Me need meat.

I'm not big on impulsive.

Or, as my wife says, "I put the 'don't' in impromptdu."

I like to have a plan.
I like to plan time to make a plan.

Today is Tuesday, but I'm actually writing this last Thursday because we are going out town this weekend and I still haven't diagrammed where the socks are going in the carry on luggage.

That said, last weekend stands as an anomaly.

My Eastern Sierra camping buddy Paul called and said,

"Let's go up to Big Pine and bring back some Copper Top BBQ."

This is where it gets tricky, because for those of you who don't know, Big Pine is 252.8 miles from Los Angeles. If it were a straight shot up the 405, that could take well over a month. As it is, the drive goes up Route 395 is nothing less than a 4 hour drive.

Four hours is a long way to go for BBQ. But the tri-tip, the baby back ribs and the green chile beans from the famed Copper Top restaurant are not just any BBQ.

Not long ago Copper Top was named one of the Top Ten restaurants in the entire Golden State. Right up there with Nobu. The french Laundry. And a host of other fancy schmancy places I'll never know.

But still, that's 4 long hours in the car listening to Paul and his professorial stories about Gypsy Moths, lava tubes, Mumford & Sons, cemetery trivia and Mormon butter churners. I should mention Paul is a high school teacher.

As you can see from the picture above (me pointing to where all this good food was going) the carnivorous instincts put a beatdown on the rational instincts.

You may be asking was the 500 mile roundtrip pilgrimage worth it?

We just finished the remaining baby ribs last night and I will admit that this morning I was tempted to fish through the garbage can to see if any fleshy morsels had errantly been left on the bone.

Sadly, there were none.