And off we Go!

Early in this year Ol' Abner and I decided it was time to follow some of our dreams.  He bought the lift for his shop and agreed that we should make that long discussed trip to the San Francisco Area.  A favorite aunt is not getting any younger and he adores his cousins who are her sons.  That was February.  

I began researching affordable plane tickets and checked the calendar for his upcoming medical appointments. It appeared we had a window in May of about eleven days.  Plenty of time for a lovely visit. I found a package with only one plane change during the roundtrip travel.  The package included a full size rental car and nine nights in Auntie's hometown. When I proudly showed him my plan, he sighed and said he'd been thinking.  He wanted to drive...yes DRIVE! I immediately felt extremely tired. I did not book the flights, reverted to my maps and travel guides checking realistic daily progress.  As the date approached I was going into preparation mode.  Last minute bookings depended on weather and factors unknown.  

The night before we left, he brought in the disk from Lucy's GPS. We began the update process of the maps and it appeared it would take about five hours.  That was mid afternoon.  Fine, I would do other things and finish the processes and bookings on my laptop when it was finished. I finally went to bed a little  after midnight with it still running...not the first time a computer download has made a promise it couldn't keep.  Oh well, we left the next morning with the feeling that much was left undone, but it couldn't be helped.  We had a reservation in Deming NM that night.  It was time to hit the road!

Our first stop- The Blue Bonnet Cafe

  
We left home with empty stomachs knowing that one of our favorite eateries awaited just a few miles up the road.   A hearty breakfast had us well on the way determined to enjoy every minute of this trip.  A pleasant drive through hill country and onto the Interstate Highway system. We discussed plans to make short trips to some of these towns later this year as we passed through.  Next stop was at Dairy Queen for a nice rest break and a blizzard.
By the time we reached El Paso with rougly a little over an hour of driving, we were ready for dinner.  Our ice cream lunch was long gone.

He remembered eating here many years ago

Traffic was heavy and we had lots of advice from multiple devices. Lucy's GPS advised of a 45 min delay and Lilly Tom on the portable TOMTOM agreed. Waze and Google Maps showed alternative routes.  All four recommended we take a loop (that neither of us remembered being there), but two suggested we go on the NB side and the other two recommended we go on the SB side. 
Ok, we agreed it wasn't a perfect system.  A bit of common logic and we took the side  leading away from the Mexico border.  He was anxious to see if a steakhouse from his days of working in El Paso was still as great as he remembered.

As we completed the loop he was sure we were further out from the steakhouse location, so we traveled back into the city via freeway with multiple construction delays and rerouting.  After about five miles, he concluded it must be gone.  We sadly made a turn around, not an easy process in rush hour traffic.  Once back on the freeway, we decided Las Cruces might be a good dinner stop.  He glanced to the left of the freeway just in time spot the steakhouse right where he had left it 27 years before!  We turned around and enjoyed a most delicious steak with cole slaw, spicy pinto beans, hot bread and a Hatch green chile baked potato au-gratin. An hour and a half later we checked in for a good night's sleep feeling quite pleased with our culinary traveling skills!