Originally posted by Ray Crick:

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Lois,

What was the most unusual or completely surprising thing that happened on your trips? Gotta be a real good story here.

Thanks,
Ray

Chris,

Thanks for re-posting this. I logged on to do it and saw that you already had. You are fantastic! Thanks again,

Ray

Ray,

Hard to say what was my most unusual experience. Folks who live in the parts of the country where these things occurred probably don't find them unusual.

The first was in Nashville, Tn. where a pit master named Bill Kuntz served us some very good, and very salty, barbecue. He also told us that the idea that Texas barbecue was a Texan invention was foolishness. most of the people who died at the Alamo, he told us, were from Tennessee.

Sure enough, we went to the Alamo, looked at the names of the fallen, and most of the folks, including Davy Crockett and James Bowie, hailed from Tennessee. Hardly conclusive proof of a Tennessee origin of Texas barbecue. Then we wentot Coopers Old Time Pit Barbecue In Llano. The meat tasted a lot like the meat we had had in Nashville--smokey and salty. Moreover the pitmaster in Llano claimed that he was making real Texas barbecue, not the stuff influenced by the Germans and Czechs in places like Lockhardt and Fredericksburg. He also cooked like the Tennessee folks, directly over the coals, not indirectly as most Texans do.

That was striking to me.

Lolis

Thanks Lolis - very interesting story.

Ray