Tag Archives: Braum’s

The Road to Diamond, Day 159: Another Freeway Day

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving, Travel

May 6, 2025, El Paso, IL- Everyone, it seems, knows Doc. The grill cook at Penny’s Diner, in Wellington, KS, is congenial, relaxed and goes about his craft in a methodical manner-as if he’s been slinging hash browns, scrambling eggs and frying bacon since he was five. Maybe he has. My order, a short stack with bacon, took little doing, and set me just fine for five hours or so.

I left Wellington, a little after 9, and while I normally take I-44 to St. Louis and then up I-55 to Chicago, with my cousin in Avila, MO hard at work and thus better left alone, I chose the Kansas Turnpike to I-70, at Kansas City and then crossed Missouri in its mid-section. One meal stop at Emporia, KS (Braum’s is one of my guilt-free pleasures) and a couple of gas-ups along the way sufficed.

Tonight’s stage-setting for a visit to the Baha’i House of Worship, Wilmette involved NOT going over to Chicago and getting into the scrum on the city’s mess of freeways. Instead, I am on the far southwest corner of Chicagoland, near where it meets the Peoria metropolitan area.. El Paso was actually founded in the mid-19th Century, by a couple of railroad men. One of them, George Gibson, gave the place a Spanish touch because of the rail switching station here. El Paso’s claim to ill-fame came in 2022, when 100 cars managed to pile up on I-39.

I will be taking that freeway tomorrow, up to State Route 72, then to Hwy 68 and down I-94, a bit of exploration of west Chicagoland, but why not? For now, I am relaxed and just glad to not still be on the road, at 9:30 pm. Econolodge is a fine place for the evening.

The 2018 Road, Day 39:Plowing On, Through Remorse

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Posted by on in distraction issues, Historical, Social, Travel

July 3, 2018, Moriarty, NM-

I woke up in Sallisaw, just after 6 AM, which is my usual wake-up, when on the road.  Ed’s Cafe was across the road from Sallisaw Inn, so I headed over for breakfast.  The waitress looked to be a sassy sort, the kind that can handle truck drivers very well.  She plopped a menu down in front of me and took my coffee order, then walked over to a gray-haired gentleman and plopped her cleaning rag in front of him.  I liked her right away.  Turns out, he was indeed a regular, coming by here every two weeks.

I ordered the special, and Sassy Stacey got me to change it to the same plate from the regular menu, telling me quietly that “the boss jacks up the price for the special, when all it is, is more hashbrowns.” So I got a good deal on a very decent breakfast.

I headed straight across Oklahoma, bypassing OKC, and stopping at a Braum’s, in Weatherford, for lunch.  I like Braum’s for their milkshakes and malts, getting one of the latter, to go with my chicken tenders.  Weatherford is a nice little town, so getting in out of the heat there, and giving the Elantra an hour’s rest, made perfect sense.

Next was the Texas Panhandle, a far more magnificent place than many people might see.  My remorse came from not giving old Texas Tidbits enough of a heads-up, as I approached Amarillo.  So, it happened that my only Texas stops were gassing up in McLean and a short meditative visit to the rest stop off I-40, at Alanreed.

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Despite the ominous clouds, I did not get so much as a drop on my windshield today.

After leaving Texas behind, I made two stops in eastern New Mexico, dinner at K-Bob’s, in Tucumcari, taking advantage of the chain’s delicious catfish plate and generous salad bar, then gassing up at a Mom and Pop store in Milagro- just because the young couple are making a heartfelt effort to revive the windswept little settlement.

Finally, the day ended at one of Moriarty’s oldest inns: Sunset Motel.  The widowed daughter-in-law of the motel’s founders runs this place with a velvet fist.  Her business acumen and graciousness do not clash- which I find admirable and reassuring.  She keeps her late husband’s and in-laws’ legacy running very smoothly.

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