The Perfect Nap

Eat again. This afternoon upon arriving in OKC and checking into the hotel I experience something that I rarely get to do...nap. I laid across the king size bed and drifted gently asleep while Set was out doing something. I slept nearly hour and I woke up on my own. It was like the best birthday or Christmas gift ever. It was better than shopping (can you believe something could be better than shopping), better than that three letter word? No, wait a minute, no not that good, but I want to do it again nap that is, again and again or at least tomorrow.

The Rock Cafe

 

The famous Rock Cafe. Certinaly the largest tourist attraction in Stroud. Featured in DDD, featured in the movie "CARS" and listed as Stroud's "Business of the year" by a large plastic banner strung up outside. I'll bet that banner stays there all the time not just this year.

Not much to look at. We can't figure out of this is classified as a diner or a dive.

The menu was simply 2 zeroxed pages stapled together and quite wrikled and "used":

The decor was mostly pine and artifacts from the time the resturant was burned down last year. They rebuilt over the past year and really have done a pretty good job of making it look new but retaining the old character.

The food really is great. Their main twist is basic diner fare but with a german twist. EAT had Jaggersnitzel and spatzel and I had the hot meat plate (which the cook calls "heartattack on a plate"). EAT's food was basically a pounded flat boneless pork chop, breaded and fried accompanied by spatzel (a german dumpling) which in addition to being boiled had been fried crispy on the flat top. That was all covered by what seemed to be a mushroom red-eye gravy.  Quite tasty.

 

My dish basically a hamburger patty on texas toast that was covered with onions, mushrooms, and a helping of curly fries and then that whole lot was doused in brown gravy.

The funny thing is that at first I thought my meat patty was completly unseasoned. It blended quite well with the gravy but I couldn't believe that they did not even put salt in the meat. I thought EAT's dish tasted great from the start. So many flavors. I thought she had made the better choice But about half way through the dish EAT asked me to trade with her and I started to understand why. The red-eye gravy was great but very rich. After a while it got on your nerves and really reduced your enjoyment. The blandness of the meat in my dish tempered the grease of the fries and the brown gravy to the point that it finished much better leaving you with a strong desire for more.  

But both dishes were great. My recommdation is to order both and share!

We finished with a bread pudding.

It is pretty unusual to see bread pudding on a diner menu and this thing looked like a cinnamon roll. The thing was that is was totally devoid of sweetness! We thought something was wrong until we realized that it was made of both white AND rye bread. Once we realized that and recognized the rye flavor it was a great dish. Bread pudding doesn't HAVE to be a sugar bomb. This was great.

So that was lunch, now on to OKC and dinner.

Oh yeah, just as we were leaving we were overrun by a corvette club from calafornia. This Rock Cafe really does have a name for itself.

Embarking on the trip - SET

So it's Monday morning. EAT wakes up at 3am to let the stupid grey cat out. I get woke up at 5 am to let one of the stupid white cats out, Why is it that the cats can't all go in and out at the same time? We are very diligent to make sure the cats are out of the house at bed time but April gets in late and they rush the door when she comes in. That's all well and good for a while but then their nocturnal side kicks in and they want to go back out to hunt who knows what and leave it on my patio (it is a regular killing fields around our house, birds, mice, rabbits, bats, large insects....) and they make a pest of themselves until one of us gets up and lets them out. But they never can seem to get themselves coordinated to all go in and out at the same time so it turns into a two or three time event during the night. No wonder I never get enough sleep it seems.

We have told April time and time again to not let them in when she comes home (I think she is part vampire because she stays out so late. Could there be a vegetarian vampire?) but her latest thing is "but they are sooo cute!".  Maybe, but it is getting a bit annoying.

But after our broken night's sleep we finally get up at 7am to start our trip and promptly roll over and go back to sleep. It is vacation after all!  So we wake up again at about 8:15. I run around the house gathering, packing and doing some last min household business EAT does her hair and makeup. Imagine that, I am basically unprepared and trying to catch up quick and EAT is totally packed and mostly just sitting around trying to figure out what to wear.

I go outside and start loading up our "steed" the Avalanche.

And we hit the road at 10:15.... Don't ask what happened to the two hours....

We go and do one little chore and then get on down to Stroud for our first stop the "Rock Cafe". But when we first get to Stroud I just had do see what was left of the "Outlet Malls Of America" that was distroyed by the 1999 F5 tornado that just about wiped Stroud off the map. Here is the picture I got of the Mall:

 

 This is what is left of the outlet malls. A slab of concrete. Ignore that building in the background it is not on the outlet mall property and was built after the tornado.I bring this up because I had the opportunity to go down the turnpike two days after the tornado hit and this is exactly what I saw with the exception that there was not grass in the cracks. Really, it was totally bare all of the buildings were just gone. Nothing has changed in these 10 years this is exactly how it looked on that day in 1999. Them F5's are powerfull stuff. In fact I drove around and found just about the only thing that was left standing.

