Before leaving Natchez we took a quick driving tour to peek at the mansions in the daylight. Very, very beautiful. One of the old Mississippi paddle boats, the American Queen, was parked at the dock - another thing that might be fun to take at some point in our lives. (It's probably a toss up which is cheaper - taking the boat or filling the gas tank on Rambo!)And then we were off heading west once again on our "shortcut" to Florida as my mother in Texas says. To tell you the truth the scenery doesn't give one much to write home about and one doesn't even want to think about the traffic around Dallas/Fort Worth or those "peculiar" noises Rambo decided to start making. And with poor radio reception and a "missing" MP3 player with lots of books on tape to listen to (it has now been found - in John's coat pocket hanging on the hook in NY - and is on it's way to Texas thanks to the US mail & Jeff!) - anyway with not much else to do we think of food and look for interesting places to eat.
Saturday we had lunch at Twinkles (the name itself should have warned us off!). Sunday it was lunch at Squealer's (need I say more?). Yesterday it was lunch at the New Cafe of Waslow (established in 1928 - when does it become old?). One thing Jane & Michael Stern don't seem to mention in their road food books is that "home cookin'" doesn't necessarily mean "from scratch" these days. Many times it's the creative use of canned goods put together with care in the kitchen. However, they're always interesting and they aren't franchises.
The Texas tourism guide is, hands down, the best guide any state has to offer. Almost every town in the state is listed along with a bit of history and what there is to see and do. These tidbits I relate to John as we tour along. John was anxious to get to our final destination so we didn't take any side trips, but I do want to go to Eastland sometime. Eastland is the home of "Old Rip", the horned toad. Apparently (and the guide says it's true so it must be true...) when they built their courthouse in 1897 they sealed a live horned toad into the cornerstone (nice folks...). In 1928 they decided to build a new courthouse but wanted to use the same cornerstone. Wouldn't you know it? That old horned toad was still alive! So they took him on a national tour where he caught pneumonia and died a year later. However, they put him in a little glass casket and he's on display in the courthouse. Now wouldn't you want to make a stop too?
But we and Rambo (complete with an ever increasing volume of noise) were on to Brady where we made it safely last night (and where we know we can get "from scratch" good home cooking!) Stay tuned...
