A Morning In Southfork, JR, And Bobbie Country

Here Come's Marisa

Where's Mitchell? (Marisa on Tiptoes!)

Up at 6:30 after a fairly good night of sleep; at least I slept in past 6:00.  When I came downstairs, the coffee was brewing, Rami was up, and the Ohio State/Michigan pre game show was already on the TV.  Go Bucks.  It looks like our kind of day here in University Park, a suburb about three miles north of downtown Dallas.  Today's high will be a Chautauqua like fall kind of day, sunny and a high of 64º.

We started our eight plus hour drive yesterday as we wanted, pulling out of Tom's driveway in Lee's Summit at 7:00.  We were not looking forward to another eight hour drive but it ended up not being too bad, especially since our GPS was accurate, predicting we would arrive at 3:30 and we did.  Our drive was easy, not much traffic except when we had to slow down and go through a number of small towns in both Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

On Rt. 66

Around 9:00, Evie was on a new app which tells us what kinds of restaurants, hotels, and gas stations are available at the next crossroads and it mentioned a diner in Carthage, Oklahoma, called Iggy's.  It was supposedly well know because it was on the famous Rt. 66 highway from Chicago to the West Coast.  So we broke our pattern of only stopping at a fast foods restaurant and drove to Iggy's and sat down and enjoyed a breakfast, for Evie of a biscuit and egg sandwich, and I had hash browns and eggs.  It was a good stop, a diner, good food and we talked with the friendly owner who, interestingly, had just bought the restaurant a month ago, his second in Carthage.  We thought he was Greek but he said he was from Macedonia which would have been part of Yugoslavia before the break up after the death of Tito.  He was very friendly, was from Long Island, had spent some time in the snows of Buffalo, and even had his car break down in Slovenia last summer when we told him Evie was of Slovenian heritage.  It was a fun stop.

Elvis's Corner

Enjoying Breakfast, At Iggy's, On The Legendary Rt. 66

The rest of the trip went quickly although it seemed like we would never get through Oklahoma. When we got closer to Dallas, traffic picked up but we were fortunate because traffic traveling north was backed up for miles.  So we arrived on time, in University Park, and were greeted by the entire family and Cody, their dog, did his usual dance of joy when we arrived.  It was great to see Beth and family.  We got big hugs from Tyler, Marisa, and Mitchell and quickly got caught up on their busy lives.

Self Explanatory

Taco Gals Redux

We had enough time to enjoy a beer and some cheese and baguette before going out to dinner to their favorite taco place, now ours. called El Come Taco, a tiny taco bar set in a strip mall, across from at Check Cashing place.  We had been their a year ago, liked it, but after last night, we are ready to go back.  It's serves about 20 different kinds of tacos, with various toppings, but basically it's two small tacos with the meat of your choice, some onions and cilantro, and that's it unless you want any of about ten toppings.

At El Come Taco

Margarita Heaven

For some reason, they are just perfect, whether with more toppings or not. The margaritas helped of course, as did the guacamole and chips.  There was only one family in there besides us as this seems to be a go to place later in the evening, even with lines out the door at that time on weekends.

Late Night Destination

Our Gymnast At Krispy Kremes

As we were driving home, Rami mentioned that a Krispy Kremes had just opened in Dallas which brought back memories of our hitting the Krispy Kreme in Winterpark Florida, in evenings when the kids were in their pajamas.  So we decided if the red light was on, signaling hot donuts, we would stop and, of course, the red light was on.  We walked in, tried to decide what to get, when one the workers gave each one of us a free, hot glazed donut.  What memories that first bite brought back, from Florida to Reserve at the end of third period when there always was a donut sale.  We ended up buying a half dozen and heading home.  A mistake because we knew that enough was enough but we could not resist another donut, pushing us over being comfortable, to where we began to feel sick.

Hot Sugar And Grease, The Best

When we got home, we decided to watched a couple of our favorite episodes from The Office, a series we have watched with both Tyler and Marisa at different times, most recently, last year with Marisa. Our favorite was the dinner party at Michael's and when Michael burns his foot in a George Foreman Grill, both classic episodes.  By the time we were finished watching, it was 10:00 and both Evie and I were really tired from getting up early and our drive so we went up to bed.  Tyler stayed up playing a game, Mitch was still out with buddies, and the rest went to bed soon after.  A good start to our visit.