Cruisin’ Espanola – Go figure!

We came out of Sunday service, and our daughter said, “You’ve got to try this restaurant in Espanola. They have the best Mexican food. Let’s go to Espanola.”

Our son-in-law said, “It’s just Mexican food.”

“No, you’re from New York, apparently you don’t know about really good Mexican food. You weren’t raised on it.”

“It’s just like those beans you go on and on about. If it was a steak, I’d understand.”

“You’ll never understand. You had to be raised on pinto beans.” I had to remind him again, “We know when we’ve had good old pinto beans.”

My plan for the day was to study my Greek lesson. Al’s plan was to play with his tractor. Our son-in-law’s knee was killing him from the mud run the day before. He needed to get off his leg and be ready for the big championship softball game on the following Tuesday night. 

The more we talked about good pinto beans, it was settled. We needed a day to rest and to be more adventurous. We all jumped into one car and headed for Espanola and Mexican food.

We laughed and talked all the way and patted ourselves on the back for doing something out of the ordinary, besides work. Wow! A trip to Espanola for nothing more than good Mexican food, we were on an adventure. We weren’t going for a food run to Costco or hair products from Sally’s. We were trying a new restaurant.

The food was good, really good at the restaurant. Our son-in-law opted to have steak, Mashed potatoes and gravy. Who would buy American food when you’ve got good enchiladas, tamales and sopapillas with honey? It’s someone from New York who doesn’t understand the real stuff — red chili, green chili and the old Mexican familys’ recipes.

TCM was on the big screen. “East of Eden” with James Dean was playing. We sat through another black and white film with Glenn Ford when he was a boy —Wow! A dinner and two movies, all on a Sunday afternoon, were we having fun!

After a couple of hours at this great restaurant, we could barely pull out of the parking lot where we joined the other Low Riders cruisin’ the main street of Espanola. I wanted to find a Dollar Tree. We drove the streets from one end to the other. There is no Dollar Tree in Espanola for anyone’s information. But, in our crusin’, we located Wendy’s, Sonic, MacDonald’s and DQ.

My Sweet Al said he wanted a frosty from Wendy’s, I didn’t want to be difficult, but I wanted a chocolate dipped cone and a senior cup of coffee from McDonalds for the trip home. Someone else wanted ice tea from Sonic, because they have the best ice. We went through four drive-through fast-food restaurants before we were all happy. We started our trip home.

Our youngest daughter said, “This was the best day ever. I’m glad I didn’t miss it.”

I thought so, too. Was it about the beans, the family or the adventure?

Our daughter, Allison, said, “You’ve got to get out of your routine. You need to do other things but work. Why don’t you all come over for the NASCAR Race and you can help me hang pictures in Creede’s room. I’m re-decorating.”

Well, so much for getting out of my routine, it’s back to work.

Final Brushstroke! When you’re with family, it’s an adventure. It doesn’t matter if you cruisin’ with Low Riders in Espanola, working or watching the backs of the heads of grown up boys looking at NASCAR. It’s all an adventure and fun when you’re with family.

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