The order menu board from the wendys that use to be there. Again this is exactly how it looked after the tornado in 1999. It is totally weird that this sign survived but the BUILDING WAS GONE!

So off we went to Stroud trusting our faithful garmin. But you know you really have to program in the right address the first time. We put in the address 114 Main and ended up in Kendrick:

This did not look like the Rock Cafe! Amazing what a little thing like the "W" in "114 W Main" does to those silly little GPS systems. We were off course about 9 miles in the middle of nowhere and even got the pleasure of checking out some of the local roads that were a little less than paved:

And we got to see some of the wackier locals:

But it all got better when we finally found the Rock Cafe.

The Avalanche

Eat speaks at last! This morning we begin the vacation' in Set's truck.
The question is does his truck qualify as a "truck". This huge thing I've named Brutes has 5 disk CD player, satellite radio, on star, and a sunroof. It also has bucket seats, a extended cab (like whatever that means). No this is no truck, its a SUV with a really long trunk. No my Dad had a truck! No power steering, no anti-locking breaks, no air condition', no seat belts or airbags,  now that was a truck! A steering wheel so big you got a upper body out just turning the corner. You had to pump the breaks, or you never stop in time, you even has to crank the window to cool off and on the passenger side you had to use a pair of pliers to get  the window down, just the sweet nostalgia of the shimmer and shake  that truck would make when you went over 35MPH. Yes that was a "truck"1 But as we are gliding along the Turner turnpike, I am happy that we are not driving the mustang, these buckets seats sure are comfy after all.

The Itinerary

Well I went on and on about EAT's creative side as opposed to my logical side. Now for a little twist. It turns out that I'm the toss it all to the wind and just go do something on the spur of the moment type and EAT is the planner. I am the one who will take a different rout to work just to experience a different route to work. It doesn't matter to me that it isn't the fastest or most direct what matters is the adventure of a new experience. We have attended the same Church for decades and we have been in the same house almost as long (yes we have attend Christ Presbyterian Church for longer than 25 years. No Church hoppers here!) so our route to Church is pretty much engraved in stone. Up 169, exit to 51, then over to I44 and off on Harvard. EAT will do that route every time multiple times a week the very same way, no deviations. That's good because if something ever happened I could retrace her path blindfolded. But it is just not me. I will go up 71st on day, 61st the next. I will go north on Harvard one week and north on Sheridan the next week. I get to see new things, I get to keep up with what's going on around town. I can't be too predictable I have got to keep the spy's who are watching on their toes guessing as to which way I might go next.

Once on our way to Church in the mini-van (you know you are in full-up dad mode when you actually think a mini-van makes sense to own) I was going up 71st street then on one of my adventures twists instead of turning north on Harvard I actually went through the intersection with the intent of going down to Lewis and circling back. What the adventure! A different way to go! What new travel experiences would we get with this? As soon as we went through the intersection my eldest daughter (who has been blessed with the organization gene) said "Daddy, you missed the turn". Without missing a beat EAT said "Don't worry honey you father knows what he is doing". Tolerance for diversity in action!

EAT has come to accept that in me she doesn't exactly like my unpredictable nature but I am what I am. EAT as you can imagine is a list maker, an organizer. You know what I mean, start the day; make the list; follow the list. To her organization is not a tool it is the proper way to live one's life. For her disorganization is evil and just plain wrong. I am not the organized type and find her list making tendencies a bit tedious but I love that in her. I can lay an idea out, provide resources and she will break it down into steps, organize it and get it done. Yet another way where we precisely compliment each other in our differences making a more complete whole together.

So when I said that I wanted to go on a road trip I really meant just that. Get in the car drive down to the main street and then flip a coin to determine whether to go east or west. Really! I was thinking about throwing sleeping bags in the car in case we got caught without access to a hotel. I wanted to just drive and see where that asphalt would end. A little unrealistic perhaps.  Irresponsible? NO! That's not irresponsible that's the stuff that fun is made of.

Well I knew that wouldn't fly with EAT so I went and found the DDD list online and gave it to her and just kind of backed off. I was done at that point. I knew I would not have to do anything else because her organizational tendencies would kick in to hyper-drive and she would be driven to categorize complete and subdue. And yes, make a list or two or three.

