Foodies On The Prowl
My wife, Donna, and I are both certifiable “foodies”. We just got back from a week’s vacation with only one rule: Only eat food they don’t have at home. We were celebrating our 39th anniversary, visiting friends and family, and exploring the culinary delights of our exotic travel destinations. We packed for everything from a formal dinner to hanging out in shorts and T-shirts. Being true foodies, we also packed enough emergency snacks to void the warranty on my belt. (The snacks all came home with us since the road food was soooo much better.)
Our first stop was in Oklahoma City. I had always thought of OKC as a supersized truck stop with strip malls on the side. I was thoroughly wrong. It’s cleaner than Kansas City with murals and art everywhere - even on bridge underpasses. By complete chance, we found a place called “The Pie Addict”. We hoped that the pies would be astonishing. They were. Across the street, we spotted a small Italian cafe named “Osteria” and made dinner reservations. Best. Italian. Ever.
In a tiny place with such astonishing food, the people around you are just naturally friendlier and more open. Donna met a young woman there having her dinner alone and struck up a conversation. She had just published her second book, which led to a long discussion and comparison of notes. After her divorce, she changed her life to reinvent herself by helping homeless people. Hearing her story was a reminder that everyone faces pain. Everyone goes through the rough parts.
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places." - Ernest Hemingway
In a downtown area called Bricktown, we came across the Myriad Botanical Gardens. They turned out to be beautiful, serene, and astonishing. The artistry and effort in each of those places made me so happy I was still humming when we reached Dallas, even with construction traffic in full swing.
Traffic in Dallas is horrible. Everything else is pretty magnificent.
At a local Tex-Mex joint called “Desparados” we met with my sisters and sampled the food while telling stories to each other and trying some margaritas with dinner. There wasn’t much time or energy left in us by the end of that day, so we decided to get together again before we left Dallas.
We spent a day with a friend Donna has known since nursing school - 60 years ago. At our ages, we expect the usual organ recital when we get together with other boomers. There was a little of that, along the lines of simply marking the passages we’ve gone through. “Yes, I had both knees replaced.” “Don’t forget to do the physical therapy in advance.” We talked for over six hours, and the homemade sandwiches were the perfect accompaniment. Nothing fancy, just good food and a good friend.
I noticed we were using the rough patches as mere time markers to help keep straight what happened when. “After the divorce, I remodeled this part of the house.” No particular emphasis on the divorce, just a time marker that’s more memorable than a date on a calendar. I know some extremely tough people - not tough in a hard-shelled way. But tough enough to keep moving forward, no matter what comes up.
A quick side trip to Waco took a couple of things from Donna’s bucket list as we visited the Silos (made famous by Chip and Joanna Gaines in their tv show “Fixer Upper”) and stopped at a Buckie’s megastore. I admit it, we did dip into snacks that day (to keep up our energy).
Our last meal in Dallas was at a quirky place called “The Velvet Taco”. Astounding how much difference quality ingredients, freshly prepared by people who care can make.
During our dinner with the family before leaving Dallas, I realized that each of us has been through hell in more than one form. For being relatively fragile creatures, we somehow seem to make it through the everyday grind, major hurdles, deaths of family and friends, sickness, injury, failures, and frustrations.
The long drive to Kansas City from Dallas gave me time to think about it more and realize that if we live long enough, every single person will go through major life upheavals. No one gets a free ride. So, it makes sense to me to enjoy the time we have together.
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" - Mary Anne Radmacher
I wouldn’t have guessed it, but the best meal of the trip turned out to be at an Outback Steakhouse. The steaks were done right, and the waitress was exceptional. The occasion was our anniversary, and the company was very special. We’ve been through more together than I want to recall, and still have the immense good sense to have each other as partners.
That’s My Perspective.