The place had provisions for coffee all on the wire rack shelving next to the window, but for making coffee with a French press. Definitely my least favorite brewing method for how messy it is to clean up, but I went ahead with grinding the coffee beans w/ the electric grinder provided, heating up hot water w/ the separate percolator, then pouring all into French press for the 5 minutes or so of brewing. Plunger pushed down and Cowtown coffee success achieved.
Took my time doing the little bit of cleanup from French press coffee making and otherwise getting ready and packed up. Was ultimately out of the place by 11:30am
Destination for early lunch before leaving Ft. Worth was Torchy's Tacos. Had seen one in Austin weeks earlier and had read and heard that they are good eating. Also saw that it was on my Ft. Worth AirBnB's recommended eats list. AirBnB host specifically recommended the Alabama Shake taco.
My lunch (bad angle):
Both tacos were really, really good. Place was lit by the time I was leaving -- definitely popular as a lunchtime eats spot for the 8-5 crowd. I had had to park 4 floors up in the parking structure one bulding away for Torchcy's and adjacent businesses even to get parking for the place. 'Twas definitely worth the trouble though.
'Twas a 3.5 hour drive to Odessa. Beginning of highway drive out westward from Fort Worth was rolling hills w/ trees and scrub brush, transitioning to flat desert. And as I got closed to Midland and Odessa, lots of oil wells. Tons of big rig trucks on the highway the whole way.
Got to Odessa about 4:45pm. Went straight to hotel for checkin -- got a text about an hour out from arrival that my CC was not going through for securing the room. Called the hotel as I was driving and upon identifying myself as guy responding to text, was told not to worry and would take care of it when I got to the hotel.
Was notable because room was originally over $400 for the night -- pretty ridiculous, particularly a Hilton Garden Inn... in Odessa, TX. Thankfully had found that with using points the cost was reduced down to ~$30 dollars (my 37,000 remaining Hilton points plus cash to make up the difference to 40,000 points). Pretty much any other hotel option in Odessa was at least $200 for the night. Had read up and was said that Odessa has highest average hotel prices for anywhere in Texas. Pretty crazy for where it is and what the hotels are. I read that a lot of oil business & money comes through the area. Which was further substantiated by check-in guy asking me what company I was from. When I said none he pauses a beat, then asks "oh, then what brings you to Odessa." I tell him cross country trip and only follow-up question was "where are you headed next?" I tell him El Paso.
Got to 2nd floor room (3 floors total in place), dumped luggage in room and was back out for my single evening in Odessa. Wanted to make it before dark to see the one thing I had found for Odessa as an item of interest:
Stonehenge.
Well, a replica of Stonehenge.
I found it not too long before sunset.
After maybe 15 minutes total at Stonehenge (parked kinda far away), then to Target, H-E-B, and ultimately Whataburger for dinner. Decided wanted to try their mushroom & swiss burger. Whataburger was poppin'. Line of six cars just to get to the DT speaker when I drove up, and when I decided to park and eat inside, found even more ppl waiting in line to have their order taken.
After Whataburger back to room for the night, with specific task to re-pack luggage. With after tonight there being just 5 nights left for my roadtrop, and 5 different places I'll be laying my head each night, I wanted to consolidate down to just my smaller suitcase for the nightly unpacking. Got luggage reorganized (souvenirs (and gifts) accumulated to-date in one half of big suitcase, dirty clothes/extra shoes and other stuff in other side, and smaller suitcase filled with clothes and toiletries needed for final leg of trip. All over a few local TX beers picked up at H-E-B, some TV and some Spotify radio.
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