In fact yesterday morning EAT sat down, picked the restaurants, contacted them to get their hours, assigned each restaurant to a meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) during our week, put them in order, plotted a route, calculated travel time between them, determined our overnight stay points, found hotels and booked reservations, typed it all up and presented it to me at 1pm.

I, in the meantime, got my hair cut.

I would say it was all a part of my master plan to get her to do all that work but I had no plan. That's just how we work together. We subconsciously know what each other will enjoy doing and accomplish well so we each just fall in our roles. And we love it.

So I present to your our Itinerary. Please look forward to watching us work our way through it.

Foodies Gone Wild-Oklahoma Kansas edition

Monday august 31 to Saturday September 5, 2009

Monday August 31

• Leave Tulsa
• Arrive at The Rock Café 114 Main Street Stroud, OK 918-968-3990 for lunch. Open 6am-9pm 7 days a week.
• Check in to the Biltmore Hotel 401 Meridian Ave in OKC 1-405-947-7681. $126.15
• Dinner at Ingrid’s Kitchen 3701 N. Youngs Bldg OKC 1-405-946-8444 open on Monday till 6:30pm or the Cattleman’s Steakhouse 1309 S Agnew Ave. 1-494-236-0415 open 6am-10:00pm.
• Tuesday September 1
• Breakfast at The Diner 13 E. Main. Norman OK 1-405-329-6642 Opens at 6:30am.
• Lunch at Nic’s Grill 201 N. Pennsylvania Ave OKC 1-405-524-0999 Open 7am-2pm.
• Dinner at Mamma’s E Wings and Waffles 3838 Springlake Drive 1-405-424-0800 Open Tuesday 11am-7pm.

Wednesday September 2

• Check out of hotel.
• Breakfast at Nic’s Grill. See above.
• Lunch at Eischen’s Bar 109 N. Second Street in Okache, OK 1-465-263-9939.
• Check into the Cresthill Suites Hotel in Wichita, KS 12111 E, Central Ave. 1-316-689-8000.  $104.51.
• Dinner- not on Guy’s Fieri’s list of Diner, Dives, and Drive-in’s. Savute’s Italian Ristorante 3303 N. Broadway. 1-316-838-0455.

Thursday September 3

• Check out of hotel.
• Breakfast at Brint’s Diner 4834 E. Lincoln Street 1-316-684-0290. Open 6am-2pm.
• Lunch at BoBo’s Drive-in in Topeka, KS 2300 SW 10th Ave. 1-785-4511.
• Check into the Q Hotel and Spa 560 W. Port Road Kansas City, Mo. 1-816-931-0001. $99.46.
• Dinner at Grinders 417 E.18th Street in Kansas City MO. 1-816-472-5454 open till 11:00pm

Friday September 4

• Check out of hotel
• Breakfast at Momma’s 39th St. Diner 3906 Waddell Street Kansas MO. 1-816-531-6422
• Lunch BBQ Shack 1613 E. Peoria Street in Paola Kansas. 1-913-294-5908. Open T-Sat 11am-9pm.
• Check into The Little Brick Inn Bed and Breakfast. 1101 Military Ave, in Baxter Springs, KS. 1-620-856-5646. $85.00.
• Dinner at the Café on the Route see above address.

Saturday September 5

• Breakfast at the inn.
• Check out of B&B.
• Lunch at Clanton’s Café. 319 E. Illinois Ave in Vinita OK 1-918-256-9053.
• Arrive home.

Just a little light pre-planning don't you think? And I always knew I was just dreaming about the sleeping bags in the back of the truck. EAT's version of "roughing it" is a hotel where both the shampoo and conditioner are not actual name brands. She want's me to sell my camping equipment because she has declared that we will never go camping again. She is probably right.


SET

Our Inspiration

As I said this trip is most definitely inspired by Food Network's “Diners Drive-ins and Dives” program which is hosted by Guy Fieri.

Guy takes a camera crew to different places and spends about a week to get about 20 minutes worth of footage. He says that they visit a lot of places that never see the light of the television simply because each establishment must have three things; 1. Great food; 2. Kitschy atmosphere; 3. Something special.

But we don't have the time or patience to actually do what Guy does so we decided to leverage his work.

We went on the prowl to the food network web site and looked at what they had to document Guy's trips and we found out that the Food Network site was basically useless for anything but advertising the “Diners Drive-ins and Dives” television show and re-playing the most recent episodes.

