Frank and his food - Purple Neon Mary & Crooked Jesus

Frank and his food desires took us on many adventures. He especially likes the Mom & Pop small resturants eeking out a modest living on the side of the road. He decided since we were in the South we’d have to try BBQ so we saw GIANT signs professing the best BBQ in TX so we had to stop. Our entire trip has been based on seeking out obsessive people and sometimes things just fall into your lap with a heaping dose of devine intervention. Such was the BBQ spot. We went in and were awestruck by the taxidermy. Now this guy was obsessive and couldn’t wait to tell us about his 198 mounted heads. It was truly over the top but I loved this guy. He was well into his 80's and boasted about working every day for the past 60+ years. He kept trying to have me take his picture on his wall of fame which included George W. Bush among others but I was more interested in his collection. I listened to his story quite intently until he started to repeat himself.

Another of Frank's favorite places was a place with a huge sign that said MENUDO.  He slammed on the brakes and did a 360.  Menudo is a Mexican soup which is tomato base wi trpe and hominy.  GROSS.  However, Frank loved the diner because of the very loud Latin music, the purple neon Mary, the crooke Jesus over the coffee statin and a pictre of Selena. 

We’ve tried very hard not to eat in any fast food places and have been lucky to find all sorts of interesting meals. We also have bought lots of fruit and yogurt to keep us going.
As we left Las Cruces with new hope and new health we decided to again take a more scenic route so we dropped down to Route 8 which takes you into San Diego. The San Diego coast road which runs along the Pacific looks very much like Route 1 which runs along the Maine coast. The architecture looks quite similar and except for the Mexican places with Spanish signs you’d never know you were in SanDiego or Maine.
We headed north to Los Angeles which was our destination.


The Watts Towers = aka Mecca for folk art lovers - more tomorrow.