Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

So it was another day of driving ahead of us again today. It turned out to be much less desolate than yesterday’s tour through the barren plains of west Texas. And yes, in case anybody was wondering, we did see some tumbleweeds blowing across the highway in front of us. Our trip to Austin took us through a city that sounded like it must be close to paradise. Of course, I am talking about Johnson City! Turns out that this was the hometown of the former president of the United States of America named, coincidentally enough, Lyndon B. Johnson. Now it was a small town and we did not get a chance to spend much time there. To be more precise, I did not even slow down enough to get a picture of the sign. However, the little that I did get to see seemed to indicate that this may not be the paradise that I might have imagined upon hearing the name. I’ll just leave it at that. Pulling out of Johnson City meant that we were getting close to Austin and we did manage to make it all the way there eventually. We arrived just in time to enjoy some locally brewed Austin traffic jams. But if that was our biggest set back so far on this, Friday the 13th, then I can live with that. As I mentioned yesterday, we were planning to stay with and visit our friends, Ian and Kristi. What we had not expected was that there would be a third person involved. Kristi was expecting! As in baby. Yes, these two relatively newly weds had a bun in the oven. And I must say that Kristi is doing extremely well for someone who is on target to welcome a bouncing baby girl into the world this February. And what is the most important thing to an expectant mother? Well, food, of course. And that brings me to our next activity, which was dinner. Ian had mentioned a Texas BBQ restaurant to me via email and I have to admit that I had been salivating since we left Ozona this morning. Good southern BBQ is not readily available in the great white north so I do love taking advantage of the opportunities when they are presented. So off we went to “The County Line” where Ian and I shared a plate of beef ribs … yes, you read that correctly. We shared the plate because it was definitely a Texas-sized portion. If you have ever watched the Flintstones, you’ll understand why I referred to this menu item as the Brontosaurus Rack. The ribs were juicy and I made sure they were thoroughly soaked in as much BBQ sauce as humanly possible. These succulent and saucy strips of heaven brought the succor for which I was looking. Not surprisingly, I ended up getting some BBQ sauce on my shirt. My buddy John in Kansas City had once told me that if you are eating really good BBQ, it was pretty much a given that you are going to get some on yourself. I figure that it is just a sign of the quality of the BBQ. I got good and messy and I loved every minute of it.

Today’s word:

succor \SUH-kuhr\, noun:
1. Aid; help; assistance; especially, assistance that relieves and delivers from difficulty, want, or distress.
2. The person or thing that brings relief.

transitive verb:
1. To help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve.