olley, olley, oxen free

david and sarah recently bought season passes to seaworld. they only live five minutes from the park entrance, so it seems a no brainer for them. we have done enough talking about seaworld over the years to convince them that it is definitely worth the cost. yesterday was our first time to go to seaworld together.

after some dolphin feeding, aquarium fee time, a walk through the haunted forest; charlotte and david left us to ride the great white. the great white is a roller coaster full of too many twists, loops and general puke-inducing motion for me. they loved it.

after they rejoined us, david realized that they had misplaced their camera case. now if i had lost my camera, it would set me back a few hundred dollars. not nice, but not the end of the world. david, on the other hand, is a professional photographer and his equipment reflects as much. needless to say, he was not feeling enthused.

david immediately ran off to retrace his steps while i insured that the camera case was not anywhere surrounding our current location. it was not. as i hurriedly sought to catch up with the rest of our group, i passed a park employee. he informed me that the lost and found was located at the front of the park. good to remember.

we all waited for david to return from his search. after a few minutes he appeared and it was clear that he had not yet found success. i declared that i would quickly get to the front of the park and check the lost and found. after 10 minutes of "power walking" i realized that david was right next to me. we discussed where might have been the last time he had used the camera and when he for sure had it last. as we approached a food counter we recalled stopping there for a coke. jackson and i had quickly left the group, but they all sat on a rock wall for a few minutes. unfortunately we didn't see the camera case. when we approached to ask an employee, we spotted the camera case up on a shelf just waiting for us to show up. someone had turned it in.

as part of our relief, i was reminded of an experience i had with losing a camera. i lose things much too often, but this was ridiculous.

we were in the final stretch of a 10 day vacation to salt lake city. on the way home, we -of course- took the opportunity to spend a couple of days in durango. obviously we stayed at the strater. on our last full day in town, we spent a large part of the day walking up and down main avenue. somehow the endless surveying of the shops in town wasn't much of a chore. jackson and i were busying ourselves with taking pictures of everything that interested him. the beauty of digital cameras is that we can take all the pictures we want without being compelled to pay for the printing of all these photos. it was only when jackson decided he was ready for the camera again that i realized that i was no longer holding it. panic.

we had taken hundreds of pictures on our trip and i was saddened to have risked losing them all. we rushed up the street stopping in every store we had visited, each bench on which i had sat, and at every vista from which i could remember taking a picture. nothing.

in near resignation, we slumped back south on main when a man with a strong chinese accent stopped me and asked if he was holding my camera. to my surprise he was. he said he had found it when he walked out the front door of his restaurant. he looked at the pictures of our family contained inside and started watching for us. i couldn't have been happier. after thanking him profusely, we decided to pay him back by dining in his restaurant that night. it wasn't great, but it was worth it.

with the disaster resolved, we slept well as we prepared for the drive home. i packed the car as charlotte and jackson finished breakfast. with everything arranged, we were on our way. it is a familiar drive from durango south through new mexico. aztec, bloomfield ,chaco canyon, and cuba are all so familiar to me that the miles seemed to pass without notice. i sure noticed when we were about 20 miles out of albuquerque.

my cell phone rang and to my surprise, it was the front desk at the strater. my first thought was that i had forgotten to pay. no. that wasn't it. it seems that one of their patrons had found a camera in the parking lot and turned it into the hotel staff. upon looking through the pictures in the camera, we were recognized. i am pathetic.

i have not lost a camera in the time that has passed, but i am more prepared for the inevitable. now the first photo on our camera is always a picture of our computer screen showing a document detailing my name, address and phone number. you might as well be prepared.

the fallen man

the title of this post is taken from the title of one of tony hillerman's novels starring joe leaphorn. tony hillerman died yesterday as a result of pulmonary failure. he was 83.

i previously have written a short tale of my finding of tony hillerman's work and how enjoyable it is to me. he was a fine author and a vocal proponent for preserving the traditional ways of the american indian culture.

thank you.

how much for one rib?

a few months ago i heard tale of a great idea that i -unfortunately- did not conceive. on memorial day, a couple who live in our ward took the elders in our ward on a barbeque crawl.

according to texas monthly -and other sources- much of the state's (and thereby the world's) best barbeque can be found within 30 miles of my house.

lockhart has been deemed the "barbeque capitol of texas" by legislative resolution. the "big three" are smitty's, kreuz, and black's.

luling has a couple of good places, but only city market had achieved legendary status.

of course, no one needs say anything to expound on "salt lick."

with this in mind, russell wilde and i decided to educate the utah and idaho-born missionaries in our ward by recreating the memorial day adventure.

ava and i met elder borom and elder walker at their apartment at 11 one monday morning. just behind us were russell and his wife, charmaine riding with steven and betsy cantu. off we go.

our first stop was at city market where we were meeting dave smith and darrell hatch. at each place we planned to get one slice of brisket, one rib, and a link of sausage to share. city market has a cool old pit that is in a separate room from the dining area. with a few beans for ava and a big red, we were ready for the science to begin.

next on the tour was smitty's. smitty's used to be kreuz, until the family had a spat. kreuz got to keep the name, but had to move down the road. smitty's got to keep the building and the pits. i think they won the fight. we arrived just before a wedding party. good timing. like city market, one must walk through the pit area to place an order. it's cool that everything is open for the world to see. due to the wedding party filling the dining room, we ate in the entry walk. it's the best place to sit, but we had some serious heat to endure since only the main dining area has a/c. same meal plan, different results.


what turned out to be our final stop was kreuz. they are in a brand new building with hardly any soot on the walls and nothing caked deep enough on the tables to fill in the space between nail and skin. nevertheless, they call it a bbq joint. we ordered that same menu, this time topped with a bottled coke with real sugar. not bad, but not my favorite.


after kreuz, we were all so full that there was no way any of us could make a decent showing at black's so we headed home. black's is not going anywhere.

the verdict:

the best brisket was a tie between city market and smitty's. i wonder if kreuz needs to smoke theirs a little longer at lower heat, because it was not falling apart like a good brisket should.

sausage has to go to city market. the links at smitty's were good, but a little too greasy for me. kreuz was also very good, but third place nevertheless.

the best pork ribs were the ones at smitty's. they were still juicy enough, but the fat had emulsified so they the meat just tore off in strips. city market was a very close second, followed up , again, by kreuz. the ribs at kreuz were too chewy for my taste. to each his own. at least kreuz had the best soft drinks. i have to give them their due.

i wonder how the salt lick would have fared in a head to head with smitty's or city market. in my mind salt lick is the king, but their sausage might be ripe for an upset.

that is a test for another day.