Today was the first day of my vacation. I haven't actually been to work since Thursday. The Mother sprang another leak and Herself allowed me time to stay with her at the hospital and still take my vacation this week. I can't count Monday as vacation because The Mother had a home health care representative scheduled to to follow up on her hospital stay.
However, today CaDiva had a great idea to deliver Thank-you baked goods to the hospital staff followed by a leaf-peeping and ice cream run.
I have been planning an autumnal blog so this suited me very well. During the run to Eagleville, we found the Happy Apple Orchard. It was closed but we quickly made plans to visit it this weekend. We checked out some scenic by-passes and took lots of pictures I'll share later. On the way home we realized the gas tank and our bellies were riding on the bottom half so we decided to make one last pit stop.
The only problem is between Bethany, Missouri and West Des Moines, Iowa, there just aren't that many places to stop for a sit down meal. Oh, there are Casey's General Stores every dozen miles or so. However, I may have mentioned that I already ate my lifetime allowance of Casey's food during our Ragbrai trip.
Fortunately Osceola has a fine dining establishment known as Lakeside Casino. It used to be Terribles. The Casino was Terribles not the dining establishment. Truth be told we only ate there once before so I can't say it wasn't Terribles. As I recall it was more mediocre than Terribles.
The restaurant wasn't opened until 4:00 PM. This wasn't as bad as the orchard. I mean it wasn't as if we had to wait until the weekend but we had to find some way to kill 20 minutes. Conveniently, the Casino restaurant was attached to a floating structure filled with slot machines. What with the $30.00 of free play Lakeside gave me us for being new players with e-mail and cell phones and $2.50 applied to the penny slots, we filled the time waiting for the restaurant to open.
We ordered the buffet because it was a Casino and that is the law. We paid $12.00 a piece for an all-you-care-to-eat buffet of Italian, Chinese, Mexican, and American fare. They also had salad and dessert stations. The American choices consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and waxed beans, except chicken was on the Chinese station along with the fried calamari and scallops with the shrimp scampi. And no way would I list bread sticks, cheesy polenta, or pork loin with pineapple as Mexican.
I really enjoyed the scampi and the pork but I don't think I would pay $12.00 for such a narrow selection.
No comments:
Post a Comment