Road Trip #12 - The Long Drive Home

Thursday, June 25th

Today started our long drive home. We broke it up into two days and stopped for the night in Kansas City, Missouri. We stayed with Tim's friend from high school and his family. We had a great time catching up as it had been years since we last saw each other!

For dinner we had Kansas City BBQ take out. We ate Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, formerly Oklahoma Joe's Bar-B-Que. Unfortunately we did not take photos of dinner.

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que got its start in the competition BBQ circuit. Their team and smoker took home so many awards, they had fans begging them to cater and open a restaurant. Fate took over when a space opened in the gas station restaurant near their home. They opened their first restaurant in 1995. Now they have multiple locations and are critically acclaimed.

Personally I've wanted to try this BBQ since Tim was here on a business trip in 2011 and sang their praises over the years. The beef brisket and pork ribs we ordered did not disappoint! The meat was smoked to perfection. Tangy sauces complimented the meats to make an extraordinary combination. Everything was so delicious, Eight even ate 9 ribs! I was happy to finally indulge in the best BBQ I've ever eaten. I highly recommend Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que if you're ever in the area. Seriously, a gas station restaurant can be worth a 2 hour wait (but I'm happy we had another place to eat and could chose the take out option).

Friday, June 26th

We woke up the next morning and I discovered I was one of the few who didn't wake up for the huge storm that came through that night. The straight-line wind downed a tree in the backyard, took out street lights and made a huge mess. I must have been tired. After a delicious breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy, we drove from Kansas City, MO back to Georgetown, TX. For the first time, we did not have to drive through a torrential downpour in Oklahoma City. That storm waited until we were south of Dallas and in the dark. The girls were extremely happy to see our cat at home. I was extremely happy to sleep in my own bed!

Nice to be welcomed home again!

Our vacation by the numbers: we drove a total of 4,035 miles, taking 12 days, through 10 different states in the minivan. Tim added an extra state with his airport layover. The girls earned 2 National Park Junior Ranger Badges. We attended 1 family reunion and 1 graduation. We took home so many memories and enjoyed lots of great food!

Now to return to our normal lives and blog posts on our favorite restaurants!

Road Trip #11 - La Crosse, WI

Wednesday, June 24th

Today we crossed the border into Wisconsin to surprise my cousin Chad. We attended his graduation from his Fellowship in Oncology and Hematology from Gunderson Health System, formerly Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center. We celebrated with dinner at the same place my family celebrated his Residency in Internal Medicine three years ago.

The Dr. Chad Fan Club after graduation

The Pizza Doctors is located in downtown La Crosse and is uniquely themed to cater to the medical community. As soon as we walked into Admitting, we paid for our Mid-Day Check-Up Lunch Buffet since we arrived before 4 pm. After 4 pm it becomes Exploratory Surgery for a slightly higher price. Children ages 4-11 pay $0.70 for each year old. You could buy your own pizza, hoagie, or Pre-Op (appetizers), but we stayed with just the buffet. One Local Anesthetic (soda) is included with the buffet. Refills are extra, as is General Anesthetic (beer).

Admitting where we paid for our lunch buffets and got sodas. (Note: Soda does not come in IV form!)

We started with salads to get something green in our bodies before gorging on pizza. There were enough veggies to choose from that even Six ate something green.

A view of the Emergency Rooms (bathrooms), Operating Room (kitchen), Admitting (cashier), Salad and Pizza Bars

Retractors, Scalpels and Tongue Depressors

Suction

As we finished our salads, but before we could get up to check out the pizza on the line in the warmers, waiters and waitresses came around offering up the freshest pizza from the ovens. Honestly, with the roving pizza wait staff, I never left my chair to get food during the rest of our stay. The wait staff even came around asking what pizza we would like to try next and had the Operating Room whip up the next creations.

Our favorites included: The Doctor Limpet (crab flakes, alfredo sauce and mozzarella cheese), The Doctor Foghorn-Leghorn (tangy barbecue sauce, chicken, onion and cheddar cheese), The Doc Holiday (turkey, stuffing, gravy and cheddar cheese), The Doctor Ziffel (bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and mozzarella cheese), The Freudian Slip (bratwurst, sauerkraut and cheddar cheese), The Doctor Wimpy (beef, bacon, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and cheddar cheese), The Doogie Howser (cheese sauce, elbow macaroni, more cheese), and even the kids liked The Young Doctor Kildare (broccoli and cheddar cheese). They made a chili cheese dog pizza that is not listed on their combos and it was delicious! There were 15 other pizzas on the menu that were also good. We realized a little late in the game that we could get one or two slices and share bites among the table. Everyone wanted to try all the offerings, but after a few slices, our bellies started to fill up.

