Category Archives: THE MIDWEST

September 6, 2016 · 5:10 pm

Peterson-Houston portion of the Root River Trail, Aroma Pie Shoppe in Whalan, Habberstad House, Old Victorian Hall Restaurant — Southeast Minnesota  

The eastern section of The Root River Trail was also well worth riding and less traveled. The trail asphalt is rougher, especially the five miles between Peterson and Rushford but Minnesota is on it…the section is slated for replacing this month. There also is a steep uphill and downhill between Miles 37 and 38, as forwarned, but it wasn’t too bad and we are used to more ups and downs on other trails.  For families with little kids, Houston has a neat nature playground and near Whalan is a low key miniature golf course. We did backtrack to Whalan to stop at Aroma Pie Shoppe, which come much recommended. At 4 pm there was little left so we tried two kinds of pies we have never had before, both very good: sourcream raisen and Vermont maple (as sweet as pecan pie, with coconut). Dinner was good at  Old Village Hall Restaurant where we ate on the patio on a perfect summer night. I was glad we stayed one night in town (at the lovely old Habberstad b&b, in the Orchid Room) especially so we could get a feel for the place once it has quieted down. IT was nice to walk back to the inn along quiet residential streets at night after dinner.

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September 4, 2016 · 1:06 pm

Root River Trail, Pedal Pusher Cafe in Lanesboro, MN  Burdy’s Cafe nearby and Decorah, IA (Topping Goliath)

Peterson, MN

WE finally made it to southeast Minnesota to ride our bikes along the much-touted Root River Trail and it was as lovely (and easy to ride) as advertised– at least the 15 mile stretch from Lanesboro east through the tiny town of Whalan (with its famous pie shop) and the slightly less tiny town of Peterson, where we had excellent pie at Burdy’s Cafe, an unassuming little place with cheerful teenage girls as our servers. The trail was largely flat but not dull. It follows the wide,often fast moving river for the most part, through woods and fields, past picture perfect old farmsteads, tidy towns and wooded stone bluffs.  We also lucked out with the weather, low 70s, sun but cloud cover.

Lanesboro’s main drag was packed with people, cars and bikes but not awful. It’s lined with wellkept old brick storefronts. It’s not as well heeled as, say, Stockholm, Wisconsin or ticky tacky as, say, places I won’t mention.It has a nice local art gallery, a popular ice cream shop and the Pedal Pusher’s cafe, which has a hearty Minnesota vibe (the Norwegian meatballs were already sold out when we arrived at 6 pm). We picnicked for lunch in the city park, overlooking a little pond where people were fishing and families pitched tents. We particularly appreciated the public bathrooms there, at the library, with pay showers (who knew?), where we changed into our biking gear.

TOnight we are 45 miles south in Decorah, one of our favorite places in Iowa, staying at a pleasant and affordable Airbnb ($53) on a rural highway outside town. We stopped in town for ice cream and beer at Topping Goliath, an award winning local brewery. or so Dirck tells me.

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December 8, 2015 · 4:26 am

My own mansion for the night in Kansas City

imageI am the only guest tonight (no surprise for a Monday night  in early December ) at the beautiful Oak Street Mansion, a lovely 1903 red brick mansion just north of the Nelson Atkins Museum.  The place is a great mix of old world furnishings and contemporary art. The owner has filled the place with his father’s art collection and it’s quite something. his dad was acame here from Cuba and spent his early years in foster care but somenhow managed to start collecting art, starting with African art and moving into I am not exactly sure what (there is at least on Thomas hart Benton according to a book about this place).

The famous PLaza lights!

The famous PLaza lights!

Anyway, beats the local Marriot and very close to where my work meeting is tomorrow morning and to a Gates BBQ outpost on Emmanuel Cleaver Rd. (I can’t return home without ribs wrapped to go!)

