This nearly October day was the perfect one to have barbecue chicken for lunch at the edge of a pasture in South Texas. The chicken was cooked to perfection over mesquite at McBee's BBQ in Jourdanton. The skin was crisp, the meat falling-off-the-bone tender while not too dry. The dry rub on the chicken was so good that you didn't miss sauce, or at least I didn't.
For dessert there was what is without a doubt one of the oldest barbed wire fences in the area. This one probably dates from about 1889 or so. It has been rebuilt by adding some new strands of wire and steel tee posts to replace the mesquite posts that either rotted to dust or were eaten up by insects. The older wire has nearly rusted away in the last 124 years, but is still at least showing up.
Amazingly, there are still few mesquite posts standing - not many, though.
(Actually, the case was full of assorted meats at McBee's today: brisket, ribs, fajitas, turkey, sausage, and chicken. It wasn't all just sausage and chicken as you might think from this photo taken there on another day. Half a chicken came to a little over four dollars, including sales tax.)
So, as you can see, it was exactly like Michigan or Cape Cod, only without the Cod and without the Motor City.