But then we stumbled across http://www.flavortownusa.com/ which appears to be Guy's own site. It has full details of every place he as visited including a map,

a search engine, and the actual list of places with addresses and everything. We noticed that there was a pretty large concentration of sites right here in mid-America. We thought "We can actually do this without driving all across the nation". That's when it started feeling like this was real. It was actually going to happen. Our very own ROAD TRIP!

So EAT used that information and developed an itinerary which I will share with you next time.

Here is a tease:

set

Intro

Hi;
This is set reporting for myself and eat. I will probably do most of the reporting simply because I type faster. Eat is more the artsy type. She is pretty much right brained, things like typing and spelling don't mix well with the creative centered brain. She will comment on the colors of a room and the choice of fabrics before she notices that it is a waiting room for a doctor. I am a more the left brained type I arrange all the furniture in a square against the wall because it makes logical sense to me. I would prefer all the grass blades in my lawn to be the same length and color. In fact it is not even a question or debate that a lawn must be maintained to a consistent length and appearance of flatness. I will ask how much the doctor is charging before I even notice the color of the room. But between us we make a pretty holistic entity covering both ends of the spectrum of awareness.

For your information we didn't make up these names, they are actually our initials. My name is Stephen Edward Thompson and my wife's name is Elizabeth Ann Thompson (everybody knows that a proper southern women always has two first names, Elizabeth Ann, Betty Joe, Mary Nell, Mary Jane, etc...) So from the beginning of our married relationship we were set and eat.

Our relationship is not totally centered around the refrigerator but we do both like to eat. We are not gourmet snobs but we do know the difference between a bernaise sauce and a hollandaise sauce (it's the herbs) and we know why white wine Zinfandel is actually pink. We are pretty much eclectic in our appetites in that we will eat most anything at least once. If it is actually worth eating we will try to prepare it ourselves. That's not to say that we don't appreciate the work of a good chef. A good creative chef will prepare food in amazing ways either by using ingredients that you never expected or by using techniques that you never expected to create tastes or presentations never before experienced.

With that context we were faced with a problem.

We were BOTH in desperate need of a vacation. We had done NOTHING all year outside of house chores and work, work, work. Add to that some distressing events of the previous year (that I won't go into for YOUR sanity) and we were dying to get away from our day to day lives for a bit.

We thought of past vacations that we really enjoyed as spectacular. We remembered cruises, bed and breakfasts around interesting locations, and just lying around in cabins and vegging out. So the back and forth debate started. What should we do?

Cruises are nice. Very Nice! Going to a B&B is great. Very kitschy and full of atmosphere! Cabins in the wilderness are totally adventurous and truly make you forget your day to day life. But there are problems with each of them.

Cruises. Hustle bustle, security checks, move here, embark, disembark, re-board, eat, see a show, eat, go for drinks, eat, watch a string quartet, watch the 11pm show and end it all by the battle cry “And the eating contest continues on the Lido Deck!”. Lots of stuff, lots of bustle, no rest. No go!

B&B's great for character poor on plumbing. GREAT breakfasts, great conversation, great to get to know someone real from the area. Terrible for just being isolated and not talking deeply about ourselves. Horrible for being in a room and making noise that is not heard throught the house. I'M TALKING WATCHING TV HERE PEOPLE! Also it's a B&B. That means that they expect you to be GONE from noon to evening. What if we just want to sleep all day? Lots of concentrated character, no interesting changes or events, no veg time. No go.

The cabin.

Lots of alone time. Lots and lots of alone time. Alone time galore. So much alone time. Trees, wilderness, wildlife, more trees, NO CIVILAZATION. But after three days what do you talk about? Nothing but each other, cooking for ourselves, no maid service. Wait! no maid service? Well! Not for this vacation! Maid service defiantly required. And self cooking! No go.

So what to do?

Then I came up with the idea. We both watch the TV show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” on the food network all the time (as well as most everything else on the food network and HGTV for that matter). We really enjoy watching Guy Fieri doing his magic, ferreting out those places that actually have good, unique food and celebrating it. We thought why don't we throw it all to the wind and just do a ROAD TRIP. Random but planned. Totally free but organized. Free from our day to day lives in TOTAL! Just free. And with lots of good tasty food that we did not have to prepare ourselves! And not the least of requirements... maid service.

So we begun the process of doing a road trip touring north east Oklahoma and southern Kansas visiting establishment that Guy Fieri had already approved and giving our review of them.

That's what this blog is all about. We intend to update this every day of our trip (and perhaps beyond) to give you a virtual “taste” of what we have experienced.

set

New Blog!

Foodies Gone Wild! Thank you April for setting up this blog for me. On with the trip!