Roadtrips, Roadfood, and ‘Rona

Evans and I are in Crested Butte, Colorado. We left Nashville on Monday and drove west on I-40 to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Then Tuesday we drove to Dalhart, Texas. Wednesday, we hit Colorado and made a side trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park before arriving early evening. We both like road trips, our elderly Boston Terrier is a seasoned traveler, and we took a southern route that was beautiful the whole way.

If we are very lucky, we stumble on great food while traveling. While Sonic, Wendy’s, and Hardees (for breakfast) are mainstays because even small towns usually have those, the real treat is to eat local. On Tuesday morning, we headed west hoping to find a Hardees as we drove. By ten o’clock, we were ready to eat anything so we stopped in Henryetta, Oklahoma. We chose The Classic Diner because of the number of trucks parked outside. OH! MY! GOSH! Plan a trip to Henryetta, Oklahoma for breakfast at the Classic Diner. Evans doesn’t eat eggs, so he had a huge chicken fried steak for breakfast. I had eggs and bacon that could put Benton’s to shame. I didn’t even think about the fact that NO ONE was wearing a mask until we were back in the truck, headed west again.

That evening we stopped in Dalhart, Texas. I checked “restaurants near me” on Google and found several small, local Mexican places. Here’s the thing, in a tiny town in North Texas at 8 pm during a pandemic, most restaurants are already closed. The only game in town was called the XIT Woodfire Grill. By the time we got there, I was hungry, frustrated, and put out that there were no Mexican restaurants open. I was so wrong. What you want in North Texas is brisket and that is what we had. It was surely the best brisket I have ever eaten. Sometimes what you get is so much better than what you thought you wanted. Our darling waiter, Luis, who like everyone else in Dalhart, Texas was not wearing a mask and seemed oblivious to the worldwide pandemic, encouraged us to go to The Grill for breakfast. So, we did. I ordered the 2x2x2, which I thought would be two eggs, two pieces of bacon, and two small pancakes. Hahahahah. Everything is bigger in Texas. Let’s just say Evans got to share my excellent pancakes. Also, if we come down with Covid-19 you can trace it straight back to the good people of Dalhart Texas.

We are very careful to wear out masks, use our hand sanitizer and keep our distance. I was not worried about this trip. It wasn’t until we hit Dalhart that I became concerned about being exposed. Then I thought back on our stops in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma and realized there was a pattern. There were not a lot of masks anywhere. Wednesday morning, after leaving Dalhart, we crossed into New Mexico and stopped to get gas (which was 50 cents higher than in Texas). In New Mexico, everyone we saw was wearing a mask. We went from zero to 100% in thirty miles.

Our next stop of the trip was in Fort Garland, Colorado. Now, you must understand that Colorado was hard hit early by the pandemic. The skiers took the virus to the tiny mountain towns and things got very bad very fast. So, Colorado does not play when it comes to this virus. In Fort Garland, the small restaurant where we had lunch had their menu posted on a window. You were instructed to read the menu and decide exactly what you wanted before coming inside, fully masked, and ordering. You could touch nothing and had to keep your mask on until you were seated at your table. Lunch was excellent. We sat outside and felt very safe.

That evening, driving into Crested Butte, we immediately saw the signage. Crested Butte is one of the towns that spiked in the early spring. Skiers brought the sickness and the ski company was slow too close. Too many people got sick for the medical facilities up here to handle. The county shut down completely, banned rentals, and required all second-home owners to leave. This town runs on tourists. The entire economy is tourism based. They had to find a way to open back up to visitors and the way they are doing it is to require masks and make arrangements for additional social distancing. Elk Avenue, the Main Street in town, is now one way with the additional area roped off to be outside seating for all the restaurants. It is very festive and feels like a fun, summer place to be. Face gators are popular out here with the fishing guides as sun protection. So, that has become a favorite form of face masks. We are excited that all our favorite restaurants are going to be open and look forward to dining outside more often. Happily, the weather is fabulous, so that is a plus.

We are laying low for a few days to be careful. We had hoped to see our Colorado friends this week, but for everyone’s sake, we are staying close to home. We have plenty to do to settle in and it takes a few days for my body to adjust. I will be glad when I know for sure that any shortness of breath is caused by the lack of oxygen in the air and not a friendly waiter in Texas.