Dec 24th and 25th

Merry Christmas to All!!!!!!!!!!

Dec 23 Thursday Gaylord Texan

We made it in at 2:45 pm. What a zoo. The hotel has an exhibit called the ICE. They have sold 15,000 tickets to it today and half hour staging times. At 10 to 20$ apiece thats not bad monies.
UPDATE BELOW:

I forgot to mention with the meal in OKC we had the best tasting Au Gratin Potatoes. Looked like the potatoes were sliced on a mandolin, briefly braised and combined with a heavy cream and light white cheese, topped with a sprinkling of bread crumbs. I’d come back for them alone but next time I would order a side of Lobster Risotto.

Again, just a straight line between OKC and Dallas. Really busy, saw a couple Minnesota license plates. Weather is cloudy but occasionally the sun was sighted. Time for lunch, we stop in Denton, north of Dallas. We settled on the Catfish King, as there were two Lexus’s and a Lincoln, usually a good place to stop. Well we should have suspected something, no Cadillac’s. Catfish they had we tried the deep fried and baked. Both came with hush puppy’s, they sure looked different, they reminded me of extruded dog food but cut longer about 2.5 inches. Tasted similar. Don’t need to stop there again.

Up to the last to 2 miles from the turn off I35 we had smooth sailing but then an accident ahead. All four lanes were moved over to the far outside lane and what a wreck, the drivers side was caved in, didn’t look like a Merry Christmas for that car.

 Jerr

OKC from KC ~ 353 miles

We started our day after 9 am. Instead of taking the short run to I35 I decided to again take Ward Parkway a short distance from what I said The Plaza, actually The Country Club Plaza, in case you want to look it up. If you like Summit Ave. in St. Paul then you will love the old section of the mansions of KC on Ward Parkway.

The love of driving down to Oklahoma City, OKC, is the long stretches of open land. You can see the winter wheat sprouting through with green leaves. Soon to die back and regenerate in spring. This wheat is used extensively in loaf breads throughout the world. If you are expecting mountains and streams with people fly fishing for trout forget it. Then you hit the Kansas turnpike through the Flint Hills of Kansas. A couple signs which read, Beware of smoke from fires, pull over and wait till it clears. We turned off the toll way close to the boarder of Oklahoma at Wellington OK for lunch. We drove through the town of 5,000 and found few home grown places to eat that were still in business. On the way out we saw Andy’s Bar and Grill with a lot of cars and pickups around it. Well it was a place to eat and low cost. $5.75 for a Beef BBQ with a large side of onion rings my beef with cheese was semi filling. No need to return.

Here comes my Bohemian story, get ready for a chuckle. As we are heading into OKC I am running a little low on fuel. Off to the left is a Shell station, we have a 15% discount at them and BP. Pulled in and inserted the card, pressed the button, nothing and no prompts. I then said to myself, no wonder the state patrol is here and left. Down to the next turn off and there is another Shell, six pumps and four are working and cones covering some area for what reason I don’t know, off I go again. Then two exits ahead is the next Shell, now these are more than we have seen in the whole state to this time. Up the ramp, take a hard left at the top and whoops I am now in a turn to go back north. Got off on the first one and there was another gas station. Here is the kicker, I pickup 7 gallons, save a buck and a nickel at Shell. Yes for 7 gallons because in Texas gas is cheaper – now I hope so anyway. Don’t look at the cost of the steaks we ate later.

We again are at a Hampton Inn in Bricktown OKC. In this area is a canal, a spin-off of the one in San Antonio’s River Walk. It had some boats but not running tonight.

Here was a dream of mine. One of the new-old gull wing Mercedes. WOW.

We walked the canal area and decided to eat at Mickey Mantel’s Steakhouse: http://www.mickeymantlesteakhouse.com/ . A good choice, next time I will come with a bigger appetite. We had a cabernet The Crusher Wilson Vineyard Clarksburg California – smooth. We then ordered the meal, sparse but filling. Shirleen got the winner Roquefort Filet – Filet Mignon with Roquefort Sauce (a blend of Roquefort cheese, cream cheese and white wine) smooth and delicious. I the contemporary: Tournedos Béarnaise – Tenderloin Medallions, OK but pass next time. Our waiter, Zach, has lived in the city then California and back here, part Cherokee and proud of it. Nice after we started talking but pushy when we began. Walked back to the room to write this and get some sack time. Only 350 miles or so today and a scant 195 tomorrow. jerr

Tuesday Dec 21 2010

421 miles today

We left a bit sooner than we expected, as Shirleen’s bridge outing was called off. Off we head east toward Owatonna. Boy, are the roads slippery but after the first 30 miles and out of Waseca it got better. Well better till we headed south through Albert Lea. A couple vehicles in the ditch, a couple pick-ups and a semi which has traffic tied up for a couple miles. We ate at the Trails Travel centers – a truck stop and eatery. We ate a quick tasty breakfast, ham and cheese omelet with fried cubed potatoes and I corn beef hash with basted medium eggs and hash browns, and headed south.

On the Iowa and Missouri border, off to our left, going up a side road was a Amish buggy. 40 miles outside of Kansas City we spotted, hard to miss, flocks of Canada geese, probably 500 in many different groups.

Arrived in KC around 5, nice timing, we are resting at a Hampton Inn, and had dinner. We ate t one of our favorite spots in KC – Classic Cup Café. We have eaten there many imes before and when the weather permits we sit outside. Shirleen had a classic pizza, mushroom, fresh mozzarella cheese (like Joe’s) and a balsamic tomato sauce. I opted for the chicken with risotto, the chicken breast was cut airline style and roasted to perfection, the risotto was creamy accompanied with sauté spinach, mushrooms and finished with a dash of truffle oil.

We are staying on the  Plaza, thousands of lights adorn the buildings. The streets are covered with people ,illing around doing last minute shopping and others taking a ride on the highly decorated horse drawn buggy’s. With all the hustle and bustle cars and people are always curtious on this old Spanish styled strip.

Tomorrow, toward Oklahoma City.

I will update as I can. Jerry