Mississippi River Trip: Deadheading

THIS POST IS 2 WEEKS OLD....WE ARE HOME ALREADY...SWEET HOME!

That's what we're doing now.  Just putting miles under the wheels and heading back to Iowa as fast as we can go.  Day one was San Diego to Holbrook, AZ, where we decided to skip Petrified National Forest in the interest of moving along as fast as we could.  Day two took  us through New Mexico and Texas.  We stopped for dinner at the Bar H Steakhouse in Dalhart, TX. 

The steak house decorated in the typical western steak house style - branding irons, saddles, and farm tool dot the walls along with photographs of cowboys working the range.  We stopped for an early dinner, and were surprised at how crowded the restaurant was.  I, of course, ordered a steak.  Larisa, being a vegetarian, ordered the soup and salad bar.  She asked the waitress what the soup of the day:

"Hamburger Stew."

Larisa looked at her for a moment, then asked, "Is it possible to substitute something for the soup.  I'm a vegetarian."....................................................................................

The waitress paused for a moment and gave Larisa a strange look.  The five or six tables nearest to us did the same thing.  I guess it is a tad bit incongruous to be a vegetarian at a steakhouse.  The waitress's look slowly changed from strange to suspicious, and I could almost hear the gears in her head whirring.  Was this lady with the foreign accent one of those PETA folks?  She studied Larisa closely, and I imagined that the waitress was committing Larisa's details to memory, just in case there was an animal rights related terrorist incident or something.  She finally decided that vegetarians don't get any special treatment, and declined to let Larisa get some steamed vegetables instead of soup. 
 

After dealing with the terrorist couple at table three, the waitress moved on and promptly forgot about us so hard that she delivered my food to the wrong table, then couldn't figure out where it was supposed to go until I finally flagged her down for more iced tea.  Oh yes, the special (12 oz. NY strip, medium rare with baked potato) goes to the terrorist at table three.  We ate and left, and were both immensely amused at the reception Larisa's statement got.  I understood it though - Dalhart is a cattle town.  Period.  Nothing to see, no tourist attractions, nothing but acres and acres of grazing ground as far as the eye can see.  A vegetarian in a place that relies on carnivores for survival probably doesn't see vegetarians very often.  We're happy that we made their day a little more surreal.

We camped at the Pratt County Lake in Pratt, KS.  Nice place.  Five bucks gets you your own little peninsula that juts into the lake so that you're camping surrounded by water on three sides.  Quite a change from paying $25-30 at a crammed full commercial campground.