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
