BBQ Road Trip Day 5

Today, we broke away from our Austin nest and headed to West Texas to eat at TC's Ponderosa in Dickens, Texas. Suffice to say, Dickens, Texas is truly in the middle of nowhere. There was the gas station in which the BBQ joint was located, an out of business feed store and a restaurant open only on Friday and Saturday in Dickens, Texas. The population was around 340 people. Not exactly a bustling metropolis. Nonetheless, the BBQ was good. The scenery was also quite nice.

Leighton: This place is the quintessential Texas BBQ joint. Its truly in the middle of nowhere. Dickens, Texas consists of one road, a few structures, and a big hill in the background. Classic small town Texas. The BBQ was quite good as well. This place has been run by 2 very cool women for the past 10 years. And they cook some great sausage and brisket. The jalapeno and cheese sausage was the best, followed by the hot link and traditional German sausage. The sauce was good, nice and thick, with a little kick to it. The place definitely got a boost when one of the owners came out and gave us a free link of sausage. Very nice of her. And the free sausage was very good. Overall, I rank this place a 7.5.

Wes: The brisket was good, but lacked the smokey flavor I have come to expect. As was said above, all of the sausages were very good. The atmosphere defined small town Texas, but limited our total enjoyment. They skimped us on pickles (Vik ate all of them) and the truck stop set-up rushed our meal. Vik was busted for trying to sneak in a beer. 7

Vik: The sausages were all very good, especially the jalepeno and cheese version. The sauce was very good. The brisket was pretty good. It was very tender but did not have much of a smoke flavor. Wes does not recall exactly what happened in the same manner that I do, but it's ok. The sides other than the potato salad were useless. TC's was noted for having exceptional pineapple pudding but they did not have any when we arrived. It should be noted we drove over 13 hours today.

We are in El Paso now. Before we leave, I'll leave you with some funny quotes.

Leighton -- Is that all whiskey? Vik -- No. Some of the ice melted.

Leighton, who has not shaved in 4 days, declared himself to be a mountain man.

Finally, I nearly ran over a dog today that was trotting down the highway in the middle of nowhere, Texas. I was able to avoid it, but it was sad.