder in the grass on both sides of the road, but there were a fantastic amount of them.

Tags: Big Road Trip