Billy Wardle Happenings

 everyone is invited, friends and family.  Even though it says pot luck the pancakes and meat are provided.

 This is a restaurant we visited while we were in Indiana.  I have looked and there is not one near Omaha.  Closest is a couple hundred miles away, Kansas City.  They brag about their fries and tater tots being cooked in beef tallow.  Their website talks about them transitioning away from seed oils.  Apparantly this is to avoid heavy processing and polyunsaturated fats.  The food tasted OK but the restaurant itself smelled of the tallow fats.   I enjoyed by grilled cheese, I wasn't in the mood for a burger.  Sheri had a burger and said it was very good.  I had a large order of tater tots and they were very good.  We all had shakes.  I had the butterfinger and it was excellent.  Most of the kids had Oreo shakes or cookies and cream.  They also had chocolate chip mint and Snickers.  It was a bit pricey with the shakes but overall a good experience.  Their first store was on Route 66 in Normal, Ill.

 This restarea is along the I-80 in Iowa.  It is between Des Moines and Iowa City.  There are a couple historical bulletins, talking about the city of Grinnell and the university in Grinnell. 

A play on words with street corn so I asked them if they have sweet corn.  I love the sweetcorn at Chili's.  They had a dish they called chasca which is a version of street corn but the corn is off the cob.  They but the corn in a cup and added mayonaise and sour cream, butter and lime.  I got the version without the hot sauce.  It was a bit much for me and there was corn juice in the bottom indicating the used canned corn and not corn off the cob.   There prices were a bit steep.  I had lemon flavored soft ice cream and it was pretty good.  It was in a waffle cone.  Asher and Jeremy had hard ice cream.  $5 for the corn cups and $5 or $$6 for the ice creams.  Jeremy had a specialty sundae so it wasn't to bad in terms of the price.  However both Jeremy and I decided we wouldn't go back.  

 Beaver Rest Area is on the I-80 in Mitchellville, Iowa.  It really doesn't have a theme nor did I see any informational bulletins.  However it did have a very nice grassy picnic area.  

 We visited Elkhart Applebees which is on Highway 33 between Elkhart and Goshen.  I ordered their ribs as did two of the boys.  I found the ribs to be too spicy hot, but they all seemed to disappear so there were no leftovers.  I like ribs because they usually last some time afterward.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves, although we were eating after a long baseball game so it pretty late on us.  Applebee's in Bellevue review is here.