Regular Joe's Guide

Latest visit: Jan 2026 First visit: Jun 2009 Leaving Wichita, we now enter into very familiar territory. Driving north on I-135 to Salina, followed by I-70 into Limon. We've done this journey many times, especially since we had the Denver townhome between 2009 and 2012. As with Highland Super Submarine, Gella's was a destination spot. It's also one of those I-can't-believe-I-haven't-documented-this-yet places. We've been here a few times over the years, though it's now been 12 years since our last visit. It was always crowded, and it appears they've expanded to the building next door. It was a slow Sunday night, despite the NFL playoffs, which was fine with us. There's a saying out there, and my parents were one to repeat it, that states "You can never go back". That means an experience you had in the past cannot be replicated and always ends up in disappointment. I've long maintained that was a bunch of bunk. If there's ever been a...

Latest visit: Jan 2026 (E. Harry) First visit: Nov 1991 More tolls through Oklahoma and Kansas and we arrive in Wichita on this fine Sunday morning. There's no way we're going to Kansas without indulging in some locally made crispy tacos. I've waxed nostalgic about these plenty in the pages of the RJG, so I won't do that again. Taco Shop had missed my retrospective back in 2023 primarily because we didn't go to Wichita. They're a local chain, that currently has 5 stores. I first went here with Mr. Music when we did a record buying trip through the area. Which ties nicely to this vacation, as it has the same premise. Sort of anyway. We'd been two other times as well, as noted at the bottom of this post. For a Sunday in the old part of Wichita, Taco Shop packed a nice crowd. Our game plan was to have three tacos here and three at another taco place after doing some thrifting. My original wish was to go to Taco Rio, probably my favorite of them all, but they...

First visit: Jan 2026 (Woodland Hills) Crossing over the river, we arrive in Oklahoma, and then it's time to pay the tolls. All these years later, and Oklahoma is still bilking travelers with their ripoff toll roads. Most of them down to one lane for their eternal repairs. I remember these roads from the 70s traveling with Dad. Expensive too. I'm not looking forward to my "license tag" bill, especially after Hertz puts their surcharge on it. Oh well. Eventually we arrive in Tulsa, another city I have a lot of familiarity with due to Dad's business travels. I also conducted some business here back in 2003-04. By some quirk, Mrs. RJG has never been, even though we had traveled to Oklahoma quite a bit when living in DFW. Too far northeast. We piddled and thrifted around Tulsa in the late afternoon and then it was time for din-din. We hadn't gone to a brewpub yet, so let's visit one closest to our hotel. We were in a nice suburban area, so it's no surprise...

First visit: Jan 2026 We continued our westward journey through Arkansas, via a couple of very poor towns, where the thrifting proved excellent. By lunch time, we were in the Fort Smith area. I haven't been here since 1980! And yes, it was with my dad on business. We once again dived in for barbecue, though this time we managed to find an independent. The first thing you'll notice walking in is it's a very Christian oriented place (note tag line). Fine with us as we're of the faith, but pagans may want to look elsewhere. And they get the clever name effect with JC. Hey don't scoff, The Green Mile did the same thing. This is a full service restaurant and we were seated promptly.  It's a spacious restaurant with lots of natural light.  I saw bologna on the menu, a meat you almost never see. And I still didn't because they were out of it. Darnit! So I went back to the cheeseburger. Oh my gosh, best one on the trip! Note the knife stab. That was how it was serve...

First visit: Jan 2026 After some thrifting in Memphis, we headed due west to Little Rock. This would be our Friday night destination. Continuing on with our barbecue desire, we decided on Whole Hog Cafe which was very close to our hotel. Similar to Jim 'N Nick's, you order at the counter. And since it was dinner time we also each had a beer. We went with the pilsner, which was flat as a pancake. For some dumb reason I drank it anyway, but Mrs. RJG was smart and said she didn't want it. I asked to switch out, and received a much better IPA. And I got to drink that one too weeeee. As for the meal, I settled on a two meat platter rather than a sandwich. They don't serve hamburgers. Having decided we weren't going to get mac n' cheese anymore, I crazily went for a salad. That's new behavior. It actually was pretty good, despite the packaged dressing as if I was on an airplane. The other side was the spicy baked beans, which were very good, and had a mild kick. T...

Latest visit: Jan 2026 First visit: Jul 1977 I recently spoke of traveling by the methodology of "Planned Randomness". Within that framework there are occasional destination spots. Highland Super Submarine Sandwich Shop was one such place. I wanted to be there by lunch, so that was another reason I selected Tupelo over Oxford while in Mississippi.  That first visit is not a typo. And I have a story to go with it. It was one I wanted to tell back in 2015, my other visit, but for whatever reason I could not get the energy to document that trip. So I'm taking care of that now. I often talk about my dad in these pages because I grew up traveling with him on business. He was the old fashioned "traveling salesman". He'd pop in the car on Sunday night or Monday morning, and work his territory through the week and come home on Thursday night or Friday afternoon. Almost every week, except for when he worked the DFW area. During the summers, while out of school, I wou...