Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Another long drive. Our goal was to make it from Denver all the way to Kansas City, KS. Both of us were feeling a little tired and so we made multiple stops along the way. Deborah found a highly rated place in Hays, KS for lunch so we stopped at Professor’s Sandwich Shop. The place specializes in farm to table products and puts their local honey into as many menu items as possible.
Deborah had a bowl of tomato soup made with local, organic tomatoes. It was definitely home made and very tasty. I had a BLT on Texas toast. It was a simple sandwich but was packed with a ton of bacon. We both had their honey’ed lemonade with our meals. It was surprisingly good. Our meals came with two small cookies made with whole grains and local honey. The cookies were interesting but nothing special. The entire meal was very good but it came at a price. $24.99 for a simple lunch seemed rather high. At least they took credit cards.
One of the main reasons we pushed ourselves to get all the way to Kansas City was so we could have barbecue for dinner. In one day we had traveled through a good chunk of Colorado and through virtually all of Kansas. That’s a lot of straight, flat, boring driving so we were really looking forward to a great dinner. There are reputed to be many fabulous places for barbecue in KC but one name is near the top of every search: Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que. They now have three locations. We headed to the one that was closest to our hotel.
The first thing we noticed was that the drive-thru line extended quite a way. We thought that was a good sign. Inside the large dining room we studied the extensive large menu for a few minutes. We had intended to get a sampler plate so we could try a number of things but, surprisingly, they didn’t have anything like that so we ordered the ribs special (four ribs and two sides) and a two-meat dinner with one side. For our meats we got the pulled pork and the house specialty: burnt ends.
Overall the food was very good but wasn’t even close to the best barbecue we’d ever had. All of the meats were juicy and tender but they lacked that smokey flavor that you long for. The burnt ends, simply put, weren’t. Burnt ends are supposed to be the overdone edges of the pork were the sugar in the sauce is blackened and crunchy and delicious. These were chucks of pork with some of the skin on them. Nothing more. The pulled pork was exactly the same meat as the burnt ends except it was shredded.
We also had three sides. The potato salad was home made and good. The spicy cole slaw was hardly worth eating. Perhaps the best thing we had all evening was the dirty rice. It was white rice with onions and peppers with bits of pork mixed in. It was spicy and delicious. It’s worth mentioning the barbecue sauce. It was quite good. Initially it tasted a little sweet and almost fruity but there was a spicy kick to it. Total cost with two fountain sodas: $45.57.
- Mileage Today: 623.7
- Total Mileage: 1,445.9
- Total Miles Per Gallon: 36.0
Thursday, September 9, 2021
We left our hotel early because we had another long drive. Our hotel was offering a grab-and-go bag for breakfast but it just didn’t appeal. After our rather heavy dinner the night before we decided to just head out and eat something when we felt like it.
We drove for quite a ways and eventually stopped at a Pilot Truck Stop. Pilot / Flying-J stations have been a favorite of ours for many years. They always have great food and services. We look forward to clean bathrooms, good coffee, interesting food choices and soapy squeegees to clean the bugs off our windshield. This one was in Osceola, IA and it was a little disappointing. The store was small, a little grungey and they had very little in the way of food choices. Even the squeegees were old and worked poorly. We just got gas and left.
Around 11:00 am we got to Newton, IA and found a Culver’s. We discovered Culver’s on our last trip across the country. They are mainly in the midwest region but the first one we ate at was in Savanah, GA. Culver’s has a rather large menu for a fast food restaurant but we usually get the butter burgers or chicken fingers. Their food is above average but the real reason to go is for their custard. It’s fantastic. For about $3.50 you can get a rather large cup of vanilla or chocolate ice cream with various toppings or a variety of mix-ins. Highly recommended.
Along the way we made a stop at my ancestral home of Davenport, IA. Yes, I know how weird that sounds but when several of my relatives came from the old country in 1914 they made their way to Davenport and stayed for several years with some of their family who had immigrated previously. We couldn’t resist stopping in and imagining how different it was over 100 years ago when they were there.
Running low on gas and approaching Dixon, IL we couldn’t find any of our preferred truck stops so we tried one we’d never been to before: Road Ranger. They are not nearly as plentiful as the Pilot stations but you see them now and again. It was as nice as the Pilot stations we like and had even more interesting food choices. We’ll definitely add them to the list of approved places to stop.
We’d been going along at a decent clip all day. For the past seven hours or so we’d been maintaining a steady 80 MPH. On a long trip like this using cruise control becomes essential and our car has a pretty nifty one. You can choose an exact speed to set (it’s digital) and it will maintain that speed. What makes this one special is that it uses LIDAR. If any car gets too close it will automatically reduce speed and even apply the brakes if necessary. When proper spacing is again achieved it will automatically speed up to the pre-set speed. It does all this without the driver having to do anything. We’ve used it a lot and it’s 100% reliable.
When we were about 40 miles outside of Chicago our GPS was indicating that we had over an hour to go. Traffic! We had over an hour’s worth of big city stop and go traffic. It was especially tiring because we’d already been on the road for so long. My leg ached. Eventually we made it to our hotel and began thinking about dinner plans.
About ten years ago I lived in Chicago for about a year. I was in-between jobs and I was offered a position with one of Chicago’s biggest investment firms. The pay was great so how could I say, “No”. During that time Deborah was living / teaching in NH. Fortunately there was a school vacation of about a week just about every other month. Whenever this happened she would fly to Chicago and I would play tour guide. We’d see all the interesting sites and eat at all of the interesting restaurants. It was a little hard living apart but we made the best of it. Of course this time we’re only going to be in town for two days so we’re just going hit some of the highlights.
We decided dinner would be at Lou Malnati’s. Lou’s is the quintessential Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. If you’ve eaten at Pizzeria Uno I’m sorry for you. Lou’s is different and MUCH better. We used to go to the original / only location ten years ago but now there are a half dozen locations around town. We headed to the one on Michigan Ave. We had tried to call ahead for reservations but were told they don’t take them. When we arrived we were told our wait would be around 30 minutes and they’d text us when our table was ready. We walked up and down The Miracle Mile for a while and by the time we got back our table was ready. We got the Malnati Chicago Classic. The small is enough for two people. It has sausage and comes with a butter crust. It never disappoints. Having grown up On New York thin crust / Neopolitan style can you really call this pizza? The answer is a definite, “No” – but it is good food. Total cost: $21.62.
- Mileage Today: 532.0
- Total Mileage: 1,977.9
- Total Miles Per Gallon: 36.3