Some of you may remember that I posted requests for great places to eat out while on vacation, and Deanna sent me some fat free Kraft Italian dressing packets to take with me. Here's how the vacation went:

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Tempe, AZ, with my parents. While there, we enjoyed ORGAN STOP PIZZA in Mesa - you can get good pizza, beer-wine-soft-drinks, and ice cream, and it all comes with free entertainment: a professional organist plays 45 minute sets of all kinds of music on a big theater-type Wurlitzer organ. We love going there, my parents were the ones that introduced us to the place years ago.

On the 5th, we set out across the country. The first night, we spent in Santa Rosa, NM. Urbanspoon reviews were mixed, but the motel clerk sent us to Santa Fe Grill. I hadn't had sopapillas in years, and I loved the chicken-stuffed ones that I ordered.

The next night we spent in Sallisaw, OK. To whomever recommended Shad's Catfish Hole, THANK YOU. The hotel staff all seconded and thirded the recommendation. My husband was in 7th heaven and I liked the chicken tenders. All was served family style, and we definitely did NOT want breakfast the next morning!

Third night was spent in Cookeville, TN. We were told that Nick's in town had the best prime rib. Here we were, staying at a very budget motel, so we splurged on dinner.

Fourth night was in Staunton, VA, instead of Harrisburg. Ate at Mrs. Rowe's there in town, nothing to write home about. We made the switch because we decided to do Skyline Drive on the way north the next day, and my brother asked us to arrive later in the afternoon.

We didn't get to do much in NYC, and we had to cut Gettysburg and Dayton completely out of the trip. Why? Well, after we'd been at my brother's for 2 days, we got one of those phone calls you hate getting: my mother-in-law had passed away and my hubby was needed immediately. Hubby had gotten his Nathan's hot dogs in NYC, but we'd hardly seen anything there.

So we headed for Missouri about 11 days earlier than planned. We had to cancel all of our reservations, get refunded from some, and spend a night on the road in Springfield, OH. There we splurged on a nicer hotel room (Comfort Suites) and went out for fast-food. :-)

In Missouri, with all of the funeral and estate stuff, we did get some time to do some sight-seeing and some eating. With funerals in small towns, people bring food to the house, so we didn't have to worry much about cooking. One woman brought over a spiral-sliced ham, not yet heated up. So here I am, puttering around in my MIL's kitchen (feeling like an intruder!), trying to fix the ham. We ate ham for days.

My MIL, btw, was one of the best cooks I know. Her kitchen was her castle and if you asked if you could help, it usually included something that you could do OUT of the kitchen. It was what I call a "pullman kitchen": not much room for 2 people. She had a nice dining room, though. Most of her cooking would be considered "down home", or "down on the farm", because she'd been a farm girl before marrying and moving into town (where she took on not only a new husband, but a little 3-year-old hellion, now my husband.)

We did a lot of eating out in Columbia and Mexico, MO, once the donated food ran out. We ran out of places in Mexico. One of the places my SIL took us to, in Columbia, was a place called Flat Branch. Long wait for a table for 12, but the food was excellent and reasonable in cost.

My California son-in-law flew out after our daughter - he couldn't get free of his job soon enough for the funeral, as his company policy doesn't include grandmas-in-law for bereavement. When he got there, one of the things HE wanted to do was compare Carl's Jr with Hardee's (he said "better beef" at Hardee's). The other thing was to compare Mexican food. In a word: YUCK.

One day was spent with 5 of us touring Hannibal, MO, including Mark Twain's Cave. We all had a great time that day, though Son-I-L said he could now write a biography of Samuel Clemens. :-) On the way home, we happened upon a restaurant in the tiny town of Madison, MO, called Becky's Restaurant. Well, my niece's name is Madison and her mother is Becky, there were a bunch of cars in front of this place, we were all a bit hungry, so we decided to stop. WONDERFUL food.

On the way back to California, we ate, but nothing special to write about. Mostly we just went to the chain restaurants, as we were just ready to get home.

I will miss my MIL a lot - she gave me a lot of her recipes over the years, but more than that, she was just a kind, generous person. Probably the best MIL I could have ever had!

Donna