March 26, 2002

Day Twenty-Eight

Breckenridge, TX

My lousy attitude yesterday morning told me that I needed a day off, so I decided to spend an extra night in Breckenridge. On every rest day, I plan to see the town where I'm staying. And regardless of my intentions, I never do. Today was much the same, but at least I got out for awhile.

Mr. Jim's Pizza right next door to the motel had a lunch buffet, so of course I checked it out. It was prety good, especially the ham & pineapple pizza and the dessert pizzas. Most places make dessert pizzas that taste like fruit cobbler, but Mr. Jim's was different. Theirs had a layer of cream cheese on the crust, covered with apple or cherry pie filling. Delicious!

I edited reports all day, and I can happily say that I am all caught up with the exception of the prelude and Day One, which were written in a notebook and need to be typed in. Now I really need to work on those photos, a task that becomes more daunting every day.

I went out in the late afternoon for dinner. Pedestrians are about as common as hitchhikers in Texas, so it's no wonder that everyone stared at me as I walked down the road toward town. They probably pegged me for a drifter. Texans generally seem to be pretty friendly to cyclists but suspicious of walkers. I was going to go to the Dairy Queen, but inexplicably, they were closed at 6 PM. I kept going and stumbled upon a little place called Frost Bites tucked into a tiny strip mall. At first I thought it was just an ice cream parlor, but they had a sandwich menu as well. I ordered the Buckaroo Dog, a hot dog with barbecue sauce, bacon and cheese on a hoagie bun (the Buckaroos are the Breckenridge High School team, by the way). I made it a two-hot dog " mega," figuring that it would be two dogs stuffed into one bun like the double dogs they sell in Chicago. To my surprise, it was two complete sandwiches that took up the entire plate. I might actually lose some weight if I didn't overeat on my rest days! I also got a free scoop of Blue Bell ice cream with my meal. They had cookies 'n cream, but they also had something even better (this will make my wife jealous): cinnamon ice cream!

After my filling meal, I walked about a mile back to the motel. The Dairy Queen was open. I couldn't figure out why a Dairy Queen would be closed at 6 PM and open at 7 PM. Whatever. Frost Bites was better anyway!

Totals for the day: no riding.

Click here to see Breckenridge photos from today and yesterday.