Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sun!!

We drove up I-80 in search of sun and some lunch. It was cloudy and heavily overcast here when we left. As we drove up I-80 and got close to Newcastle and Auburn, we hit some fog. Not heavy, just enough to let you know it was foggy. Then amazingly after we got through Auburn, the skies cleared and there was the SUN!! We drove further east to Colfax. Gerry suggested Madonna Inn for lunch. It is located in the "downtown" section of Colfax, across the tracks. Well, unfortunately, it appeared it has gone out of business and there is a place called "The Naked Rooster" in its place. It wasn't open, may be out of business too. Next to it was a bar that said it served food. That was not a place we wanted to go.

We saw another restaurant just off the freeway and drove back to it. It is called TJ's Roadhouse. Actually it has been several different restaurants over the years. They were kinda busy, however we did get seated right away. Gerry wanted breakfast, they stop serving it at 1 pm and it was after 1. So we had to settle for a sandwich. After waiting a good 10 minutes or more, a waitress finally came over to take our order. Our order didn't take that long to come out from the kitchen.

I had a Patty Melt with their homemade potato chips. Gerry had a Hot Pastrami with fries. Our waitress stopped once to see if everything was ok then she "disappeared" so to speak. Gerry wanted some more coffee and was able to stop her and ask for more. Well, she never came back with the coffee. After we were both done, I got up to use the restroom. I saw her, stopped her and told her my husband wanted more coffee. She put it off on the girls clearing the tables, that they were to refill his cup. Gerry had his credit card ready with our check, however she didn't take it. He finally asked the girl taking my plate if she would run it.

There was a couple that came in, they were on a motorcycle. They waited for about 10 minutes and got up and left. They hadn't even been asked what they wanted to drink. The place was busy, however not overly. It appeared our waitress was the only one taking orders. There was another woman there besides 2 girls clearing tables and seating people.

We left there and took the highway that goes to Grass Valley. It is a really pretty drive through there and we've done it many times before. After we left Grass Valley, we drove through Rough 'n Ready, Penn Valley and then some other roads. I honestly had no idea where we were. We did get on one road that took us to Hwy 49 in Auburn. We took another road off of 49 and wound around through the hills until we got to Lincoln on Hwy 65. It was pretty even though we had lost the sun and was back to the dreary skies. Saw lots of cattle grazing, sheep, alpacas, lots of horses. There's a lot of wineries through that area too. Beautiful ranches, large homes. Going down one road we came over a little hill and there was a beautiful all white home with porches all around the house. Off to the side of it was a large lake and there was a flock of geese around the water. Three or four of them flew over us as we passed through. They are so beautiful although they are pretty noisy.

I need to remember to take my camera with me when we go on these drives. I haven't been doing that because of all the trouble I was having with uploading my pictures. Now that that problem has been fixed, I can start doing it again.

Have a great week!!

3 comments:

  1. I hate poor service. I especially hate to wait to pay for my food. Your food sounds like it was good though! It must be neat to be able to drive through unfamiliar places whenever you feel like it.

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  2. Jalna, there are so many back country roads around here one could take and just meander through the countryside not really knowing where one is going. This is something Gerry enjoys doing. We left here at noon and were back home a little after 4 pm. I'll have to look tomorrow on the van and see how far we went in miles.

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