Back to Victoria

Back to Victoria

After Saturday's heavy labor, we took the opportunity to escape the refuge on Sunday morning and drove back to Victoria. The fiber bed we bought on Friday just didn't work. It actually made our bed less comfortable, so we returned it to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Victoria is about an hour's drive, $25 worth of gas per round trip, so this was an expensive experience. Next time we'll use Amazon.

On our return we stopped for lunch at Aunt Jo's BBQ, right along the highway. US 77 is a four-lane divided highway, but not limited access, so roads and driveways exit right onto the road. Aunt Jo's was one of these driveways. It is a Texas Historic farmstead where they have turned an old building into a BBQ takeout with picnic tables and rolls of paper towels outside.

We had originally planned to try Mumphord's Place in Victoria, as it is on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ places, but they are closed on Sunday. I'm still amazed at the number of restaurants that are closed on the weekend or Monday. You'd think that more customers are around then. Then again, maybe they don't need any more business. But Aunt Jo's was open.

It was actually pretty good, better than the Shack in Rockport. Ellen had the chopped brisket sandwich on a squishy hamburger bun (good for soaking up the sauce, but it left little structure, so she ended up needing a fork to eat it). I had the Little Piglet, pork ribs (the full rib), sliced brisket and two sides. It also comes with two slices of white bread, the purpose of which eludes me, maybe to soak up sauce.

The woman taking our order was right out of central casting. A sturdy-looking "bottle" blond with tattoo and French manicure. The discussion going on before, during and after waiting on us was about the actions of another woman the night before and she [our waitress] "wasn't going to be the one to tell her [the other woman's] husband". You had to be there ...

We also had the local feline assist us with our lunch. She hopped up on the table and stared at us. I appeased her with the fatty end of one of my ribs which she took down off the table and polished off. Then she wandered away, looking well satisfied, for a cat bath.

When we arrived, Ellen checked out the pie stand as I placed our order. The pies looked home-made and too good to resist. We chose the pecan and were not disappointed. Local pecans are for sale at the side of the road so this may be a specialty. The crust was flaky and the filling good, not the too-sticky-sweet kind. We then waddled to Speedy and drove back to the campground.

It was laundry time when we returned to the refuge and time to empty our tanks as well. It was a warm afternoon, so once our chores were finished I took my bicycle out for a ride to the observation tower, about 10 miles out and back. The student volunteers were still out there on Sunday, starting the removal of another boardwalk (we hadn't volunteered for two of our days off and probably didn't have the energy).

As I was leaving the tower, a British couple showed up. They had a couple of questions and I, being on a bicycle far from any town, must have seemed like a local. First they wanted to know about a group of piglets that they'd seen along one of the trails. At first, it seemed unlikely that there would be no adults, but when they described them further, it was obvious that they'd seen Javelina. I haven't seen any at the refuge yet. Everyone else seems to have seen them.

They then wanted to know about snakes. They had seen a good-sized one curled up on the road, so they stopped to get a good look at it and wanted to know what it was. My knowledge of snakes is pretty limited, but they described it as large and plain with a big head. I wasn't sure what it was until he showed me their photos. My reply was "It's a poisonous one, a Cottonmouth". They wanted to know more and were a bit stunned when I told them that they could be aggressive and their bite could do a lot of damage. He took the photo from less than three feet away and the snake had its head raised in warning pose. I suggested they stand a bit further back next time.

It was 75° when I got back from my ride around 5:30 pm. When I came out of the shower, about 15 minutes later, the wind had shifted and the temperature had dropped 10 degrees. The polar vortex was back. By the time we went to bed, it was in the mid-30s and blowing 30 mph. It was back to winter-side-up with our Trava-sak.

Aunt Jo's BBQ