One last Mineral Wells post, to recognize the last purchase of Texas 'cue for the season. I placed an online order for pickup at The Mesquite Pit Steakhouse in town. This place, like Cooper's in Llano, isn't quite a one-off; there are 3 restaurants in this chain. This one is well worth visiting.
Since I had Rams on my mind I appreciated seeing this mural on the building next to the restaurant. It's doubly appropriate because it's the Dodge dealer in town. Dodge is pretty proud of its Ram pickups.
I didn't take many restaurant shots this time. I've posted them before, and there were a lot of people waiting for their takeout orders. I didn't feel right photographing them. The bar and restaurant weren't packed, but seemed to be doing good business. Staff were masked, by the way. Most customers were not.
We had ordered pork ribs and a pint of their barbecue sauce for him, armadillo eggs and fried green tomatoes for me, and brisket for us. Onions, pickles and pickled peppers rounded out the sides.
Last time we ordered from them - last fall, I think - we were a bit disappointed in the brisket and ribs because they were dry and a touch overcoooked. Not this time! The ribs were tender and delicious, with just a little resistance as the meat came away from the bone. (They were his ribs, but he shared, bless him.)
The fried green tomatoes could have been better. I've had better. The crust was almost hard, and the tomatoes themselves didn't have much flavor. Note that the crust kept its cohesion and didn't stick to the 'maters. Reminds me of our schnitzel discussion a while back. The tomatoes were a good carrier for ranch dressing, though. That's never a bad thing.
The armadillo eggs, on the other hand, were a joy. They were stuffed with juicy brisket and maybe a touch of hot sauce. There was no cheese inside. The breading was perfectly flavored and crisp. I shared with him, but I was glad when he decided one was enough! 
I'm glad I got these, not only because they were goood but also to remind myself of how they're constructed. These have no bacon on the outside. They probably wouldn't lend themselves to oven baking. Something to work on over the summer.
We kept the brisket for tonight, but I did sample one piece. Delicious, not at all overcooked. Tonight's dinner will be one last hurrah!
We're headed into not-very-nice weather now, hoping to get clear of a predicted area of severe thunderstorms. We'd like to have stayed an extra night to ride out the weather, but Texas State Parks switched to a site-specific reservation-only system a year or two ago, since our last visit. You reserve a specific site and pay for it, and whether you turn up or not it's still yours. We had gotten the site with the most possible nights. Another site had opened for tonight, but moving the trailer is such a big deal that we decided simply to pack up and move on to Oklahoma.
A road construction project on the way out of town took us entirely too close to Fort Worth while on a detour. Big City traffic is bad enough, but road construction makes it much, much worse.
Not shown: a flashing sign that said "various lanes closed after 9 p.m." How helpful for planning purposes!
We've been eating our typical road food and drinking plenty of water and coffee.
If we'd known how much time we'd lose to detours and road construction, I'd have packed a couple of sandwiches. Writing about last night's dinner isn't exactly helping. 
