Follow That Guy, Eat At Joe's!!! - Joe's Gizzard City, Potterville,Michigan

Our weekend plans were modified on Friday. We were watching the Food Network,of course, and they were having a Diners, Drive Inns and Dives marathon. They had featured a place in Michigan. The place was located in Potterville near Lansing. Did you guess it??? Yeah, that's right...we ate at Joe's Gizzard City!!!!

Now Joe's isn't really a diner or a drive inn so we weren't thinking we would be eating at the Ritz. The staff seemed really friendly, and our waitress had a great sense of humor in spite of being deluged by foodies that had watched the same episode. We should have known it would be busy because we tried to check out their web site and it was crashed.

When our waitress came to take the order she had mentioned something about the food we saw on the show. Rebbel asked her how did she know that we had watched the show. This lead to an impromptu poll by our waitress. She said, "Raise your hand if you are here for some reason other than seeing us on the Food Network." Nobody raised their hand, and the place was full.

We had to try the gizzards,the Triple D burger that was developed by Guy, and fish. I haven't had many gizzards in my life,but of all the gizzards I have had, these were definitely the best!

The Triple D consisted of a hamburger with lettuce, tomato,onions,lettuce and pickle. That's all

normal, but then they deep fry the whole thing, which is abnormal but juicy and tasty! The fish was good too. We didn't have any room to try the desserts which includes deep fried cheesecake,

deep fried Oreos,and a deep fried Twinkie called a Frinkie plus more!

If you like quirky and fried this might be your kind of place! See them at http://www.gizzardcity.com/index.html .

I Want You To Put Me On A Plane and Fly Me Home!

We were really looking forward to our first trip to California together,and our first "real" vacation. We carefully went over all of the stops we would be making in the state. There was of course; Hollywood, Pink's Hot Dogs, the Chinese Theater, the ocean, Universal, friends and family

We had already been to Arizona and visited Rebbel's family. Everything was going smooth as we headed for San Diego with no signs of trouble and then.....there it was. A sign of trouble. It came in the form of an elevation sign. The first one wasn't too bad, but they kept bragging about the elevation every few thousand feet. I was really enjoying the view. The mountain we were going through looked like some kind of weird moonscape in places. Big boulders were strewn by the roadside along the way. My wife hated every minute of the travel down the mountain. She was freaking out. We pulled over at the first rest stop we found and my wife said something I will never forget. She said, "I want you to put me on a plane and fly me home!" Evidently the trip down the mountain was a little too much for her, I surmised as I got my only peek at the Pacific I would get on this trip.
Needless to say, all of our plans evaporated like water in the Death Valley. We decided to go to our friend's house in Bakersfield. Little did we know that we would pass through another place called the Grapevine on our way to Bakersfield, and it happened again. This time she also had her first panic attack. Her arms became numb and breathing heavy. I thought she was going to pass out. Did I mention she was driving?

Our dream trip to California turned out to be a short visit with our friends and family. Thankfully, they lived in lower elevations that you could get to without going through any mountains. We left California through the dessert and went relatively flat to Nevada. The next day, she drove on Hoover Dam without any real problems. The big problem was going down the mountain gave her an out of control feeling, yet she had to drive or she would feel even more out of control. I know what she means, sitting in the passenger seat during her panic attacks made me feel the same way!

Take the trip down the Grapevine http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7600703408514447465&hl=en


