Back on the road early today, riding I-94 eastbound. Haven't driven this route before, I'm usually further south on 80, or 70, but since I went through North Dakota, this was the closest and most efficient way home.
As you might imagine, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are pretty much flat and the road runs mostly straight, which makes for an easy, fuel efficient ride. 'Course, you do get to see a lot of scenery, loads of cattle farms, miles and miles of corn (remember Iowa? Corn...more corn....corn....even more corn....corn!), and many acres of deep green grass. Really a pretty ride, highlighted by a sunrise in N. Dakota that would be right at home out at Montauk point!
With the easy ride, good weather, and the car that is comfy and easy to drive, I did about 700 miles today before calling it a night. I had planned to stop in Madison WI, but went a little further on to Janesville. Looks to be a fairly typical Interstate Stop/Suburban area. You get off and you're immediately on a long stretch of retail, food, and professional buildings. Most of the usual suspects here, along with one or two that you don't always see, like Fuddrucker's, Famous Dave's, and not one, but two buffets - Hometown and Old Country. Checked in to a nice clean Microtel Inn, and out to dinner I went. Decided to take a chance and get some Mexican, so I took the short ride over to Cozumel.
Pretty typical menu, lots of 'combination plates', the usual burritos, enchiladas, tacos, etc. While I was contemplating the choices, the salsa and chips arrived.
We're off to a good start, the chips are fresh, crispy and warm; they need salt, but when dipped in the salsa, they're fine. The salsa is also very fresh tasting, with a hint of lime juice, good tomato flavor, and a nice kick; several pieces of chopped jalapeno add to the heat level. Quite good. Washed the chips down with a cold Negra Modelo on draught, served ice cold in a frosted mug, and topped with a lime wedge.
For my dinner, I chose the Deluxe Chimichanga. I haven't had a good Chimi for a while, I think the last one I had was the disappointing one at South Of The Border last winter. A few minutes wait, and here it came.
As they sometimes say, the photo doesn't do it justice. This is one HUGE chimichanga, loaded with chicken, and sauteed onions, peppers, and tomatoes. It was topped with a dollop of guacamole, a load of pico de gallo, a huge amount of sour cream, a good pile of lettuce, refried beans, and a serving of Mexican rice.
The rice was good, savory and moist, not dry and crumbly as it is at some places, while the refried beans were nothing special. The pico was fresh, had a mild Cilantro flavor (good, as I'm not a fan of Cilantro), while the guac was pretty much just a tasteless green paste; it could have used some jalapeno, salt and pepper.
As for the Chimi itself, it had been fried to a nice crispness, but all the 'stuff' they loaded on the plate quickly turned it from a crispy, tasty wrapper into a soggy, mushy mess. The filling was okay, but, like most of these places, they don't understand that you have to season your ingredients while you're cooking them to get the flavor to come out. The peppers, tomatoes, and onions, while cooked nicely, needed some help. As did the chunks of chicken, which were nicely cooked, but bland. Overall, a very impressive looking dish that didn't quite live up to expectations.
Best part of the meal was the chips and salsa, and the Negra Modela. For a total of $16 and change, a reasonably good meal at a decent price. Decent Mexican in Wisconsin - who'da thunk!
Heading East after a great Instructor School in Denver, a good days drive landed me in Bismarck, North Dakota. That's state number 49 for me, with only Alaska remaining as the last of the fabulous 50!
Nice ride today, sailing up I-25 coming out of Denver, crossing into Wyoming, on to US 85 through South Dakota, and the beautiful Black Hills - what a tremendous drive through the National Forest - and finally into North Dakota and I-94 eastbound to head for home.
Bismarck seems like a nice enough city, not what you'd call big by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems to have a pretty nice downtown area, some good recreation spaces, and lots of restaurants.
Unfortunately, as hard as I searched, the "Raccoon National Cemetery" was nowhere to be found; sort of like the time I went to Kansas City and found that '12th street & Vine" don't intersect!
