Just Average Dining Experiences…

On our recent trip to St. Louis Missouri and Omaha Nebraska, we had several opportunities to dine in casual restaurants.  I decided to recap our experiences with 2 of them in one posting to my blog site.

This Village Inn is located close to our son and daughter-in-law’s home in Elkhorn Nebraska. (An area that is part of Omaha) On this particular morning, we were staying in a nearby Hampton Inn due to the crowd that was spending the night at the family’s home.  We decided to have breakfast before heading to the house…

The Village Inn was fairly busy.  In addition to being bright and cheerful, the dining area was clean, and…as you can see this waitress was happy and cheerful.

The good news was that David III had given us a “buy one, get one” coupon so Laurie’s breakfast was free!  She had her usual over medium eggs with bacon and crispy hash brown potatoes along with a biscuit and country gravy on the side.  Unfortunately the hash browns could have been warmer and the country gravy as well, plus, it just lacked any real flavor definition.

For my breakfast I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak and eggs.  They were accompanied by crispy hash browns and a biscuit with the bland country gravy…and for some reason by a dish of extra gravy.

I also had the warmth issue with the hash brown potatoes (might have been sitting a bit too long) plus I didn’t care for the breading on the chicken fried steak.  It tasted old…or just odd to me. 

Overall…we considered our breakfast to be just average despite the free entrée.  This Village Inn is located at 2525 South 180 Street in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-333-0434.  There are over 200 Village Inn Restaurants in 20 states and Guam.  Curiously, despite the fact that the holding company for Village Inns is located in Tennessee, there aren’t any of these restaurants in the state.  Company Website: https://www.villageinn.com/.

On our return trip to our home in East Tennessee, we stayed overnight in Mt. Vernon Illinois.  We usually drive a few miles for dinner at a local restaurant but Laurie suggested that instead we should just walk across the parking lot to the adjacent Buffalo Wild Wings.

It had been many years since we’d eaten in one of these establishments…

This was the dining room where we were seated.  We’d been offered the option of this room or the bar area. (On the other side of that big screen TV)

This is the alternative dining area near the bar.  It was a bit busier at this end of the restaurant.  One thing for sure, if you want to view a sports event on TV in a sports bar, it would be hard to miss in this environment! 

Laurie had a Schlafly IPA ($5.25) and I ordered a Miller Lite. ($4.00) Then we decided to order the regular Cheddar Cheese Curds with southwestern ranch dressing.  They were apparently a ‘special’ on this evening (happy hour?) because we were charged $5.99.  The price shown on the menu is $9.79.  The cheese curds were OK…but they weren’t anything to write home about…

For our entrée, we decided we’d just do an order of wings.  We went for a large size traditional (bone-in with no breading) order. ($21.49) For our sauces, we decided to try the Hot BBQ, Asian Zing and the Buffalo Wild.

Sorry about the photo…we’d been eating wings for a bit before I remembered to take a picture.  In any case, we thought that the wings and the sauces were OK…but, as with the cheese curds, they weren’t anything special.

Since there are about 1,250 Buffalo Wild Wing locations across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Canada, Mexico, Panama, the Middle East, India and Eastern Asia, this chain has to be pleasing a lot of folks.  It just doesn’t do it for us.  We much prefer Wild Wings Café and Big Kahuna Wings here in East Tennessee.

This Buffalo Wild Wings is located at 227 Potomac Boulevard in Mt. Vernon Illinois.  Phone: 618-246-2999.  The company’s website can be found at: https://www.buffalowildwings.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Significant Life Event! High School Graduation…

This post is dedicated to our oldest grandson, David III.  He’s 18 years old, 6’5” tall, handsome, well-mannered and smart. (We feel that it’s the Grandparent’s prerogative to claim all of those traits for him!) 

So this post is all about family and a very important step into the future for David III.  His parents, our son David II and his better half Amy, deserve much of the credit for David’s successes and the positive direction of David III’s life to date…

A labor of love…working with about an 18 year accumulation of photos!  Amy’s sister Shelby and her daughter Rachel took on the task of putting some big posters together that summarized David III’s progress in photos from newborn to high school graduate! 

Then of course we had to suggest that David pose with his pictorial life history.  David has lived in the Chicago area (where he was born), Nashville Tennessee, then the Cleveland Ohio area, and finally his entire high school experience... the latter all happened in Omaha Nebraska.

Of course, David’s younger 15 year old brother, Emmett Lee got spiffed up for the graduation event.  I forgot to jerk his chain for the white tennis shoes.  He’s made fun of mine so turn-about is fair play!

Here is the soon-to-be high school graduate in full cap and gown.  He towers over both Laurie and me…

Anticipation was building as the families and friends of the class of 2019 filled the school auditorium! 

Then the class of 2019 filed out 2 by 2 to their seats, each carrying a rose to give to a mother, father or loved one at one point in the proceedings.  He looked a little nervous…

Once David found his seat, he kept looking up into the auditorium’s seats to spot his family cheering contingent! 

The auditorium was packed.  Emmett Lee pointed out that although David III’s class had over 300 members, his class (2022) is much larger and they along with their family members wouldn’t fit into this room.