I had a nice dinner tonight with my lovely uncle-in-law Kenneth at Aixion, a nice little French place in the pretty Brookside area, another place I used to go during the brief stint I lived here in 1989/1990.image

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October 26, 2015 · 1:57 am

Cornhuskers/Wildcats, Beatrice, Runza: A visit to Lincoln, Nebraska

We don’t go to college football games that often (especially outside Iowa) but the one we went to yesterday in U of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium was pretty near to perfect. Starting with the weather, which was autumn glorious. High 50’s/low 60’s, sun, light breeze, bright blue sky. Amazing and a great backdrop for 90,000 fans, many wearing Nebraska Red. We had great seats behind the end zone (a new vantage point for me) and, as promised, the Nebraska fans were very friendly and polite, even when the team started losing to the Northwestern Wildcats (final score 30-28, Wildcats win). Have to admit it was a nice change from the nasty drunken  behavior of some  (by no means all)  of the U of Iowa fans we’ve experienced during the past few years in Iowa City.  I dutifully tried my first Runza – a hot pocket sandwich filled with peppery ground meat-and-cabbage (and maybe some cheese?) I pronounced it “not bad” but no one else in my group wanted one. They’d been there, done that.

My friend Anne, an alum, walked us around campus afterwards – and we stopped for coffee in the spacious student union, much changed from Anne’s college days, she reports. The night before, we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Beatrice, about 40 minutes south of Lincoln (home of Anne’s brother, who cooked up this whole football trip and generously found us tickets!).

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September 7, 2015 · 10:52 pm

Western Kansas: wright, dodge city,

To be honest, we didn’t do much in western Kansas beyond the confines of D’s 1960s ranch house in the tiny town of Wright, outside Dodge City. We were there to pack up and haul out all the stuff that a family of 8 children accumulated during the past 55 years. And we found things that were much older, some back to the late 1800s, we think.

A melancholy task, but good to be with other family who came from New Mexico and elsewhere in Kansas. Lots of laughter, occasional tears, family tales shared. We did emerge for lunch yesterday at Tacos Jalisco, our favorite Mexican place on Wyatt Earp blvd. in Dodge. A late dinner was at a surprisingly packed Applebee’s near Boot Hill, maybe some others were there because there weren’t many other options on a Sunday at 10 pm. I did have a very good limeade.

Today, we stopped to see family in Wichita and then picked up ribs “to travel” at Gates BBQ in Kansas City. Now three hours til home.

P.s. Comfort Inn in Lenexa turned out to be a mixed bag. Our room was clean but the thin walls meant nonstop noise from someone who appeared to fall asleep with the tv on. Argh

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September 6, 2015 · 8:30 pm

Sentimental journey: Overland Park farmers market, cottonwood falls, bazaar cemetery

 

On our drive to Dirck’s childhood home for the last time (it has been sold) we have stopped at some favorite spots during our almost 30 years driving together through Kansas.

The Overland Park Farmers market was overflowing with gorgeous produce but we restrained ourselves since and bought only what we can eat in the next two days away. Peaches, cantelope and a fantastic looking bread from the Ibis bakery stand (our “morning buns” were delicious, a bun made with croissant dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.)

On to the flint hills and the old town of Cottonwood Falls with its glorious French revival courthouse. We wandered down the three block brick Main Street, poked around in some antique/junk shops and craft shops, had fantastic sirloin steak sliders in the restaurant At the classy western hotel, The Grand Central Hotel and found a cool old limestone motel at the other end of Main Street along the river that looks like an amazing place to stay, the Millstream Resort Motel.

We drove south along scenic byway 177 through the vast open, gently rolling flint hills, the road almost entirely to ourselves. So much open space, land, sky, road. love that feeling. We stopped briefly at the old Bazaar Cemetery to walk along the old gravestones and hear nothing but the wind blowing through the trees.

Now we are in Wright Kansas, an unincorporated city of less than 100 people, outside Dodge City, packing up the house with some of Dirck’s siblings and their families. Strange. Sad. One of life’s endings.

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September 5, 2015 · 4:01 pm

Smithville, Mo. Justis drugstore restaurant!

I have wanted to go to the Justus Drugstore, a farm to table t
Restaurant in an old drugstore in the pretty small town of Smithville, just north of Kansas City for some time and we finally did! One of the better meals I’ve had in awhile and we didn’t even eat in the main dining room (the old pharmacy) but instead on the east side patio. We shared a delicious sweet corn salad (corn, heirloom cherry tomatoes, herbs, butter, cheese from a local dairy and butter. It was light and sweet and mysterious. I would love to know how to make it at home.

