Joe Allen's                                                         2/28/98
                                                                  384 miles

As many of you know, BBQ has become something of an obsession with me. I think I've eaten some really fine ribs, but when someone tells me they have eaten better, well I need to check it out personally. Such was the case with a friend who swore Joe Allen's in Abilene was better than any of my top three. He vouched he had personally eaten at the others, and gave me an itinerary of places to sight-see while in the area. Independently, someone else, who had lived in Abilene for 22 years boasted of Joe Allen's fame and quality. Finally, I got a weekend free with good weather. Barbara agreed to accompany me, conditional to the usual bribes.

Winter has been mild this El Nino year. We started the day off with clear skies and -3 Celsius. It would reach 12 Celsius by late afternoon in Abilene and drop to 4 C when we finally got home from our twelve hour trip. The first thing we did when we reached Abilene (typically the first thing I do after driving hours in the car) was go to the zoo. Although I had been there before, Barbara hadn't and she enjoy the hour tour. This is a "theme" zoo, specializing in comparing the plants and animals of west Texas with the comparable climate and ecosystem in southern Africa.

It was a short drive from the zoo to lunch. As soon as I saw the place a jolt of recognition hit - I'd been here before! Sure enough, a search through my computer travelogue turned up my trip almost exactly 3 years ago. You can review that trip (and my first review of Joe Allen's) in the trip labelled: Abilene 3/18/95; or if you're a more recent member of my email list (or didn't save it - why should you!), email me and I'll send it.

Any place worth it's salt should be consistently good, so a second visit is definitely worth a retry. Joe Allen's was just as busy as last time. Real homey where many of the customers knew each other. The ribs where meaty and cooked dry with a salt/pepper rub. You ladled on the sauce. The meat was tasty, firm and chewy. The beans ho hum. Barbara like the corn bread. It was clear why I had forgotten I had been here before. In deference to it's defenders, these were good pork ribs, and everyone has their own taste and likes. But for me, Joe Allen's didn't move up on my list.

Joe Allen's 1233 S. Treadway 915-672-6082 11am -9pm 7 days a week

I had promised Barbara some hiking. We headed south on Hwy 83 to Kirby Lake but there was no recreational areas. So I cut across 707 to 89 and traveled further south to Buffalo Gap. This is a town of 499 people who's monthly paper proclaimed the "history making news" that mail would soon be delivered house to house rather than to a post office box. We visited the Buffalo Gap Historic Village and looked around the gift shop. It wasn't necessary to pay and take the tour of the restored Taylor County courthouse, jail and buildings as they were in evidence from the road. I bought a postcard instead.

We traveled on to Abilene State Park. Before paying an admission charge to enter, I asked the Park Ranger about the facilities. The swimming pool was closed, the nature trail ran through the treed area without a view of the countryside, and there were the usual picnic sites. Pass. She did try to give me instructions on how to take some roads over steamboat mountain (one of the buttes nearby with a view of the city and countryside).

Another mile down the road was Lake Abilene. Access into undeveloped areas was via a roadway over the dam. A Texas Parks & Wildlife grazing area for two buffalo and one old, decrepit long horn steer could be seen from the causeway. We traveled along a "road" for which I was glad to have a four wheel vehicle and stopped below a series of hills. The climb was tricky as the face was steep, cut with gullies from water run off, and the shale was broken and loose. Additionally, pricky pear cactus, thorned bushes and trees, and sharp yucca and sotol made caution utmost in our minds. We reached the summit a hundred feet up and were able to walk around more level ground. Despite one boat and a flock of ducks on the lake, and two cars which also came down the same road, we were pretty much alone in desolate territory. The climb down was easier through a dusty gully and we set back towards Buffalo Gap.

I tried to follow the scribbles on the park map the Ranger made to get to the butte. Now at home I see where I turned wrong (maybe), but at the time I couldn't find road 150 which lead into road 650. It looked too easy to get lost out there, especially without a real map (if one existed for such an unpopulated area). I decided instead to head back to Abilene and we would do our "hiking" in the Mall of Abilene.

The drive north along Buffalo Gap Rd took us through the newer and wealthier sections of Abilene. The Mall was at Hwy 89 and 83/84, your standard 100 store enclosed mall with your standard chains. It was crowded with the usual Saturday shoppers. We browsed, snacked, gassed up the Jeep and were set to leave Abilene by 4:30 pm.

This was an awkward time, mealwise, as Lubbock was 2 1/2 hours away and there was really no place to eat a decent meal in between. I left Abilene unsatisfied, I wasn't licking my lips or fingers from lunch, but instead thinking of Salt Licks, Bevers Crossing and Cooper's. I head out I-20, looped up Hwy 84 past Sweetwater and enjoyed the kind of sunsets you can only get in the flat treeless lands of west Texas. Passing Snyder, I saw a flock of sheep grazing on piles of gray fluffy material. This was the cotton trash (hulls, twigs, dirt and bits of cotton) Lelan and I saw being trucked off from the cotton gin in Slaton to be used for feed, fertilizer and other purposes.