A 400-mile, 7 hour driving day that included an actual Dunkin’ store, a Cracker Barrel lunch, a mildly disappointing Buc-ees visit, an almost hotel mix-up and four bits of Roadside America.
Back in May of 2023 on Donna’s and my trip to the Napier’s Hometown we were in the Holiday Inn Express across the street from the Dunkin’ in the travel center. When I went in, I walked back out, because there was only one person behind the counter and too many people in line. This time it was me and Sally staying across the street in a Home2 Suites and I stayed because there were two employees behind the counter and no one in there but me. Turns out I probably should have left, they didn’t get the order right, regular means 3 cream – 3 sugar and all I got was 1 of each.
Cracker Barrel didn’t disappoint even though they didn’t have the Pot Roast dinner I wanted; the Sunday Special was chicken pot pie that put Swanson’s to shame. Sally’s trout was also excellent, but I had to take her word for it because she refused to share, (truth be told, she did offer and I declined.)
Turns out this Buc-ees did not have a car wash (aww..) and there were none of the free circle stickers either (crap!), but the rest was terribly weird as advertised.
I almost did the same thing I did once before on a previous trip with an overnight stay in a Holiday Inn property. While trying to follow the somewhat confusing frontage road situations in Texas I pulled into a Holiday Inn, and before I would have embarrassed myself, I checked the reservation on my phone and realized I was in the Holiday Inn lot and I needed to be on the other side of I-40 Business in the Holiday Inn Express.
We stopped at the Texas Best Smokehouse Travel Center in Henrietta, TX to photograph the Dinosaur Parade there. Next was a Quanah Parker Trail Arrow in the town of Quanah, TX. I was here before with Donna and even though I can find no reference to it the blog, I can say with all assurance that we were here on a previous trip because I remember visiting the museum that is in the same parking lot.
After checking in to the hotel, taking an hour to settle in, we went for a semi-long walk around the hotel area, we hopped in the car and grabbed a couple more Roadside America sites near Amarillo that I had never been to before, the giant Tex Randall Statue in Canyon, TX 20 miles south and the Giant Legs of Amarillo on the way back to the hotel.
