The gay jokes I just find kind of jarring - they never seem to flow as naturally as is obviously intended. My attitude toward slashers tends to be live and let live; I don't slash and never have, but that's just me. With the show, it just feels like they try to shoehorn the odd gay joke in here and there for the sake of it rather than them arising out of the context, and for all that the attitude fits with the stereotype of Dean's image, it always tends to jar rather than flow. If that makes any sense.

Dean was absolutely winding Sam up, all the way through the episode. He does it a lot, playing dumb just for the fun of seeing Sam puffing up into lecture mode. Here, there was a lot of tension between them, beneath the surface.

And the crossroads: There's really only one crossroads with that quality of dirt. The boys just keep carrying it around in the trunk of the Impala.
Mwahahahah. Perfect - it's the only explanation that makes sense!