Longhorn Lounge

So, I told Dave this morning not to let me out of my chair until I had prepped 20 columns for my book.  And he said OK. He left the house, I worked hard, then he came home at lunch and I had finished about 10 of the 20.

“I know you’re not supposed to leave your chair, but I’ll take you out for lunch,” Dave said.

“And a fancy coffee,” he added.

Yeah, Dave owes me a fancy coffee. Sometimes we bet on things when we travel, and the winner gets a fancy coffee. And anytime we discuss something and I think I’m right and he thinks he’s right, we’ll put a fancy coffee on the line.

Go back with me in time, will you, to last Sunday. Dave had gone to Salina and I had stayed home to write. Well, actually, I was in a restaurant in town, writing. And my cell phone rings. And Dave says, “I’m embarrassed to tell you this, but I locked myself out of my truck.”

He’d stopped to take photos along the road, left his keys in the ignition, and the truck locked itself, something I had previously warned him about, since my car does that – just spontaneously locks itself on occasion when I get out of it. Despite the mentions of my car doing it, Dave always said, “Well, my truck doesn’t lock itself, so I don’t have to worry about taking my keys out.”

Anyway, Dave gave me his location, somewhere out in the country in Dickinson County. I gathered my things at the restaurant, came home, picked up the spare key to his truck and drove 90 minutes to find him.

Meanwhile, some kind gentleman who lives in the area has found Dave standing in the wind beside his locked truck in the middle of nowhere and the man offers Dave a sweatshirt and offered to take him to the nearby Rock Springs 4-H ranch so Dave can take photographs of something pretty while he’s waiting for me.

“I guess I owe you a fancy coffee,” Dave said when I arrived.

“Yes, you do,” I laughed.

Today, he paid off on that. And looking for fun and an adventure, he suggested, “Let’s go to Strong City.” He had been to cafe there that I hadn’t and that’s where we went.

So, I took a break from the book.

On the side road into Strong City, longhorn cattle were on the loose!

Which, I guess was appropriate, since we were headed for the Longhorn Lounge and Cafe in downtown Strong City (pop. 543) in Chase County, about 20 miles west of Emporia.

Pabst on tap! And they serve Jamaican Me Happy. Oh, and Cow Chips, Gizzards and Mountain Oysters (shouldn’t that be Prairie Oysters?)

A radio station was playing oldies … “Midnight Confessions,” “I Am a Rock.”

Amongst the condiments: Germ-X.  Hey, these are working people – cowboys, farmers, ranchers, their hands are dirty. And there were working folks dining in the cafe, wearing muddy jeans, sweat-brimmed ball caps, overalls, boots with spurs.

At a table of guys in their 20s and 30s, one wore a camo jacket, another had work gloves hanging out of his back pocket, yet another wore a t-shirt: “You don’t have to be crazy to work here – they train you.”

Four women in pantsuits chatted happily at a table over yonder. And a herd of teenagers came in for lunch, filling up a table for eight.

A fuzzy bear on the wall. I can explain the fuzziness (bad photography), but I can’t explain the bear.

Dave loved his fireburger. He’d had it before. Jalepenos and buffalo sauce. He thought he was in heaven.

I went with the BLT. And sweet potato fries. The fries had been sprinkled with a bit of sugar and cinnamon. Yum. Fresh sweet potatoes, orange and meaty.

Inside the lounge/cafe. At the far table, men were playing cards.

As we left, I took a photo of a poster advertising the Strong City Rodeo, coming up June 3-5.

Now we’re home and I need to get back to writing. But I did get my coffee, chai actually. Stay tuned.