The school’s band or orchestra and the school’s choral group did a very nice job keeping things moving.  We didn’t capture a clear photo of David III as he walked up onto the stage to receive his diploma…but I’m guessing that his mom Amy managed to capture the moment with her upscale photographic equipment and skills… 

When he was announced on stage, David III’s cheer section did our job…and proudly too!

So what’s next for David III?  Check out those sweatshirts!  The first photo was taken by David's mom Amy when the family was in New York City checking out the University's campus. (From the left: David III, David III, Emmett Lee) So in August David III’s off to NYU (New York University) to join the class of 2023!  He had a number of choices but after visiting New York City and NYU, this was the school of choice.

New York University is a private research university that has campuses and locations world-wide.  It was founded in 1831 and its historical campus is in Greenwich Village, New York City.  It will be a big change from Omaha but it will also be a great learning opportunity.

Once again… Congratulations to our grandson, David III!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie (Papa and Nana)

Family Gathering and a Birthday Celebration

One of the primary reasons we traveled to Omaha Nebraska in the middle of May will be revealed in the next post after this one.  There was a second reason to make the trip, one that unfortunately indicates that I’m really an old timer…

All were gathered and focused on the center of attention on our first evening in Omaha… From the left in this photo are Shelby, Shelby’s daughter Rachel, David III and his mom Amy.  Shelby is Amy’s sister and Rachel is Shelby’s daughter.

So what was everyone looking at?

Ahhhh…it was our son, David II opening a belated birthday present as we all celebrated his birthday, which was actually in April.  As you can see, he had a little help from Myla, who is Rachel’s oldest daughter.  Rachel’s son Adrian was much more interested in the bag on the floor!

David II collects toy soldiers and this one was mounted on a horse…so it was a bit special.  Both Myla and her sister Salma seemed intrigued or at least curious about this gift…

One could say that the toy soldier was more than belated.  Laurie and I had purchased this one and another in St. Charles Missouri before the Christmas of 2017…with the intent of giving them to him for his birthday in 2018.  We’d put them in a closet at home and totally forgot we’d bought them! (Old people!)

We also gave David II some family art work…3 little primitive paintings by his grandmother and this exquisite framed pencil drawing that was created by my brother Bob.  It seems that family art work is David II’s favorite gift…

Did I mention that this was our son’s fiftieth (50^th) birthday!  It does make me feel quite ancient…

…a few more family photos.  This is Myla sitting with her great aunt Amy.  She is a cute little girl, that’s for sure.

Then there is this photo of great uncle David II and great aunt Amy sitting with Salma.  Salma is not only cute, but she’s full of energy too!

David III’s girlfriend Ryanna stopped by and Laurie took this photo of Ryanna and Uncle David holding little Adrian.  Adrian is such a cheerful fuss free little boy!  Our grandson David III seems pretty comfortable with babies.  It must be a generational thing as I was never too sure of myself with a baby…

FYI…look at David III’s long legs.  Our ‘little’ 18 year old grandson has now grown to tower over us at 6’5”!

Well heck, with this big crowd when it was time to eat the best thing to do was to go out and get some pizza.  Laurie and I have never had Marco’s Pizza.  It was raining so I stayed in the car while my son fetched our dinner.

The first pizza shown above is a cheese pizza.  Grandson Emmett Lee prefers cheese pizza so it’s a ‘must’ whenever the family serves up this favorite take-out food.  The second pizza is the one that my better half and I usually order…sausage and pepperoni.

This is an order of “Cheezybread”, fresh-baked bread with 3 cheeses and garlic sauce.  It comes with 2 dipping sauces on the side, Marco’s original pizza sauce and a ranch dipping sauce. 

This creation is called a Meatball Bake.  It consists of meatballs and Italian sausage baked with Marco’s pizza sauce and their signature 3-cheeses.  The meatballs were pretty good…

In our opinion Marco’s serves better pizza than most of the big chain operations.  However we‘ll stick with local operations that serve tastier pizza, even if they are sometimes a bit more expensive.  Of course pizza is a truly a matter of taste or what you’re used to and Marco’s must be doing something right… After all, they have over 800 franchised locations across the USA and they’ve been in business since 1978.

This specific Marco’s location is at 1904 North 168^th Street in Omaha Nebraska.  Phone: 402-289-9922.  The Company’s website is at: https://www.marcos.com/.

 One of Amy’s hobbies…or passions…is photography.  Plus, from my standpoint, the price is right!  So we went for a drive, found a local dirt road that wasn’t flooded and she took a bunch of pictures of Laurie and yours truly… I liked this one but Laurie wasn’t so sure.

Then was off to a little local park where we posed on this bench.  We both think that this is a ‘cute’ photo of us old folks.  Good job Amy!

Laurie didn’t like the photos with our sunglasses on…but I liked this one with us and David II.  Laurie and I look like a ‘Men in Black’ movie ad.  David II has gotten so slim it’s hard to believe that we’re related! (Good job son…)

That’s it for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Back on the Road to Omaha!

