Day 10, July 12: El Paso to Abilene

The HoJo included its own IHOP, but we have IHOP at home. So we went to a Village Inn. A branch of this chain was my gang's after-the-bars hangout back in Tucson. It's a high-quality chain with an extensive menu. I got a carnitas skillet -- marinated pork and green chili over eggs and hash browns. Jacqueline got pancakes. I had a bite. Mmmm.

Leaving El Paso meant gradually leaving the West. In between mountains-and-cactus and the greener side we crossed something called the Permean Basin, featuring the Odessa-Midland area. I'm sure Odessa is a fine place of fine people, but it gets my vote for the most godforsaken-looking biggish city I've seen. With some effort we found a restaurant district. We passed up on another Sonic run to add a new fast-food establishment to our repertoire. Whataburger is another oldie from my Phoenix-Tucson days. I remembered three things from Whataburger: (1) You can get jalapenos on your burger. (2) The burgers are pretty darn big in diameter. (3) It takes the Whataburger people forever to make your burger. All three remained true. I would add one more item to my Whataburger tip sheet: The buns are nothing to write home about. But all in all the food is pretty good.

In Abilene, a city that surprised us with its size and its nice neighborhoods, we stayed at another Comfort Suites. Pretty much the same as the one in Oklahoma City. We weren't all that hungry, but it was going on 9 p.m. and we knew our chances of getting a decent meal were waiting. I made a few phone calls and found out that Joe Allen's, a place I had learned about on Chowhound.com, was open till 9:30. We hustled on over. What a place. I can't believe it's not in the Roadfood directory. It looks like a scary roadhouse bar from the outside. It's still pretty rustic inside, but we felt right at home. You order your barbecue or your steaks and choose a bottle of beer from a metal tub full of ice. Just tell them how many you had when it's time to settle up. We were planning on barbecue the next day in Dallas, so we chose mesquite-broiled steaks. Good choice. Our "small" T-bones were huge and smoky and wonderful. One note from the side-dish bar: Ever hear of mashed potato salad? We hadn't either. It looked like mashed potatoes, but it was cold and tangy and full of sweet relish and vinegar and maybe mustard and mayonnaise. Wonderful.

Our total, with three beers for me and two for Jacqueline, came to less than $50. We would be at Joe Allen's a lot if we lived anywhere near.