day - five
*weekend schedule will be full. Posts will be on journal mode to make it shorter. If it doesn’t make sense, well, live with it. Photos will be posted up separately once I manage to shake off the feeling of lazy to do things.
Friday. American takes Friday real seriously. They think it’s serious to take things lightly on Friday. That’s why, those guys decided to bring me (and cheecheongfun) out for a barbeque lunch.
Place ? It was located at the outskirts of Pflugerville (or was it inside Pflugerville ?) which requires approximately, 30 minutes’ drive. There were 7 of us so, we’re divided into 2 vehicles. A group of 3 on Jose’s (one of the lab techs) truck and 4 of us on Keith’s (the 300 pound dude) truck.
Jose was driving a Chevrolet Suburban and Keith’s was a Ford Excursion. Keith’s truck was so big that Roberto Carlos would need a ladder to climb onto his truck. Spotted with a V8 turbocharged engine and 400 over horsepower, the thing was nasty.
But it wasn’t for long. After Keith tore up the road for approximately 4 - 5 miles, we began to feel something funny going on. His truck was wobbling a little. Keith then got down and confirmed that it was a puncture. That’s very lucky indeed. Well, he then took out his big crank (not sure if it’s called that..) and Dave attempted to change the tire. But .. they don’t fit. Keith kinda like forgotten that he got a set of customized nuts (the nuts on the wheels..) and the crank was original. So, the guys figured that they’re gonna call up somebody for help.
Keith then whipped out his cell phone - but his display was dead (happened on the previous night).. and he couldn’t remember anyone’s phone number either. That means, we’re stranded in the middle of a lonely farmland country road with no apparent signs of help. Keith tried desperately trie to dial out through his cellphone without a display … but he kept getting to the wrong person.
It wasn’t looking good for us until help came along. There’s a big dude driving by with another truck, and he happened to own a hydraulic jack and a fitting crank. And so, Keith used the guy’s help as we got lifted by Jose to the barbeque restaurant. Dave said, if there’s any dude over 300 pounds driving a truck around the area, there’s a high chance that Keith knew them. Dave was right.
The barbeque restaurant happened to be an old rundown shack. Apparently, the shack was aged over a decade and looked exactly like a scene in the wild west era. According to the guys, the waitress (which’s also the owner’s grand-daughter), was one of the sideline actress in the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre (latest version). Seen the movie but never recalled seeing her before .. but, not that it matters anyway.
The thing that matters is the food. The barbeque. It was fat, greasy and lots of them. It was fantastic. Served with pickles and jalapeno peppers, it was simply awesome. Was one of the most memorable lunch I ever had in US.
Dinner time, was invited by Jose to join his family and friends at a new Mexican restaurant in town. Food was mediocre - had plenty of good fajitas. But the most standout thing about this new Mexican restaurant are the free margaritas (and free flow too) and also a fantastic band of El Mariachis. Made it back to hotel at about 10pm.
Next plan - to go to Houston on Day Six (Saturday Austin time).