Road Trip, Jun-21-2007

[ralphmelton]

We were recognized at the Goody Goody Diner by the waitress who had served us the week before. At her recommendation, I ordered the Hobo Breakfast Bowl, a high-calorie combination of sausage, eggs, hash browns, cream gravy, and cheddar cheese. Very tasty. Lori ordered the Pecan Citrus Waffle, which was also yummy.

I noticed that the Dirty Grits that the owner had offered me last week were not actually on the menu. This makes me feel even more that we got special treatment. The owner wasn't in today, though.

Honestly, although this visit was quite good, if our first visit had been like this, we would have tried somewhere else instead on the return trip.

~//~

We had been planning to visit the St. Louis Arch, but we figured it would be full of Baptists. Instead we went out to Faust Park to try a carousel that Lori had read about. ("Carousels and Barbecue" might be a good title for a book about our travels.) Lori is more of a carousel aficionado than I am, but it seemed like not a very exciting carousel to me--it certainly lacked the ornate carving of the Kit Carson County Carousel.

Afterwards, Lori was eager to see the Butterfly Forest nearby. I balked a bit at the price (and at a memory of Phipps Conservatory's Butterfly Forest being disappointing), but I let myself be cajoled.

It really was very impressive. It's an artificial environment supersaturated with butterflies, so my gripes with the Phipps butterfly garden didn't apply. There were big brightly-colored butterflies everywhere, even landing on Lori's hat repeatedly. We got some excellent pictures, and tried and failed to take many more.

Unfortunately, it was kept hot and humid for the sake of the butterflies, and Lori and I got dehydrated and sweaty quickly.

The other unfortunate thing: the informational part of the Butterfly Forest displayed an enthusiasm for arthropods of all types that Lori reserves only for butterflies. (In fact, she commented in the forest, "Wow, butterflies really are just bugs with pretty wings.") She was creeped out by the arachnid display, and wisely avoided looking at the centipede. (It was about the size of two pencils side by side.)

~//~

Dinner at Lynn's again in Louisville, Kentucky. Lori had the meatloaf with baked macaroni and cheese and green beans (stewed with lots of smoky bacon)--the mac and cheese did not wow me the way I was wowed by it on our first visit, but I quite liked the green beans. I had the fried catfish with the braised rosemary cabbage and the banana pudding. The fried catfish was some of the best I've had, with a crisp crust and a light, rich flavor. The cabbage was nice, but the seasoning was a bit too strong for me. The banana pudding was nicely sumptuous.
For dessert (banana pudding qualifies as a vegetable on Lynn's menu), we split a slice of Derby Pie (a local specialty like a pecan pie, with walnuts instead of pecans and added chocolate chips). This was wonderfully tasty, very rich, with an excellent crust.

Comments

[drakemonger.livejournal.com]

There's a butterfly house at the Pacific Science Center here. It is very impressive, but I like butterflies less now than before I went in - because there were enough of them that I finally got to see, up close, that they are in fact just creepy looking little bugs with amazing wings.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Yes, and they fly right at you at times...I wouldn't never go again, but I definitely had a few minutes of acclimation and telling myself that nothing bad would happen.

Of course, I was also creeped out by having just caught sight of a four feet high tarantula. It was a picture that was part of the display, and very hard to avoid seeing.

[5eh.livejournal.com]

the Hobo Breakfast Bowl sounds like something that was made at the 24 hour diner that served as the hangout place for us after partying called a Mister Ed:

hashbrowns
eggs
green chili
sausage gravy
cheddar cheese

...such excellent chow.

[5eh.livejournal.com]

forgot to say biscuits in there