Checked into the "Kelly Inn", a nice, large, highly rated local motel, which has a restaurant and a bar on the premises. Usually a nice feature, not having to run around to eat, but tonight I was captured by a small restaurant across the street from the motel;
Not sure if you can see it, but they've got a big green and white banner that says "Home of The World's Best Hamburger". Hmmmmm. Now how could I possibly pass that up? You all would never forgive me! So, across the street, and in I went. I get the name now, as the entire interior is wood; wood paneling, wood trim, wood ceilings, wood gable roofs over the booths; wood.
"Seat yourself" the sign said, so I found a nice clean booth and sat down. Waitress brought over a glass of water, and indicated the menu posted on the wall, along with a telephone. Yeah, a telephone. Just the receiver, no dial or push buttons. Ahhhh, I get it, you pick up the phone and give your order to whomever answers; cool!
So I peruse the thing, and decide on just a cheeseburger and fries. Pick up the receiver, I can hear a 'beeping' back in the kitchen. A young girl answers and asks what I'd like, then would I like onions and pickles on the burger. Hang up the phone and wait. Couple of minutes later, out comes my burger and fries, each on a small dessert size plate. First, the fries;
Surprise, they're fresh, not frozen! Nice and crispy on the outside, fluffy and hot on the inside. Don't think they're twice cooked, but they must fry them at a pretty high temperature, as the exterior was on the brownish side, and they were not at all soft or soggy. Just needed a little salt, and with ketchup, they were really good. Next, the burger;
First thing I notice is the bun. The bottom is positively fat, very thick; the top, also thick, and with a nice deep brown color. Along with the nice bun, a small surprise, the American cheese, besides being yellow, is real deli style cheese, not the usual slimy processed cheese food. That alone makes the burger better than average. The toppings, onion and pickles, aren't on top at all - they're on the bottom!
Generous amount of chopped white onion, and three good dill chips. And you can see the patty has been seared nicely on the griddle, which is usually a good sign. And in we go!
Unlike most places that serve these thin burgers, they didn't overcook it until it was grey and tasteless, it still had a touch of pink inside. Well cooked, nicely topped, good cheese, excellent roll - not a bad burger at all. "World's Best"? Nah, not by a long shot. But compared to many of the other burgers you find out there, one of the better ones. Oh, and while not the World's Best, they were apparently voted Best Burger in Bismarck in the local newspaper multiple times.
Back to the motel, plan my route for tomorrow, looking for a stop in Madison WI, which, if I recall from past trips through, has some pretty interesting food choices. Check back Wednesday night to see what transpires!
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Well gang, here we go again! Headed out to Denver for a Certified Pool Operator Instructor School, which is being held this weekend. And, of course, why fly when you can drive? Loaded the Blue Cuda up and got on the road at 5 am on Wednesday, and managed to get off Long Island and over the bridges before traffic got too nasty, which resulted in a good days drive of about 650 miles. Landed just about 8 miles from South Bend IN, nice clean spot right off the Interstate. Settled in, took a little power nap (didn't want to miss the Yankee game!), and then it was time to get dinner and gas up the car. Much to my delight, there was a "Culver's" just a mile or so from the hotel. I've stopped in these places before, and reviewed them, so you may want to skip down to the Thursday report.
Culver's is a family owned chain, mainly in the mid-west that features fresh beef hamburgers served on rolls slathered with butter and toasted (thus, butterburger), pork tenderloin sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, salads, and killer custard. I chose a "Butterburger Deluxe", which had a double patty burger, a side, and a drink:
Ahh, I hear you now, what is that odd looking side item? Certainly not fries? Nope, those are 'curds', Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds that have been battered and deep fried.
