We decided to make a big push home so we could make a stop in Colorado. So we drove about 10 hours on Friday with an interesting stop for lunch. Buzz was in the mood for some Chicken Fried steak before we left the South. So we got off the Interstate at the only decent sized town for a ways and drove and drove and found nothing…not just no chicken friend steak, no restaurants at all. It is very sad how devastated many of these small towns in Texas are. So I was just getting ready to turn around and head back to the Interstate when Buzz saw a sign that said fried chicken. He decided that would have to do. So we walked into this little house and the first thing I saw was enormous plates of food everywhere. I suggested to Buzz that it was too much food for lunch but by that time the waitress came up and showed up to 2 seats at a table for 8, asked us if we wanted iced tea, then proceeded to sit other parties at the same table. Then the food started coming, and coming, and coming. We had cold pea salad, cole slaw, what they called German potato salad which were cold mashed potatoes that had the potato salad flavor (they were really good), green beans, squash, corn, collard greens, green beans, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, boiled potatoes, fried chicken, roast, ribs, rolls, and gravy all topped of with peach cobbler. We sat next to a man who has a 15 square mile ranch in Texas right near the Mexican border and he had some stories to tell. He is a doctor whose doctoring pays for his hobby of cattle. He showed us pictures of his very modern, totally solar house which had huge sculptures sprinkled around. He was a really interesting guy. We also sat with a local 90 year old woman who did not look over 75 with hair teased to within an inch of her life and her beautician who could barely keep her eyes open for all the eye makeup. When we went to pay the bill we discovered that the cost for this unbelievable dinner was $10!!!! So if you ever find yourself near Sweetwater, Texas in the mood for chicken, make your way to Allen’s Family Style Restaurant. And make sure you are wearing elastic waist pants!

We found a hotel in Trinidad, Colorado and ate at a great little mom and pop Italian restaurant, Nana’s and Noni’s. Very sweet people and killer Italian food.

So Saturday we woke up early and aimed the car at Canon City, Colorado and the Royal Gorge. We headed to the bridge first intending to take a walk 1000 feet in the air until we discovered that they wanted $46 for the two of us to walk across  bridge! No way, Jose! So we went to make our reservation on The Royal Gorge Train. It is a 2 hour ride through the Royal Gorge and it is wonderful. The gorge is beautiful. We had made reservations in the Observation Dome car but it was such a beautiful day, we ended up standing on the outside car most of the time. This was a great ending to this trip.

Random Texas Thoughts:

Who knew how many thousands upon thousands of wind turbines there are in Texas!

Texas is the land of the power lines…never seen so many. They crisscrossed everywhere! There were some times 2 and 3 tiers of them in the same place! So many pretty scenery pictures were not taken because of all the power lines.

The walk signal sounds like a bird tweet and it was hard trying to figure out which was the light and which really was a bird.

GRACKLES ARE OBNOXIOUOS!

We have a big trip planned for October so we will be back then with more blogging…until then Happy Spring and Summer. See you in the fall.