Things other than State Fairs

In addition to visiting seven state fairs on our journey to Las Vegas, we tried several different restaurants in our "Road Food" book that has recommendations for local cuisine across the US. We had the original buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY at the Anchor Bar, where this recipe originated in the 1920's. They were the best as we don't even like buffalo wings all that much. The wings and drumsticks were huge and meaty and the sauce was tangy, but not too hot. In eastern Pennsylvania, we had spiedies. This is pork or chicken on a stick (skewers) marinated in a delicious sauce that is oily and full of herbs. iIn Detroit, we had the original "coney dog" at the Lafayette Coney Restaurant located right downtown. Detroit has several coney dog restaurants, but this one is supposedly the best. There is even one right next door to Lafayette called American Coney Dog, but it is not as good as Lafayette, according to the food books. We enjoyed a lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Pueblo, Co called Jorge's that was a local favorite. The food was good, but we wished we had eaten at a "real" Mexican restaurant as this one was a bit too commercialized.

We attended the annual Bernard Shaw Festival in Niagra on the Lake in Ontario, Canada. We actually saw three one-act plays by Noel Coward as there were no Shaw plays being performed the night we were there. We stayed for two plays and enjoyed them very much. Niagra on the Lake is a beautiful small town very near Niagra Falls on the Canadian side. It has the most beautiful houses and the small village is quaint and upscale. It seemed to be the place where all the rich folks live or have second homes in this neck of the woods. Reminded us of Greenwich, CT, and even more upscale than Greenwich!

We definitely took the opportunity to taste the local fare wherever we visited and it made the trip a lot more fun than just eating at chain restaurants. Luckily, we managed to not gain back the weight we had lost in Beulaville over the past three months sticking to a diet of low carbs, low fats, and minimal desserts. Of course, if we had stayed on the road much longer, who knows what would have happened!