Pizzas on the buffet line

Then came the dessert pizzas! The pizza crust was the same, or chocolate flavored, of course without regular pizza sauce. I did wish the crust was a bit more sweet or moist. The toppings were rich and we happily shared small slices around the table. Our favorites included: The Doctor Macintosh/Keen (apple/peach cobbler), The Doctor Double Stuff (marshmallow creme, oreos and mini marshmallows), and The Brownie (chocolate pizza crust, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and powdered sugar).

The girls' favorite dessert pizza had a chocolate crust, chocolate pudding, crushed oreos and gummy worms.

The girls got tired of the adults taking time eating all the varieties of pizza and catching up. So they played in the kid's room. I didn't go to the door, since the glass walls made it easy to see the kids playing inside. If it wasn't called the Waiting Room, may I put that in your suggestion box? Very clever idea to have a play room!

We could see the girls playing in what I'll call the Waiting Room from our table.

The dinner ended too soon, as we had to get back to Minnesota that night. We are very proud of you Dr. Chad! Thanks for introducing us to a fun pizza buffet!

Road Trip #9 - Jamestown, ND and Moorhead, MN

Monday, June 22nd

We left the family reunion and started driving to Minnesota. First stop was in Jamestown, ND to see White Cloud, an albino bison and the statue of the World's Largest Buffalo.

White Cloud with the World's Largest Buffalo statue.

We continued on to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where I went to school. We stopped to take pictures at my favorite places and raided the bookstore!

My girls with the college mission statement.

The girls with the Chocolate Man - former President Joseph Knudson. Sorry Eight, he's not really made out of chocolate.

After the quick tour of my college, we went to Dairy Queen on 8th and Main. I had many great memories of walking through a blizzard to get a Blizzard, and getting a free sundae every April 15th. This Dairy Queen is unique in that it is the home of the Dilly Bar. It still has it's 1949 contract that allows the restaurant to go "off menu" to create what the customer wants, instead of being confined by franchise standards.

Walk up ordering at the Dairy Queen on 8th and Main.

We went for different types of dogs and different Dilly Bars.

While fast food isn't normally known for being exceptional (with few exceptions), the Moorehead DQ was a pleasant experience.  The building itself harkened back to old-fashioned burger joints with a simple menu of all American fare - hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, and of course ice cream! The Dilly Bar was the main attraction that brought us to this particular Dairy Queen, and it didn't disappoint.  There were three flavors that we went for, with Eight and Tim getting traditional chocolate, Kyla getting Toffee (Heath Bar), and Six getting mint.  The Dilly Bars were traditional DQ soft serve on a stick, and satisfied our sweet teeth after a full day of driving.

We were in the need of more sustenance, so hotdogs were also ordered.  While our youngest always goes for a traditional hotdog without toppings, Eight and Tim went for chili dogs, with Kyla getting a bratwurst with the works.  I don't know if we were that hungry after a long day of driving, or if the hotdogs were that good, but I will have to say the chili dogs were some of the best I'd had in a while.  I know mine didn't last very long, and Eight mostly got her chili dog into her belly instead of all over her face.  The seating for the Moorhead Dairy Queen is all outside with picnic tables and umbrellas, which made for a pleasant outdoor dining experience.  I highly recommend heading to Moorehead in the summer months though, because winter can be quite brutal and definitely not ice cream weather.

With our bellies full and energy back up, we got back on the road for the second half of the day's drive to Faribault, MN to stay with Kyla's parents.  After a full day of driving we were all very tired and ready for bed.  The nice thing about road trips though is that there is always an unexpected surprise waiting for you.  This time, our surprise came with Kyla checking facebook, and seeing her aunt post from Montana that a massive northern lights show was expected to be seen as far south as Kansas that night.  I had never seen the northern lights before, and neither had the girls, so after walking outside and seeing a faint glow to the north, we raced back in and rousted the girls from bed to witness this phenomenon.

With the light pollution and tall trees in Kyla's parent's neighborhood we relocated to the small airport outside of town and got a spectacular light show.  I found myself just as awestruck as both our girls watching purple lights dance across the sky, and barely noticed the Minnesota State Bird (mosquito) feasting all over my legs.  Next time I'll remember the bug repellant.  We watched the northern lights until well after midnight, when we finally decided to head back to the house and get the rest we so desperately needed.