Picture on right: Going Down the Grapevine 1947 from the
California State Site

Big Heads - No Beds

Entering South Dakota on our way to the Big Heads, otherwise known as Mt. Rushmore to most the country except us, we were viewing the flat somewhat boring prairie countryside. This was the first time either one of us had been in South Dakota. We had been through a harrowing time in Chicago the day before thanks to the fact that they wanted to keep stopping us and making us wait up to 30 minutes every few miles to collect a small toll. We wasted more time and gas than the toll they were collecting. Why, oh why, couldn't they be like Ohio and collect one toll at the end. Better yet, why couldn't they be like my state of Michigan and let you go through without a toll? I have often thought that my state should set a toll for those people from the toll states so we could get some of the money back! We had wanted to make it to Minnesota but ended up just crossing into Wisconsin. But, I digress.
We were traveling on I-90 when we came to a sign telling about a scenic view as we came to the Missouri River. We looked at each other as to say yeah,right! We came over a hill and all of the sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch! What a change !
By the time we got to the heads, it was almost dusk. Not being one to linger, Rebbel gave her customary once over and was ready to hit the road. If you ever watched Vacation and saw Chevy Chase at the Grand Canyon, then you know the kind.
We got something to eat at a tourist restaurant in a nearby town and was ready to find a place to sleep. We hardly ever make reservations because we never plan to be in a certain town by a certain time. Now this was the fourth of July weekend and it really never occurred to us that it might be a bad time to find a motel room near the Big Heads, it was! We stopped at two or three motels and they were all saying the same thing. There are no rooms for over 100 miles.
We were so tired at that point that we really thought we were going to spend the night in the car. The last motel we stopped at had said that he would call and check at a place called the Iron Horse Inn. We aren't bikers, so all types of images popped into my head, but from where we were this place seemed like heaven. It looked like it was new. We were escorted to our room by a fellow in a golf cart, and all went well.The guy behind the desk was bragging about being tipped a six pack the day before.
The next day, we came upon the best breakfast sandwich we had ever experienced at a Maverick Gas Station at the Sturgis exit of all places.
South Dakota license plates may say; Great Faces, Great Places, but for us it will always be the land of Big Heads and No Beds! except for the Iron Horse Inn in Whitehead.





Whitehead,South Dakota
home of the Ironhorse Inn

Amarillo By Morn...Make That Evening - The Big Texan - Amarillo, Texas

There we were, back in Texas. We traveled across Texas a couple of years before, and traveled,and traveled.. At that time we entered at Texarkana and went to Dallas. After trying to find the perfect place to find a steak in Dallas, we somehow struck out and landed at an Iron Skillet late at night. I know your probably thinking what kind of people can't find a steak in Texas? The answer is, the same people that couldn't find a cheese steak in Philadelphia! That's another story. Anyhow, this was going to be different. This time we had a place all mapped out in Amarillo Texas. The Big Texan!
We arrived in Amarillo after some rain. I wanted to see the world famous Cadillac Ranch. The travel c.d. had been preparing us for the visit. First there was Amarillo by morning and then Bruce singing Cadillac Ranch. What more could you want??? We finally arrived after we had traveled past it. How could we have missed it the first time?? Its not every day you see all those cars buried hood - deep with fins sticking up in the air. I couldn't wait to get a picture by them. My wife, being the girly girl type, wanted nothing to do with it. You see the cars are out in the middle of a field, and like I mentioned before, it had rained. To this day I still can't believe she would pass this great opportunity up just because of a little mud. I ended up having to hold the camera and taking my own picture. Sure I had to spend some time scraping mud off my shoes, but I touched the cars that the Boss had sang about. What could be better than that???
After that, we made our way to the Big Texan. This place is famous for the big 72 oz steak. You eat that and the rest of the dinner, you get it free. The thing looks like a chuck roast. Its that big! You have a time limit that clicks off as you sit at a table on a small stage. I passed on it and we just got steak dinners. After we ate, our waitress asked if we would want dessert. She said she would buy it because she thought the service was a little slow. We didn't think it was too bad, but she insisted so we got it. It was the best cake we ever had. This multi-layered beauty was moist and chocolatey. To this day, I haven't found a cake that compares. I have tried numerous times. If you are ever in Amarillo you have to do two things. Go to the Cadillac Ranch and get out and touch a piece of America, then go to the Big Texan! If you want to try the steak in the privacy of your own home, buy it on-line. The link is on the page.