The curds are served hot, crispy on the outside, and melty-stretchy on the inside. A little bit of chew, sort of like a stick of Mozzarella string cheese, and OH, so tasty! Good solid mild cheddar flavor, tasty, crispy coating, a nice combination. They didn't need ketchup, but they were crying for salt, which really improved the taste of the coating. And they're really into curds at this place; they're running a contest to name the biggest 'curd nerd'! You have to send them a pic of you pulling a curd apart, showing the stretchy goodness. Grand prize? Well, among other items, free curds for a year!
On to the burger, which in the past has always been very good. And this one didn't disappoint. Culver's cooks to order, you never get an item that's been sitting under a heat lamp for hours on end, so the food is very fresh and hot. And as I always say, the food actually looks like the photos on the menu, it's never served all squashed down. The folks who work here take pride in what they do, and it shows.
I took this photo of the bottom of the burger for a change to show you how good the beef patty is. Perfectly seared with a barely crispy outside, it's a very tasty burger - one of the better fast food burgers you can get. I think because Culver's is a family operation, they have very high standards, much like Chick-Fil-A. The restaurants are always extremely clean, the help friendly, and it's enjoyable going in there for a meal. They've recently expanded a little further into the South and Southeast, but no signs (yet) of them getting into the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast. Shame.
And then it was Thursday. Left South Bend at 6 am, for what was the long day of the trip. Aiming for a stop at North Platte NE for the night, I had about 850 miles ahead of me. Fortunately, the speed limit in most of Indiana and Illinois was 70, and entering Nebraska, it went up to 75! At those speeds, the Blue Cuda just eats up the miles, averaging a very nice 26-27 mpg on the cruise control, with the engine barely working at 1,800 rpm!
Crossed into the Central time zone, and landed at the hotel at 5 pm local time. On the way, I'd seen a lot of signs for "Runza's" Restaurants, and of course, that made me curious. How nice to find one just a couple of blocks from the hotel! Before I went, I checked out their website, and found that they serve a slightly different version of a 'Mid-west loose meat sandwich', which you find in Ilinois, Indiana, Michigan, and a few other locations. If you're curious, do a search for "Maid Rite", which seems to be the most popular of the loose meat joints. Basically, it's ground beef that's simmered with chopped onions and spices, served on a hamburger roll with yellow mustard. Runza's, puts a bit of a twist on this dish, by adding chopped cabbage to the meat, and serving it on a store baked club type roll.
Ooooh, the delicious mystery meal all wrapped in waxed paper! I chose the "Runza Cheeseburger", which is their simmered meat topped with cheese, pickles, ketchup and yellow mustard.
Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? Well, the photo doesn't tell the story; this thing was packed with meat, and was quite heavy for it's size. The roll had a nice crust to it, was dense without being heavy, and had a good flavor. Well worth trying this place just for the roll! As for the fillling....
Kinda hard to tell from the photo, but there was a LOT of meat on that thing! Plenty of toppings, too, they didn't skimp on anything here! As for the taste...not bad. The onions and cabbage weren't overcooked, and added a nice little crunch to the whole thing. The meat, tender, juicy, nicely seasoned with what seemed like a good amount of white pepper, salt, and maybe a touch of paprika. With the pickles and cheese, a pretty rich, heavy meal. While I liked it, I didn't finish it - just too much for one sitting!
As my side, I got 'frings', a combination of onion rings and fries. The fries, as in a lot of these mid-west places, were crinkle cut. Frozen, for sure, but nicely cooked, and with a little salt and ketchup, pretty good. The onion rings were pretty good, nice full onion rings, not those chopped things, with a crunchy corn meal coating. Good choice.
Overall, an interesting place. They also serve 'regular' hamburgers, and were voted 'best hamburger' here in North Platte over this past summer; not sure who voted, but what the hell. If I do stop again, I'll probably try a more traditional burger.
That's it for the first two days, tomorrow it's a 'short day' of about 240 miles to Denver, where I'll be until Monday or Tuesday of next week. I'll do my best to get out and about while I'm there and keep you up to date.
Oh, yeah, one more thing - GO YANKS!
