Groundhog Day

You know, there are worse places to live than Kansas. We all tend to make fun of "flyover country", but I think I would be okay if I had to live in Kansas, especially Topeka, which seems to be big enough to have lots of stuff, but small enough to be friendly. After breakfast at the hotel (and what a gorgeous room -- I swear I could have lived there for the rest of my life), which wasn 't as grand and glorious as it had been three years ago (no waffles, no eggs), but still better than yesterday's, we left and stopped for our last Steakalicious Shake (Topeka -- the final frontier for Steak'n Shake) (vanilla and banana this time) and hit the road. And let me tell you, this is one long road. It seems like we've been on it forever, that we just keep reliving the same day. We pull over to get gas or use a restroom and get back on the road and pass the same trucks we passed before. We finally made it to Colorado, and the sign says "Welcome to Colorful Colorado!" and you find yourself looking at the exact same landscape you just passed. For some reason I was thinking that once we hit the border, the Rockies were suddenly going to pop up in front of me. I have no idea why I thought that, but I was obviously desperate for a change. But no, not even an extremely large ketchup bottle is to be seen around here. Right now we're 60 miles into Colorado and it still feels like we're in Kansas. But as Dorothy would say (in one of the worst movies ever), "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!"

Random piece of American trivia: Interstate 70 is the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway. I discovered this at the Colorado Welcome Center. I can't imagine why this particular stretch of road, which is about as unlike Hawaii as you can get, bears this title, but okay!

Our plan was to stop in Abilene so we could hit the Brookville Hotel for some fried chicken to take on the road with us. Now, this stuff is legendary. When I came through a few years ago, I actually e-mailed Steve Doocy, who is one of the co-hosts of Fox and Friends on the Fox News Channel, to ask him where to eat in Kansas, since he had often said he was from Abilene. I didn't expect to get an answer, but I did, and he told me about the fried chicken at the Brookville Hotel. he also told me about the Mexican restaurant in the Best Western in Abileene, which was run by his dad. So when we went through a few years ago, dork that I am, we went and met his dad at the Best Western (I did mention that I loved brushes with fame in my profile). We didn't eat at the restaurant, because it was only 10:30 in the morning, and I can't eat Mexican food that early. But we had fun! It was also too early to get chicken at the Brookville, so I had to forego it. Since then I've heard of this place from a few other roadfood sources, so I was really anxious to try it. But when we got there -- it was closed!!! Oh, no, not again! So we went over to the Russell Stover candy outlet, which Kevin was in a fever pitch to get to, and they told us the Brookville was closed on Mondays. Darn!! In the meantime, the Russell Stover outlet was a lot of fun. Last time we went (on the same trip as when we met Steve Doocy's father). I wanted to check it out, and Kevin was of the mind that I didn't need any more chocolate, so he reluctanly agreed. Then we went in and he looked around and said "I think we're going to need a cart!" At that time, they were having a ginormous clearance sale, and we got entire cases of candy for $2 or $4. The only problem was, we had to keep it out of the sun until we got to Utah -- which didn't enter our our minds until we hit the road -- and that was in August. So he was anxious to go again this time. We picked up some belated Easter treats for Tara and her roommates, because I hadn't had the chance to send an Easter basket box (yes, she's 22 and I still do Easter baskets for her). The nice ladies at the Russell Stover outlet told us about a place in Salina, about 20 miles further on I-70 and go to Jim's Fried Chicken, since I had my heart set on the stuff.

So we went. And it wasn't that good. The chicken was good, nice and juicy, and fried just right, but there was no seasoning -- no personality! The mashed potatoes were instant potatoes with a really creamy, and I don't mean in a good way, gravy. Too much cream, not enough chicken taste. The coleslaw was okay. The roll was hard. After eating it I realized I would (hopefully, if Tara lets me!) be eating a Chuck-a-Rama in Utah tomorrow night, and that fried chicken is to die for, so I'll get what I want. Tonight we're staying with my old buddy Lynnel in Colorado Springs. We're bummed that her husband, Rick is out of town on business, but I told her since he wasn't around, she shouldn't cook for us, so we're going to another place in my roadfood hit list, called Conway's Red Top. I'll let you know how it is tomorrow.

If it isn't closed.

Note to followers: Hey, I need comments! I look forward them! And when they're not there, it's as disappointing as finding a closed fried chicken restaurant in the middle of Kansas!!