This is the kind of place that makes its own ketchup, which resembled tomato paste but tastier. It arrived with the crispy hand cut fries that came with the burnt end sandwich, whIch was like nothing I’ve tasted before. there is a lot to be said for good ingredients and when every ingredient is good, the net effect knocks your socks off. The roll was delicious on its own, then there was the BBQ pork, various other ingredients I couldn’t quite make out (arugula, capers) added up to a sweet but spicy flavor. The fried chicken was surprisingly light and the chicken tender but not undercooked, served atop a delicious risotto and fresh greens.

The desserts were crazy. We shared carrot cake beignets which came in an oblong narrow tray with a beignet on either end and in the middle this light goat cheese foam with carrot caviar (yes,,carrot caviar, little bright orange beads, who makes carrot caviar?) The beignets were warm and moist and fabulous, even better when dined in the foam. We also tried the homemade ice cream, chocolate Brownie and sage butterscotch.
The main dining room is small, charming, with lovely landscapes and abstract paintings, all by the chef. Talented guy. The old soda found is lined with jars of homemade, hand labeled bitters, for making cocktails.
Smithville itself turned out to be a pretty little place with a row of old well tended red brick buildings, a brick patio and bandstand.
now we are at a comfort inn in Lenexa, Kansas. Not bad.

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February 6, 2015 · 3:36 am

Sheesh Mahal, Zorba’s, Cafe Kakao, automobile alley– Oklahoma City

We are here for a funeral, sadly. But a girl’s gotta eat and so we have. Last night it was Greek good at Zorba’s and tonight very good Indian/Pakistani meal at Sheesh Mahal on May Avenue. On Friday, we had very good Guatemalan food at Cafe Kakao, then stopped to visit little pockets of coolness including the Paseo arts district, The Plaza area, Heritage Hills (huge old oil baronesque homes) and automobile alley, old brick car showrooms turned into restaurants and high end design stores including coffee slingers and for good. We are pretty sure we had a conversation (about sex toys no less) with Wayne coyne, lead singer of The flaming Lips, who was painting the sidewalk pink and green outside his psychedelic- colored warehouse in automobile alley. And then to Johnnies for one more classic Oklahoma City meal, burgers and fries. No stop in OK CY is complete with out visiting the memorial to the victims of the 1995 federal building bombing downtown, which we did. br /> 2015/02/img_0828.jpg 2015/02/img_0836.jpg 2015/02/img_0835.jpg

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February 4, 2015 · 8:33 pm

Blizzard and empanada madness: Kansas City

We took a welcome break from white out conditions along Interstate 35 from Des Moines to Kansas City for some grub at Empanada Madness, a little hole on the wall on southwest boulevard, just off the interstate in KCMO. Found was fresh, delicious and cheap. We ate crispy empanadas, arepas and plantains, plus rice and beans in a small nondescript dining room, then braced ourselves for more snow ahead. We seem to be traveling with the snowstorm, unfortunately, but for now it does look relatively clear south of overland PArk/ Olathe Kansas. We are passing the new ikea here, as I type, in Shawnee or mission or some such (Johnson county).

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December 30, 2014 · 7:10 pm

Kansas City – Cafe Trio

I’m always trying to remember the restaurants we eat at, particularly in a place like Kansas City (beyond the ones I’ll always remember like Gates, Stroud’s, Joes — formerly Oklahoma Joe’s, and Bryants.) So for the record we had a good meal with wonderful Uncle Kenneth at Trio, near the Plaza. I wasn’t that hungry, having had a big bowl of Bun at Saigon Cafe in Wichita a few hours earlier, so I just had a small plate – mainly grilled Brussels sprouts (a new favorite veg) well-seasoned with big pieces of lardon (bacon), little bits of pear and a small dab of orange-colored sweet potato (I think) puree. D had good crab cakes. N had salmon. K had chicken. The place was all decked out for the holiday, as of course was the Plaza, with its Spanish-style buildings lined with Christmas lights.

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