Coke before departing on a 19 hour trip from Dallas to Phoenix. However, as miles of asphalt pass like the previous two months of my life, I find myself getting farther from Anywhere, USA and approaching towns that draw one simple response, “Could you imagine living out here?”Fortunately (maybe not for the others stuck in our 6-wheel limousine) I had made a decision to veer away from any eatery known by Joe Anybody as close as two cities away. Fortunately, with the help of local residents who have been far from shy to lend a recommendation – in turn for an explanation for what a purple school bus was doing in their town – I have found some of the country’s greatest restaurants, parlors, cafeterias and believe it or not, portable restaurants (think oversized hot dog stands).
“This is America” – Fellow ‘roadtripper’
From sporadic dinners in the Spanish ghetto near El Paso, compliments of a friendly Mexican woman serving up homemade tortillas filled with beef brisket, to charbroiled oysters and gumbo topped with an oversized mug of Abita, to a triple meat Po’Boy with Texas’ best fixins, this trip has made me wonder what else is out there that can only be discovered when you allow yourself to get lost in the desert lands and rolling hills of this great country.
With one window down, country music flowing steady and a stomach full of curiosity (and today’s lunch), America’s ‘heartland’ allows us to pass through, gaze in amazement, meet some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met and move on to see what lies ahead on the road back home.
