Top Fives of Texas

I don't like doing trip reports on this blog, but I do like doing whatever the hell I want to. So here's a trip report.

I went with two friends, Jason and Zach, to South Texas for a few days in early June. We saw a crap-ton of birds, ate a crap-stone of great food, and had a crap-kip of good times. Here are some highlights, recounted in a Top 5 format, for some reason.

Best Meals

3243. Pepe's in Harlingen

3242. being hit by a car
4. Ultimo Taco in Brownsville

3. Ribs at Cowpokes BBQ in Pearsall, TX.

2. Every single meal at Laredo Taco Company in Stripes Gas Stations throughout south Texas. Fresh tortillas made for you in a gas station!

1. Barbacoa tacos with bright red hot chili sauce at Roadside Inn Meat Market, Hidalgo Texas. We were hot and tired and driving around looking for some food. We pulled into the first place we saw that had a sign for Tacos out front (but, like, 90% of stores in Mission have tacos, even muffler repair stores, it seemed). It was about 2pm, though, and the kitchen in Roadside Inn was closed. After looking around for a few minutes to try to piece together a meal, some guy came out from the kitchen holding a styrofoam container saying something to the effect (in Spanish) of: "Oh well we have this barbacoa, you want this?" Yes, we did. Standing out front of the restaurant scooping up the juicy meat with fresh tortillas and dousing it with spicy red sauce ... it was just the kind of surprise moment I love about birding.

Best Dogs

5. The dog that kept barking at us while we were looking for Ringed Kingfishers.

4. The skinny Chihuahua that almost ran in front of our car that time.

3. The yappy white dog in the purse in Leakey.

2. The puppy that Jason pet next to the breakfast taco stand in Sabinal.

1. Tulip, the rescue dog that we met waiting for Red-crowned Parrots in Harlingen.

Weirdest Ladies
5.
4.
3. The butterfly lady who yelled at me at the NBC for walking too fast when she was looking for a Gray Cracker
2. Stripes worker who really wanted to give Zach a fork
1. Paranoid waitress/conspiracy theorist in Leakey, Texas

Read more »