After our short visit to St. Louis and having spent a bit of time with Laurie’s family, we headed north from O’Fallon up toward Hannibal Missouri on US Hwy. 61 and then we turned west on US Hwy. 36 toward St. Joseph Missouri.  US Hwy. 61 is 4-lanes most of the way to Hannibal and US Hwy. 36 is 4-lanes all the way to St. Joseph and I-29 North to Council Bluffs Iowa and Omaha Nebraska.

We have learned that although the speed limit is a little lower, this route is just almost as fast as it is taking I-70 across Missouri to Kansas City, fighting our way through traffic there and then heading north.   With light traffic and relatively few trucks, this route is pretty much stress free…

We left fairly early but by the time we neared Chillicothe Missouri, we definitely needed a break…and lunch too!

The first time we stopped in Chillicothe we didn’t look around and we just settled on an Applebee’s.  This time we did a little research and decided to try this little local restaurant that is located a couple of blocks off the town’s main street… The location itself would be a business ‘challenge’ for most businesses, much less for a restaurant!  This is Nico’Z Catering and Eatery…

The dining area inside Nico’Z Restaurant is compact but warm.  There are a few tables to the left of this photo at the front.  The staff was warm and friendly.  The patrons that came in and out when we were there were regulars.  Nicole Booth (the owner) and her staff must be doing something right because this will be their tenth year in business!

Laurie ordered “The Italian”. ($13.00) Ciabatta bread was toasted and layered with salami, melted mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, basil pesto and pepperoncini.  For her side Laurie chose the homemade dill potato salad. (Note: This sandwich normally comes with roasted red peppers but Laurie had them left off her sandwich)

In any case, Laurie really liked her sandwich and she thought that the potato salad was excellent!

Considering that Nico’Z is only open for lunch from 11 AM until 2 PM Tuesday through Friday and only open for dinner on Friday from 5:30 PM until all reservations are handled, their lunch menu is pretty impressive!  There was a special, the sandwiches, appetizers, salads and Nico’Z Specialties.  Two examples of the latter are an 8 – 9 oz. serving of Grilled Prime Rib with a loaded baked potato or a Plain or Sweet Chili Glazed serving of Salmon with Brussel Sprouts and either an Italian or Caesar Salad...

For my luncheon entrée I ordered the “BCP”. ($10.00) It consisted of a juicy chicken breast with bacon and cheese topped with peppercorn dressing.  For my side, I choose the corn chips and salsa.  I don’t care for potato salad and I would have preferred potato chips or something else with my sandwich.

Nevertheless, the “BCP” was a very tasty sandwich and I’d order it again…except the next time I think I’ll do the prime rib and baked potato…and then let Laurie drive before I doze off…

Nico’Z is open Wednesday evenings from 5 PM to 7 PM, for what she terms HDHH (Hump Day Happy Hour) Wednesday evenings it’s all about your choice of 10 different specialty pizzas…plus they do serve beer and wine.

Given her limited hours, Nico’Z must be really busy with her catering business!  Very impressive since Chillicothe has a population of only about 9,700 and Livingston County only has 15,200 residents…

Nico’Z Catering and Eatery is located at 612 2^nd Street in Chillicothe Missouri.  Phone: 660-707-0868.  Check out the website and the rather eclectic menu at https://www.nicozcatering.com/.

We headed north on I-29 once we came to St. Joseph Missouri.  As we neared the Missouri – Iowa state line we began our drive north on the only dry land in the wide Missouri River bottom… At one point in late April, I-29 north was closed as were most of the subsidiary roads in Missouri.

To see some flood photos showing road damage, you can just go to https://www.modot.org/2019-northwest-missouri-flooding.

To be honest, the extent and severity of the flooding was a bit mind boggling as well as depressing.  You have to feel for the farmers and others whose livelihood and homes were inundated when the Mississippi River dikes gave way… The worst of the flood had already receded as we made our drive.

Later we learned that I-29 had just been opened for traffic a day or so before we made our trip north.  Even so, for several miles it was single lane traffic in either direction… There were no services available for motorists or truckers for miles in either direction.

The losses for farmers, support businesses, rail lines, truckers and residents has to be crushing.  I saw estimates that places losses in Nebraska at $1.4 billion and in Iowa at $2 billion.

For part of the route north, I-29 is accompanied by the Burlington Northern – Santa Fe Railroad.  Repairs to the rail road bed were underway in several locations. 

Tracked Dump trucks were shuttling in loads of gravel and equipment from the R.J. Corman Railroad Group was in service rebuilding whatever was needed.  This Kentucky based corporation does construction for all major Class 1 railroads in the USA and they have emergency response and track material logistics operations.  To learn more about this company, go to: https://www.rjcorman.com/.

What a waste!  As the water rose, it seeped inside silos/corn storage facilities ruining the grain.  As the grain absorbed the flood waters, it actually blew out blowing out the sides of many storage structures…grain and storage units…a double loss!

This was one of the sadist photos we took… Someone’s home and truck sitting in the floodwater, ruined, isolated and forlorn.

Amazingly, due to additional flooding and parts of I-29 being underwater again, as of 5/29/19, the Interstate was closed once more.  We had made it home by then…

To view I-29 as filmed from the air, you can go to the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzqXSgBsgg0.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave