Bite Me!

Today we set forth with a particular restaurant for our lunch destination, only to find that they were closed while the owners are on vacation.  Undaunted, we quickly chose another spot in the same vicinity.  Our choice?  Bite Me BBQ in Wichita, 132 N. St. Francis.

The restaurant was pretty busy, but we were quickly seated.  There are ample tables, several that will seat groups of 6-10, plus seating available at the bar.  The walls held a multitude of TVs, showing various Saturday afternoon sports ranging from baseball to auto racing to cheerleading.  And of course, World Cup soccer!

The menu features fairly standard BBQ fare, available on sandwiches or dinner entrees.  Sandwiches come with one side, dinners with two sides and bread.  They also have a variety of appetizers, sides, and a few other entree items like chicken fried steak and beer-battered fish.  Deep fried lobster is available as an appetizer or an entree.

Our server was friendly and quick, and we didn't have to wait long to order.  Nor did we have to wait long for the food to arrive.  Susan got the pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries.  I got a 3 meat combo with pulled pork, sliced brisket, and ribs.  I chose potato salad and cole slaw for my sides.

We both enjoyed our meals.  All the meats were very tender.  The brisket had the best stand alone flavor.  The pork and ribs, while good, really needed the sauce to go with them.  Two sauces are available on the table, Wimpy and Spicy.  The Wimpy was a little more sweet.  The Spicy wasn't too spicy, leaving just a little heat as an afterthought.

A small condiment bar is available free of charge, and includes pickles, sliced cucumbers, and a few other veggies.  It also includes some other sauces such as a Carolina vinegar sauce, and a Hot Mustard sauce.

Sadly, neither of us saved room for dessert (peach cobbler was suggested by our server!)  All in all, we enjoyed our visit very much! - Dan Gray, guest blogger, usual navigator, financial backer, part-time photographer.

No place like home: running around Sedgwick County park and zoo.

My mom sometimes says someone has a champagne appetite on a beer budget. In the case of Eat & Run, we have a beer appetite on a water budget. And we're not talking Perrier; we're talking tap water. So while Rachel and I had some good aspirations, we haven't exactly been able to do everything we'd like. But we hope to do more. Still, circumstances as they are, I found myself spending the last two Saturdays running my usual route here in northwest Wichita.

This run starts in the 13th street (Windmill Road) parking lot of Sedgwick County Park.

Beginning of the trail and handy calf-stretching posts.

The path heads east to Zoo Boulevard. Then you head north to 21st street. You head east along 21st and the path ducks into the park a bit and then takes you to the Sedgwick County extension office at 21st and Ridge. From there you head south past a meadow, some soccer fields, softball fields and baseball fields. At the corner of 13th and Ridge you head east again. The path winds up back in the park and eventually comes back to the parking lot. The whole loop is four miles. It's almost completely flat, but there are some really open areas where you will definitely feel the wind and the sun.

Anyway, while I was kind of bummed not to travel somewhere, the usual route really caught my attention last weekend. It takes you past several large fields, and I am accustomed to large swaths of dead brown grass from my winter of half marathon training here. But when I looked around, the place was teaming with wildflowers. Everything was so beautiful that when the run was through, I walked the route so I could get some photos for the blog. Once again, this is "phonetography" but I hope the photos will at least give you a general idea.

I guess the takeaway from this is that sometimes you just need to stop and pay attention to the amazing things that are around you every day. Granted, this is not a startling or profound observation, but for some reason, I must be reminded of this continually. To conclude, here's a link to a video of the still shots I took that day. They follow the run from beginning to end, assuming I didn't inadvertently mix a few up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJrOBF2Z02k

Help us decide!

Where should we eat and run next? Some suggestions we've had are Lindsborg (but we don't know what restaurant), Perry Lake and the Lake Bound Cafe, Hiawatha and the Country Cabin, Americus and the New Breck Cafe, Greensburg and the Green Bean Coffee Company, Wamego and the Friendship House, Abilene and the Brookville Hotel, Lucas so we can see that crazy Garden of Eden thing (but we don't know where to eat), Cottonwood Falls and the Emma Chase Cafe, Williamsburg and Guy and Mae's (yeah, we've been here already, but it'd be a good excuse to go again), Fort Scott and Peaches BBQ, Manhattan--we'd run the Konza Prairie and then eat somewhere--so many choices. Dan wants to go to Beaumont where the restaurant off the landing strip is with the cool wooden water tower.

If you've got a suggestion for any of the above or an entirely new idea, please leave a comment. We hope to eventually make it more than one county away, God willing and gas money appearing.

Thanks!

Penny's Diner in Wellington

I was holding off on the restaurant review for Rachel, but as she is off to camp, you are stuck with me. We actually chose to go to Wellington largely because of Penny's Diner. It had good reviews on the internet and more importantly is open 24 hours, seven days a week. Since we had to go on a Sunday, we really struggled to find someone open. Penny's hours cater to the railroad workers, but we saw all kinds of folks in the place.

Penny's resembles Walt's Diner on Tyler Road in Wichita with its shiny, modular exterior. The inside was clean and bright with black and white tile and old timey ads liberally scattered across the walls. The menus are laminated and feature breakfast, sandwiches, hamburgers and typical diner fare, even a blue plate special. I ordered the "Hearty Breakfast" to refuel after my strenuous big one mile run: pancakes, hash browns, two strips of bacon and one egg over medium. Rachel, quite unexpectedly, decided against breakfast and ordered what turned out to be a fairly large hot dog and some tater tots. Dan opted for a chicken fried steak sandwich with a side of homemade potato chips. Our family looked like a cardiologist's new Porsche in the making.

Everybody was pretty happy with the food. Rachel was surprised at the size of the hot dog and praised the "fluffy bun" and her crispy tater tots. My breakfast was yummy, but then it's pretty hard to mess up pancakes (although I've seen it happen). The real show stopper though was Dan's chicken fried steak; ridiculously large (as they are wont to be) this thing was nevertheless, really light and crispy, not that sodden slab of greasy breaded meat that you sometime get.

This is one reason to run.

Dan's light little sandwich

Rachel's dramatic hot dog consumption

After the meal, we waddled out to check out a few more of the sights and sounds of Wellington. Lots of railroad history and current railroad activity, so my train fanatic husband approved of the town. Here are a few more pictures from the day. 

Railroad Museum

Wellington photos

Here are some more photos I took while we were in Woods Park in Wellington, Kansas. Forgot my camera card for the SLR today, so it's all "phonetography." (Word coined by Dan; all right reserved--lol!)

These old limestone street signs were lining the road in Woods Park.

Deer track

Rachel and Dan discuss a fossil she found.

This looks like the beginning of a hike, but not really. It only went back a few yards.

View from the end of "the trail."

Gnarly!

Shroom! It was pretty damp out there.

Pretty awesome to call your tiny pond a "bay," but oh so much better when it's Donut Bay!

Short, but sweet

Ah the parliament buildings, the botanical gardens, the stunning view from Mount Victoria.... what? Oh! We're not in New Zealand; we're in Wellington, Kansas.

Today's Eat & Run trip was a bit hurried and haphazard thanks to a lack of both money and time on the part of we bloggers. Still, we felt compelled to get something new on here before Rachel leaves for camp this week, so we quickly threw this outing together last night. And considering the spontaneous nature of this venture, I think it went pretty well. We went with Wellington because it was close and we didn't have much gas.

Happy, lazy me

Figuring out where to run was the difficult part. We searched Google Maps, mapmyrun and the Rails to Trails site and pretty much came up empty. I did learn that there is a proposed Rails to Trails 13 mile stretch from Wellington to Oxford. That should be pretty cool some day. Good half marathon practice. Anyway, Dan finally found a semi-promising looking park that he though might suit our purposes, so off we went with visions of diner food dancing in our heads. I decided I was going to order pancakes no matter what!

So after some really confusing directions from the gal at the gas station and an unfortunate jaunt in the wrong direction, we finally arrived at Woods Park. Sadly, this was to be a solitary run for me because Rachel injured her foot the night before at a sleepover. Also, there was no actual trail in the park, so I had to settle for running down a partially paved, but mostly gravel road which ran through the park. It was not a long road, so a mile run was all I could do at this location. The lazy part of me was pleased.

So I set off running to the sound of Eric Clapton changing the world. A mellow song for a chill run. And for what it was, it was a pretty nice run. Very green and shady under a mercifully partly cloudy sky. I keep noticing  lovely cypress trees, and I especially enjoyed the part where the road hugged the creek.

Cypress trees

We think this is Slate Creek

If it's a Gray expedition, there's gotta be a railroad connection

Dan had asked me if it would take me about 15 minutes, and Rachel snorted derisively. I told him to back it down to 10. They would meet me at the end of the road.

Most of the time the gravel was pretty fine but there were a few good ankle rolling sections of road.

So a quick little jog ensued and then we checked out the rest of the park. Dan and Rachel showed me the spillway they had found.

And then we went down a short path by the spillway for the world's shortest hike. Blogger seems to want me to stop adding photos on this post, so I'll put the other photos on a separate post. So it wasn't really much of a run, but the park was very green and pleasant. Looks like a great place to picnic or play Frisbee golf, so if you find yourself in Wellington (Kansas), check it out.

Rachel's Restaurant Review- A Purposeful Alliteration

The Bread Basket Review in Newton, KS

The Bread Basket buffet was nestled in an unassuming rectangular building in downtown Newton. Presentation-wise, it was nice enough. A front room held the register, the buffet table and a clear refrigerator that displayed an impressive variety of pies. This opened up into a spacious white dining room. What struck me about the dining room was that it was lined on all sides with framed art- landscapes and other beautiful scenes. Walking in, I happened to notice the portrait of an orange tiger near the entrance. It wasn't what I expected, looking at the plain exterior of the building.

The food itself I was pretty neutral about. As the name implies, The Bread Basket featured several types of homemade breads, which you could slice yourself at the front of the buffet table. They also had very good dinner rolls. Possibly the most delicious thing I ate on my first plate was the strawberry jam they had in a bowl. It didn't taste like anything you could scoop from a jar, it had a perfect consistency and was burdened with chunks of ripe strawberry. For dessert there was cobbler, both regular and sugar free. There was a soft serve machine, too, which was delightfully creamy. On a more negative note, most of what I ate just didn't stand out to me. For once, my parents share a common viewpoint with me.

While all in all The Bread Basket was kind of an unremarkable eatery, make no mistake- it was by no means bad. To my vast regret, we did not purchase pie, meaning that I cannot give a review of that particular aspect of the establishment. But if you're looking for a nice enough place to eat in Newton, you may want to give The Bread Basket a try. They have everything from mashed potatoes to fried chicken to salad to apple and cherry cobbler.
By Rachel, who is in fact a top-notch restaurant reviewer.

Scenes from the trail

The portion of our run just north of Newton was our favorite part.

Memorial Grove

I suspect there is a better way to handle photos, but here are some shots Dan took in Memorial Grove on the Bethel College campus. Our running trail went right past this pretty little spot. The sculpture is called "The Plainsman" by John Gaeddert