Six Women Of A Certain Age on a road trip is not going to be a quick trip.
You understand this, right?
A little less than an hour after departure, we made our first stop.
A potty stop.
And, of course, because we are who we are, food had to be involved.
We all enjoyed the pause that refreshes, then grabbed a little sustenance to get us through the next hour. On the way out, we accosted some poor gentlemen and had him take our picture.
You all know that i am, well, let's just say that in my world, the sky is just a little bit bluer and the grass is just a little bit greener than in some other folks' worlds. Got my own perspective.
And I am okay with this. Love me or leave me.
Long ago and far away, i put together a photo essay of Sonic Drive-In's.
Sonic is a regional phenomenon, and back in the sixties and seventies, every small town worth it's salt had a grocery store, a gas station, and a Sonic (Mickey D's didn't hit the rural south until well into the eighties, we used to judge how cosmopolitan a town was by whether or not they had a McDonalds.) Thing was, every single Sonic used to look exactly the same. Something about taking a picture of the exact same structure in lots of different little towns appealed to me.
Well, on this trip, something about taking a picture of us every time we made a necessary stop appealed to me. No explanation. I just thought it would be funny. I am pretty sure i am the only one that saw humor in this concept. But, being as how this is the
BEST FRIENDS Book Club,
and these are my BEST FRIENDS,
they played along without complaining.
And i love them so much more for it.
So we load back up after our first stop, and Chef Cathrine, who will heretofore be known as Condiment Cathy, asked if anybody needed anything. We are nothing if not prepared for any food emergency.
Before the car even got rolling, i look around and see that fully half of us are digging out our bottles of ibuprofen, and tossing back a handful. Thus the Pill Poppin' part of the trip.
Sorry, it doesn't get anymore exciting than ibuprofen.
Don't forget, we are all Women of a Certain Age. Reflux and blood pressure medicines are a walk on the wild side.
Another hour and change and we arrived at the Mozzarella Company, which you are now well familiar with.
As we walked out the door of the the cheese factory and headed to the car, we saw this:
Let me just state for the record, that it is a darned good thing i never knew about this place when i lived in the metroplex, as it probably would have cost me my retirement. Rudolph's is an old fashioned meat market where everything is aged to perfection, and cut by hand. AND they make their own sausages. Everyone took home some meat (to go with their cheeses) and the reviews have been a rave.
We are a Book Club, so we felt it a moral imperative that we stop off at a Book Store.
To all you folks that don't have a Half Price Books store, we are so sorry!
If you can't find something at a HPB, it hasn't been printed.
This particular one is the flagship store, and contains--and i KNOW i exaggerate sometimes, what with 74 foot long copper headed water rattlers and five billion tons of cheese and all, but cross my heart, their printed matter states that this store is--53,000 square feet of books.
A little piece of heaven on earth.
The Shrinking Violet Contingent (that would be me) lobbied the poor manager of this store to run upstairs and tell corporate that they needed to put a branch out in East Texas. He was very good natured about it, smiled and waved at all of us, and accepted my request form. But there was an outside chance that he was merely placating a bunch of crazy broads.
Last week I took Ellie May for her first visit to this particular branch, and thought she was gonna cry when she walked through the door and took it all in. I have never seen her so emotional.
We walked past the information desk in front, and i was gonna apply a proven gas lighting technique to try to get a decent book store in East Texas--hoping that i would not be remembered, and they would think there was a huge crowd of voracious readers just waiting to buy books from them (which there really is,) and the manager looked up, grinned real big, and pointed at me before i could even say a word....and said, "East Texas, I'm working on it!"
I fully expect them to be breaking ground by Thanksgiving.**
There are so many books in this place there is no room for a restroom. Nahhh, actually, that end of the building was being renovated. So they had the world's largest Johnny-On-The-Spot outside the back door. The rest of the girls were weenies, but The Baas and i had to brave it, because, frankly, the portapotty on steroids was far less daunting than the embarrassment involved in NOT stopping would have been.
And, it was a new experience.
We survived it, anyway.
As you might imagine, Lunch on the BFBCPPPSFT '11 had to be something spectacular.
And it was.
Oh my, was it ever!!!
Miss J saw this place featured on a show on the food channel, and i have to say, they should just give Arcodoro Pomodoro the whole darn network. It was amazing.
For right now it is gonna be whirled peas, but check back, because i have a picture of one of the meal presentations that will make your mouth water. (Did you forget that i am still technologically challenged? Just a little reminder. Couldn't tell ya why it didn't load, but there ya go.)
And Then....
AHHHhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Central Market.
Words do it no justice.
If you can't find it at Central Market, you probably don't need it.
And, as luck would have it, it was Hatch week, where you are completely surrounded by all things Hatch Chili. Hatch sauces, Hatch bread, Hatch butter, Hatch Jack, Hatch tortillas, Hatch brownies, Hatch you name it. If you have never had a Hatch, even if you don't like chili's, do yourself a favor. There is nothing like 'em. And they only happen once a year.
I could spend hours--HUH, strike that--Usually spend hours in the bulk isles--spices, grains, legumes, coffees and teas--I usually form lasting relationships with the Foodies in these departments (that is what they call the salespeople here, and does that tell you anything? A grocery store that has SALESPEOPLE on every isle?) Stuff from all over the world, and they are so generous, you can taste ANYTHING before you buy it--they just pop open a jar and hand you a spoon. And the PRODUCE....Oh My. My eyes are starting to leak just thinking about it. It is just such a lovely welcoming place filled with lovely happy people and lovely delicious food.
AND, if you happen to shop so long that your blood sugar starts to wane, you just park your buggy over in front of the Central Cafe, and drive yourself insane trying to decided what to choose from the miles and miles of prepared foods cases (i am back to embroidering the story again....it is not really miles, merely several thousand feet of fridge cases.)
You have heard the old saw:
Shop 'til you drop, then sit down and buy shoes?
Well, at Central Market, it is:
Shop 'til you drop, then sit down and eat sushi.
The Final Stop was at Whole Foods Market, and i am sure i don't need to tell you what fun THAT was since Whole Foods has gone national. Many moons ago, i used to shop at the original store. Apparently i helped them build an empire.
But look at that produce back there...can you blame me???
There were actually other pictures taken here, but...um...it was really late in the day, and we were all tired and a little goofier than usual, and i love these women, and think that what happens in the Whole Foods Produce Department should stay in the Whole Foods Produce Department . (But don't worry, girls, i will bring them to the next meeting!!)
Many, many thanks to Miss J for serving as cruise director, and to the guy that invented texting for making her job easier (we would all scatter to the four corners, and would periodically recieve texts from Miss J telling us that the bus was pulling out in 5. What a hoot. How did we ever keep our groups together before?)
What a Splendid Day.
When are we gonna do it again?
**Gotta tell one on Susan, Dear Susan and I. A couple of years ago, we were desperate for a non medicated chicken feed for our meat birds, but non medicated feeds are frowned upon in these parts.. Separately, we paid a visit to a particular feed store, and requested the one we wanted. Then we each made several phone calls asking if they carried the feed. Voila! The store started carrying what we wanted. I felt kinda bad gas lighting them, but we spent a small fortune at that store, and we were desperate!!
Anyone that wants to help us get a decent bookstore out here in East Egypt (literarily speaking) can feel free to call up Corporate at Half Price Books. We will be eternally grateful.
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