Sometimes a girl just wants diamonds

Six-Word Saturday 11.26.22

Friday’s fuzzy foliage and fungus

I’m happy Becky’s back doing squares! I’ve missed that challenge. I have two photos as squares for todays’s walk but the other refused to go into a square without losing its fuzziness. Who was I to quibble?

Squares first.

Walking squares 11.25.22

Thursday Doors at The Big Texan

On a day when eating figures prominently for those of us in the US, you might cast your mind back to my delicious meal at The Big Texan restaurant. Today however, we’re focusing, literally and figuratively, on some of the doors found there. This pair is bright and cheerful-looking.

This single door’s a bit more elegant. The sign tells us the restaurant was established on Route 66 in 1960, touts the 72 oz. steak challenge (streamed live on their website!!), gives a shout-out to the home-brewed beer (I can attest that it’s good), there’s free wi-fi (but who really needs that when you’re eating?), and that they don’t accept checks.

Finally, we have a vintage police car with a Route 66 door. I think you could get more than a few 72 oz. steaks from that big boy next to the car and that’s no bull! 🙂 (I imagine it would be a steer.)

To those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, I pray you have a wonderful day filled with love and blessings. Of course I pray the same for all the rest of you as well. We all have much for which to be thankful, whether on one specially named day or not. Dan, thanks for hosting Thursday Doors as usual and Norm, thanks for starting it.

What I saw while walking…quintessential autumn

Walking Squares…11.23.22

Wordless Wednesday

Sighting the blue heron

Yesterday we walked along the river walk in Aurora, Illinois and that’s where we are today, on the lookout for wildlife. Usually I see heron in the park but these attractive birds were sheltering beneath an overpass.

We saw this sign warning canoeists to stop but I’m not sure how they were going to get to accomplish that before going through the chute as the water was running right along and the sign was right at the place they were supposed to avoid. But we didn’t see any canoe wreckage so I guess it was alright. 🙂

A Monday walk squared

Jo’s walking and Becky’s back with her wonderful square challenge. Life is good. I’m back from my vacation with lots of photos and stories to share, so let’s start walking.

This trip was all about seeing friends but there was a lot of scenery too, autumn colors that I’d been craving. On the 2 1/2 day drive, I’d passed through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri before crossing the state line into Illinois. Especially in Missouri I drove through hundreds of miles of thousands of trees in their festive bronzes, oranges, reds, and a few luminous yellows. The day after I arrived, my friend and I drove to downtown Aurora, Illinois for coffee and friend time, starting at Endiro Coffee. Although I’m mostly a tea person and my coffee drinks are mochas or cappuccinos, Endiro serves what they call African Coffee (or tea): Easy on the espresso or black tea, lots of steamed milk and light and sweet masala spice. Once when our younger daughter and I were there, she had the African coffee which I tried and loved. That’s what I had this time.

Downtown Aurora has a rather nice river walk surrounded by lots of old, repurposed buildings. I love that they haven’t been torn down but are used just as they were.

I got my autumn color fix too.

It was a propitious start to my two-and-a-half week visit!

Jo’s Monday Walk 11.21.22

Walking Squares 11.21.22

Face

One Word Sunday: face

Cellpic Sunday 11.20.22

Car wash abstracts

Monday I point the van back towards Arizona after a wonderful visit. But this morning I spent a few minutes in the car wash and thought I’d take a few photos as well as stop in to say hello and hope all of you are doing well. There will be much to tell when I return.

Eating at The Big Texan

It was a short walk from my room in The Big Texan motel to the restaurant of the same name…minus “hotel” of course. 😉. I’d already looked at the menu online and for once decided what I’d order before I got there. But I wasn’t going for the free 72-ounce steak! Free? Yes, if you can eat it and all the accompaniments in one hour.

You do not need to make reservation for challenge attempts. When you’re ready, we’re ready! Challenge attempts available during all regular business hours. 72-ounce Steak Dinner Challenge Includes: Shrimp Cocktail, Baked Potato, Salad

There are a number of rules that you can find here but even without anything else, 72-ounces of even the best steak would be a challenge…a Texas-sized challenge!

The restaurant is enormous, filled with all sorts of Western decorations.

Everything on this trip runs along or nearby Route 66. There are museums, souvenir shops, and sections of the actual route everywhere, even in The Big Texan.

While I was there, a two-man musical group came on, playing guitar and singing.

I ordered a Whiskey Barrel Stout to go with…

…my meal of smoked BBQ beef brisket, side (salad for me but there are lots of other choice), and two rolls for only $14 plus $7 for the pint of beer. There was so much meat that I finished the rest of it tonight at the motel with one roll while the other was part of my breakfast. Pretty good deal. The meat you can see here was just the meat on top. There was just as much underneath. I did NOT eat the jalapeño!!

I know I haven’t told you about the motel yet but I will. Today’s trip took me through hundreds of miles of endless deciduous trees all changing colors. It was gorgeous. I arrived early and have spent the afternoon and evening watching “Midsomer Murders” and “Hart to Hart”, plus did a few other things. Nice to relax a bit. Tomorrow it’s on to Naperville.

From the road…day 1

4 AM was the time I’d set to leave but as I woke up earlier than my alarm, I left the house at about 3:30 AM. The good part about leaving at that time and in the dark is that there are very few people on the highway. The two bad things about leaving in the dark are you miss all the really beautiful scenery in the first part of the drive and you really have to pay attention to the road to be sure no elk, deer, or other wild animals come charging out into the road. So I’d been the road for 2 1/2 hours when the sun began peeking over the horizon.

I ran into an issue with a detour that immediately added half an hour to my trip, a trip where because of time zones, I lost two hours on the first day. Arizona doesn’t do daylight savings time so when I got into New Mexico it was an hour later, then another hour later when I passed into Texas. But an unexpected issue made itself blazingly obvious when I turned east—the rising sun was directly in the middle of the road just over the horizon. I could barely see. I Jerry-rigged an additional sun visor by putting a CD envelope (not a case) in the bottom of the mirror on the sun visor so I could just see the road but not have the sun directly in my eyes. This is a little of how it looked without that. Bad photo but taken with great care which is the important thing.

When things improved, this is what I saw.

However, the detour that I was unhappy about, turned out to be the high point of the entire day. I drove through a part of New Mexico that was beautiful. I plan to visit it on the way back.

Out of the window…

And then there was snow!

And another from the van.

Despite the early start, attack by the sun, and detour, I arrived on good shape in Amarillo, Texas where I checked in to The Big Texan motel. Well, I didn’t actually have to check in. I was sent a room number and the code this morning and email so I just went to my room and went in. After a bit of a break, I walked over to their restaurant.

But all that’s another story. That’s it from the road today. Tomorrow I’m on my way to Rolla, Missouri. It’s a shorter day so I don’t have to leave so early. But as I wake up early, we’ll see what happens. As Scarlet O’Hara famously said, “Tomorrow is another day.”