My trip, my burden, my passion, my fajitas

I wrote this on last Wednesday morning, thinking I would have posted it sooner. I didn't get a chance until just now on Saturday night. I'll post a follow up either tomorrow or in a few days. There was a lot that happened so I'll need to fill everybody in.

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Holey Guacamole!

I recently went on a trip to Pennsylvania for a two-part reason. One was to help Brigette get what family heirloms and mementos she still had at her ex-husband's place, and then to also see part of this great nation. So far, I've just seen a lot of road, but I can tell you of my trip so far...

To begin, we left with a van, two children ages 4 and 7, and Bib and myself. This was Monday around 9 O'Clock. By 10:30, the kids were wanting to know if we were there yet, how much longer, how many states we still had to go through, ect. If you've never driven 19 and a half hours with two kids in tow, I tell you it will either make you a patient person or a nervous wreck. Challenging? Yes. Unbearable? Certainly not. Kids are kids and they were bored crazy. I tell you however that if they were to take a sip of Children's Dimetap next trip, I wouldn't argue with the person giving it to them. :-)

Moving on-

The kids were playing quietly in the back, Brigette was trying to get some sleep while I drove, when about 5:45 PM, the van started making this weird sound, like a tire was out of alignment then it started 'buzzing', which was because of one of the tire shaking. I woke Bib up from a dead sleep, pulled off at the nearest offramp and wished we weren't in trouble. Luckily, there was a mechanic shop that had their light's on just across the street from the gas station we pulled into so I drove over to see if we could get some help. Thankfully, the guy was open for business still, saying he closed "just whenever I feel like it" and said he would take a look at the van. He jacked up both sides, gave her a looksee and then we all went on a test drive. When he drove us back, he figured it was a CV joint going out, and that we could drive on it, but he didn't know how much longer it would last. "Could be a couple of miles, could be a few months." But when it went out, we would be stranded he said. Since we were meeting the ex-husband to give him the kids for a few days, we had no choice but to press on. And press on we did. We drove another 12 hour with that tire and entire van shaking. Let me tell you something, you drive 12 hours with a shakey tire, there's just not a whole lot of things that are goinig to bother you after a certain point. Even with the kids yelling and being bored and crying and not sleeping, we kept our cool and made good time. We arrived at our destination around 6:45 CST safe and sound (although a little deaf from the vibration noises).

We drop the kids off, then Bib and I take the van to get fixed. Two hours and $279.18 later, we drive out of the Firestone parking lot with a brand new front passenger side CV joint. The tire-jockey said that when they put the van on the lift, parts like broken ball bearings were falling out of the tire. They said it was the absolute hands-down worst case they has seen that was still drivable. They figured we wouldn't have gone another mile with the way it was. We thanked the appropriate diety and went on our way. We are both exhasted, so after a quick trip through town, we find a little cheap hotel and get some must needed rest. That night, Brigette takes me around, showing me where she had lived, where she worked, the general things people show you when they lived in a certain place for 2 years. I even got to eat at her favorite Mexican restaurant while in the area, El Serrano. With a name that conjured up images of hot peppers, I was thinking I was in for something interresting. I wasn't disappointed in that aspect.

I say Mexican. I did not say Tex-Mex, which if you're like me, actually carries some weight with it. I'm used to Mexican restaurants that serve you a big bowl of chips, salsa that is FREE and on request, will give you salsa that is hot if you so desire it. We order our drinks and when the server comes back she brings us this... this...thimble of chips and two shallow, silver dishes with salsa in them. Now, to their credit, the salsa was flavorful, fresh and they even used cilantro which I adored them for, but it just wasn't anywhere near a heat level which I like. And here is were it gets weird on me. I ask the server if she had something hotter in the back, and if we could have more salsa, since the quarter cup she gave me just wasn't doing the job. She comes back with an identical silver dish with salsa, and a small plastic cup with green paste inside. I'm scratching my head until Brigette figures out that you mix it with the salsa to make a hotter verson of what you like, and since it's "powerfull stuff" you mix however much you want to get the desirerd scolville units. I used up two tiny plastic cups of green paste to make a warm accompiment to my thimble of chips. I know this is just bellyaching and bitching on my part, but by golly, if I want hot salsa, I want it to burn my lips, water my eyes and make me sweat. I don't want a green paste that is going to insult my intelligence by making me play mad scientist with the mixing and the stirring I was having to do. The finished product was something I could file between "Mild" and "Luke Warm"

And here's the kicker, when we order our meals, the server asks us if we would like guacamole with our fajitas. I say sure. She asks, "Both meals?" I sas yes, confident we can put back however much guac they send our way. We both love the stuff (Bib makes some super-duper guacamole by the way, but that's another time and story) so I guess that whatever they give us, we will eat. When our meals come, they arrive with another little plactic cup will with green stuff, only this time the cup is twice as big as the original paste cup, and this stuff if chunky. It's decent guac, but again, it's so ordinary and heatless that it just doesn't do anything for me. Zero character. So we eat, and it's very good. We had a crabmeat (fresh from the sea!) quesidilla and two orders of fajitas, one beef, which was expensive because we're not in cattle country and one chicken. Everything was very good and then we get the check. I notice that our beef fajitas and our chicken fajitas each have a dollar tacked on to them. I calmly ask our server what the charge was for. "Oh! It's for the guacamole. It was extra!" I pay, then I sit there and just start stewing about it. Two dollars for two tiny cups of guac? Come on!! I will say I actually dropped an F-Bomb rather loudly when I was ranting about this. I may have embarrased my dinner companion, but I was mad about this. I was hot. It's not the money, it's about the principle. If you're going to offer me something in a restaurant, you had damn well better tell me it's going to cost me if it's something I'm used to getting for free at other places. And then when I'm looking at the bill, I see they charged me $1.50 for that second shallow silver dish of salsa that turned into a green soupy mix. AAAARRGGGHHH!!! So, leason learned for Jay Haney that day. Don't eat at Mexican restaurants north of a certain line in this country. You may get good food and decent service, but you won't get nearly the level of food quality you will when down south. We've actually got honest-to-God mexicans, they've got Puerto Ricans. They have kid-friendly salsa presented in Martha Stewart fashoin. We've got stuff that will peel the hair off your eyebrows. We also have free salsa. If you come in and order an iced tea and burrito, you're only going to pay for an iced tea and a burrito, but you're going to get a football-helmet sized bowl of complimentary chips and all the salsa you can stomach.

I guess I'm just spoiled by how we do things do in Oklahoma. I'm also very opinionated when it comes to certain things. Thinking back, I'm embarrassed to say that I actually cussed in a restaurant so loud that several people could hear it. I want to extend my apologies to not only Brigette but also that nice couple sitting 15 feet away with the lady that kept looking at me. I'm sorry for ruining your dinner with bad language and general manners. I should know better that when I get over charged by $3.50 that it doesn't mean I should jump into Sam Kinison mode and start spewing vitrol on everything I can. I still have some growing up it seems.

This post is written at 6 in the morning on our third day of the trip. Bib's sleeping soundly and I'm up like normal, listening to the soothing sound of our heating and air unit blowing a tepid breeze on my legs. I wish I had a nice hot cup of coffee right now, then it would just be perfect. I'll try and see if I can find a Wi-Fi access point and post this today. I would like to keep current just in case anybody wants to know what I'm doing north of OK. Did everybody have a good Thanksgiving?