I'm tired. Today was a big day. Number one: my internal clock is still on Michigan time. 4:30am and I'm ready to go. I toss and turn until 7:45 and decide that it's time to get out of bed, as trying to sleep is useless. I grab Through Painted Deserts and immerse myself in the travels of Don and Paul before we eat a quick breaky and head off to the dealership. It's raining. And we take a wrong turn. The weather matches the mood, soggy and grey.
We meet Mike at the Fordland Lincoln Mercury. He takes the beige machine into his care and we head out into the wet day. Did I mention that it was freezing? Equipped with umbrellas and flipflops we follow Gerty to a coffee shop. .7 miles is a lot farther when your feet are frozen and wet. Rach's heels are bright red. I think I have frostbite in my left toe. We pass Nick's Cafe and almost enter. But the door is dark and it's located next to a liquor store. We decide to pass. Noticing two hotels we get the genius idea to hang out in the lobby.
"We'll just walk in like we own the place."
It was a perfect plan except for the fact that neither of them had lobbies. Apparently the bathroom was pretty fancy though according to Rachel. Strike two. Gert then decided to take us to coffee shop the no longer existed. We were once again across the street from Nick's. We were fated to go to the little restaurant with the yellow sign. We walked in. It felt like we had walked into a living room. The living room of someone who really loves Elvis Presely and Marylin Monroe. It was actually more like a closet than a living room. Probably seven tables all smashed into a tiny square. We had too adjust our table before we could squeeze into our seats and Rach almost elbowed the guy behind her in the head. On the table is a metal fork and plastic spoon situated atop a square, quilted white napkin. Shelly brings us our coffee in styrofoam coffee cups which desperately needed sugar. Water came in red plastic party cups. I looked around for a triangle of cups on a ping-pong table but there weren't any insight.
We ordered two pancakes, two eggs, two sausage and hashbrowns for six bucks. Nick's busy in the kitchen and also on the walls where he is photoshop-ed into pictures with celebs. There's a guy shooting the breeze, rather loudly with a man at the table next to us. We're all involved in the conversation and Shelly knows everbody's name. Lovely. Small town restaurant in the middle of the city. We talked about creepy old men, our friends, who we think is cute, who our friends thing are cute. who our friends shouldn't think are cute. We got a picture with Nick.
We pay Mike another visit. His diagnosis for Mable the Sable: New transmission. Perfect. The light came on just after we crossed the Denver state line. When we dropped her off we were hoping for the best, instead we got the worst. We are going to be in Denver for awhile. And by awhile I mean five more days. Our plans have changed dramatically. But that's life isn't it? Things never go according to plan it seems. Or maybe it's just the combination of Miss Prince and myself...we're beginning to wonder...
But here's the thing with "Plan B", something interesting always happens. If it weren't for the transmission we would have never happened upon Nick's. One of the highlights of our road trip. It is the gem of Lakewood. A must stop for anyone looking for something to do on a cold, rainy Monday while waiting for an expensive diagnosis. Nothing like a good dose of Nick's to take the edge off.
No comments:
Post a Comment