Thursday March 7 Through Monday March 25, 2019
We drove to St. Louis over two days. We stopped for the night in Muskogee Oklahoma at the La Quinta Inn & Suites. What a pleasant surprise. We’ve been looking for a good hotel chain to stay in while traveling with our dogs. Linda got us a room with a king size bed, couch, easy chair, microwave oven and refrigerator for around $100 plus tax. The room was clean, the staff friendly and the free breakfast in the morning had protein.
We made it to St. Louis Friday afternoon. This is a hard drive for us to do in two days. We’ve decided to take three days to go between San Antonio and St. Louis in the future.
Tuesday, a great family secret was shared with us. Citizen Kane’s Steak House, a small restaurant off the beaten path, is possibly the best steakhouses ever. The T-bone style pork chop came with boarding house potatoes and horseradish sauce. The horseradish in the horseradish sauce was understated with another dominant flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. Simply amazing. In Texas, the house potatoes made of cubed potatoes, onions and red bell peppers are often called home fries. Best home fries ever. I can’t wait to go there again.
The house is finally unpacked from last year’s move. The house is clean. Finally. Moved in.
Friday evening, we met up with family and went to the Fish Fry fund raiser at their church. Linda’s dad, brother in law and nephew all worked the fish fry. The long line to get in was definitely worth it. It was fun hanging out and talking to extended family. Cousins in law were planning to ride their Harleys to Alaska and back at the same time we would be up there. It may be possible to meet up in Fairbanks this summer.
By eight in the evening, we were both pretty tired. Long days of driving capped off with three hours at a fish fry. We’d do it again in a heartbeat so we went to the fish fry again on the following Friday.
The Courtesy Diner (3 locations) has become the St. Louis number one comfort food restaurant. Three times this trip. Garden Omelet, Double Patty Melt and Slinger. Slinger? The Courtesy Slinger is made the same way as O.T. Hodge‘s Slinger minus the cheese on the hamburger patty.
Slingers? A Slinger is two (cheese) hamburger patties, hash browns and two eggs covered in chili. Yum! Really.
The return drive south to San Antonio was uneventful. A single overnight stop in Durant Oklahoma, just north of the Oklahoma-Texas border. Like the La Quinta in Muskogee, the Durant La Quinta provided king size bed, couch, easy chair, microwave and refrigerator. Clean room and friendly staff.
The Fort Worth Buc-ee’s had a new t-shirt design. Buc-ee was printed on the front. On the back, it says “Buc-ee’s is kind of a big Dillo.” There is a picture of an Armadillo right above the ‘Dillo.’ Definitely a Texas thing. I had to buy it.
Seems like this year has been unseasonably cool. St. Louis felt cold. Lows in the 30’s and 40’s. Highs from the 40’s through 60’s. The temperatures in San Antonio on Monday were in the 80’s. Sure felt good.
Hope to see you on the road ahead!