West to East Cross-Country Trip–Day 4


We woke up a little after 7 AM, and were out the door and on the road by 8:45. We only made a little over 300 miles yesterday so the real goal today was to make up some distance. For that reason there weren’t a whole lot of stops; plus the sections of Texas and Oklahoma we traveled through today are, in a word, boring.

We did stop off at some abandoned buildings off of I 40 in rural TX to take several photos of the car and the areas. The best of these are below:

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One photo in particular of the front of the car will give the hardcore GT500 crowd nightmares:

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I think it has kind of a ‘Mad Max’ look to it. One could say that this picture proves that cobras actually eat bugs. Smile

Our only real stop today was for lunch at the Rock Cafe in Straud Ok. There, Beth had a burger and fries that she though was rather plain. I had an order of chili cheese fries that were mediocre and my first real taste of buffalo in the form of a buffalo burger. As far as I can tell buffalo and lean ground beef are the same.

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The only real stand out thing about the rock cafe was the ambiance. It’s a historic Route 66 landmark, so there are a lot of nostalgic touches. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the cafe was the restroom, where pretty much every available surface is covered in signatures.

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After the Rock Café, we made our way south towards Alexandria, LA. However, due to more GPS snafus, we didn’t quite make it, and stopped in Shreveport. Still, we made 700 miles today, which is the most so far, in about 12 hours on the road.

We ate dinner in Shreveport at Crawldaddy’s Kitchen. I really wanted to sample a lot of different Cajun dishes, so I ordered a lot of stuff. We ended up with: Fried Green Tomatoes, Boudin balls, Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, a Boudin link, Shrimp Monica Fettuccini, and Cajun Tilapia with Jambalaya. Finally, we had Chocolate Thunder and Carrot Cake for desert.

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All of it was good, but the standouts were the cornbread (cooked with bell peppers), red beans and rice, Shrimp Monica Fettuccini, and Jambalaya. Honestly, though, none of it blew me away.

Overall this was a really good, if long, day. Tomorrow we hit Alexandria (for the Cajun Pawn Stars), New Orleans, and Pensacola.

  1. #1 by Manuel on July 23, 2014 - 9:29 am

    I just about cried when I saw the front bumper. The food looks amazing.

    Take care guys,

    Manuel

    • #2 by Brian Hill on July 23, 2014 - 11:27 pm

      Yea, I knew it would hurt some of you guys to see the car that way, but it had to be done 🙂

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