Ahhhhh.

We made it home to mom and dad's last night. A couple of hours later than I wished.

I had mentioned to Mom yesterday morning that our ambition of countryside driving would be greatly tempered by 7pm. Actually, when we hit Waco at 5pm instead of 3pm I wondered if I had made a great mistake.

Travel-weary kids picked and poked and took great offense. Road bleary mom wondered if she should discipline or ignore or simply turn up the radio and sing loudly.

After filling up the gas tank I looked at the clock still registering Virginia time. Too long for little tummies to wait for supper. What to do? We had been eating oranges and apples. Dad was cooking supper. Didn't want to spend much money or spoil appetites.

Across the parking lot was a drive-up chicken shack. Bush's Chicken.

Local.

Regional.

Fast.

We drove up and several red t-shirt clad kids ran up to car windows to take orders. Menu was stenciled on cinder block wall.


Hmmmm.

I had left my bank card somewhere. Ooops. Had aproximately $6 to my name after buying gasoline.

There on the menu was a box of fried gizzards for just the right amount. With gravy.

I have a confession.

Fried chicken is one of my favorite foods. Not KFC or Bojangles, but small eatery fried chicken. Really any kind of fried food is a favorite, but fried chicken especially. And I think it might have been at least 25 years or more since I last bought fried chicken gizzards. One of my highschool jobs was working at a local fried chicken eatery.

Maybe some of you think gizzards are gross. That is how I feel about chicken liver.

But when that young fellow brought our white box of crispy, semi-tought, golden battered morsels of memory out to the car, we all began to drool. I think he might have felt sorry for me, counting out the change, with all those ravenous kids in the van, because he gave us way more gizzards than ordered.

What a fun way to eat locally!

We scarfed that snack down and made our way south. Ooohed and aahed over the many christmas light displays. Fought a little. Laughed a lot. Finally drove in to Mom and Dad's driveway, where BBQ pork sandwiches and pickles were waiting. Noone's appetite was spoiled in the least.

This morning the girls and Mom have been making the traditional breakfast of sopaipillas. Mom is the sopaipilla queen. The sopaipilla is a fried Mexican bread that puffs up to make an opening for honey. Nothing like what you get at Mexican-american restaurants. We will then go to Fredericksburg to the gallery where her art work is displayed, then on the San Antonio to Remember the Alamo and walk the Riverwalk.

I think I better figure out a way to take a very long walk somewhere on this trip. Too much food. Too little farm work!

FYI, for folks who think that eating locally is just too costly while being on a budget, I plan on sharing what our food costs were so you can see that with a little tweaking, it is actually cheaper than fast food.

So far, we have avoided all beverage costs by refilling half gallon mason jars with water.

I bought one cup of coffee on the whole trip at a locally owned diner: $1.50.

Mexican dinner for 6- $40.00 plus a $6 tip.

Chicken snack-$6.56.

That's it, for over 1300 miles.

Not bad. Everything else came out of the cupboard. Gotta run. Food's on the table!