The Square Shooter Eating House

Iain with Nana, at the zoo

We're in Rawlins, Wyoming. It's about halfway between here and there, so it's a good place to stop.

Given Iain's obsession with breakfast food, we went looking for someplace that serves breakfast all day. Enter the Square Shooter Eating House.

My expectations were low because, you know, we're on the road. But I should have known (from the mounted bison on the wall. And the four deer. And the beaver, stuffed and posed with an artfully chewed chunk of wood. And the small, brown bear.) better.

Charles ordered the fried half chicken, and it was absolutely amazing.* Crispy, dark brown, salty and spicy, juicy, amazing. I ate corned beef hash (Crispy! Salty! Smoky!). We both had hash browns, which were - brace yourself - crunchy salty nubbins of love that made me wonder why people even like french fries.

Iain ordered pancakes, ignored them, and then ate all my scrambled eggs. With grape jelly. Whatever.

They close at 7pm and stay closed all weekend. So it's not exactly McDonald's. But then, it's not exactly McDonald's. They've been in business since the 50s (which was the last time they bought coffee cups, I think) and I can see why.

*[Please note that the sign at the door says you must eat "finger food" with your fingers. If you use silverware they make you do the dishes. FYI.]

Finally!

So we bought a family membership to the SLC zoo, right? And on our first visit we bought two tickets to ride the train. But...no train. They shut the train down that day.

No problem. We kept the tickets and figured we'd use them next time. But next time, the train was shut down. Again. And the third visit? No train.


Colorado to the rescue. The train's a little different - it runs on a little track inside a fenced area rather than tracking through animal areas (as the train does in SLC), and only kids can ride. But check out Iain! Riding alone with his big old hat, like a very big boy.

On the first ride, two kids ran in front of Iain and they sat in the engineer's car. But on his second ride, Iain rode alone, in the engineer's seat.

Thanks, Colorado. You saved the day. More pics tomorrow, showing Iain enjoying the carousel (it was fast!) and checking out the moose and porcupine with Nana.

Today I finished my seminar. Despite the stress of driving in Denver traffic (yikes!) it was a valuable experience. Now I just have to go home and figure out how to use all this new information.

More Vintage Toys

Another set of toys from The Dad's childhood. These are trucks and bulldozers, a road grader, and a truck that fits onto a car carrier.

See how you drive the truck up onto the bed?

Then you close the back and off you go! Iain likes to put his little metal truck on top of the car carrier, though, which results in a tragic accident every time. And then he cackles.

Today's professional development highlight? Playing with Play-Do. I am not making that up. After we made historical concept sculptures from the dough (mine was "federalism" so I made the thirteen colonies, then connected them - loosely, of course - with Play-Do string. They were a federation, in other words.), we divided it among those attendees with small children. Result: Iain has a ton of new Play-Do to enjoy.

Vintage Toys

Made by Iain's Great Grandfather and his Grandfather for Iain's dad and Uncle G. Made many, many years ago and weathered to a fine gloss by many hands. Above, the tanker truck.


Or is it? What are those pegs? Does the tank come off? If so, then what?


Oooh...now it's a freight truck. Amazing. And that's not all. The trailer comes off, too. So the parts are the truck itself, the trailer, the tanker attachment, and the freight car, all separate and all interconnecting with simple pegs.


Did I mention the spring-loaded cannon? With little peg men you can shoot about 2 feet? Iain thinks it's funny to play fetch with the cannon fellas. I think it's fun to fire the weapon.

Weather

Every afternoon so far, there has been a spectacular lightning storm here. I drive home watching the thunderheads over the buttes, then sit on the porch with my FIL, solving the world's problems and watching the rain roll in.

I think they make the lightning bigger here.

While I have been up in Denver learning about learning and learning styles and learning outcomes and process skills and whatnot, Iain's been touring the local attractions. Today, he visited the Air Force Academy and saw cadets parachuting. He was enthralled, so Nana and The Dad are going to make him a personal parachute out of a napkin and a clothespin.

Did I mention that it's 68 degrees here? And I'm wearing socks and a sweatshirt? I love Colorado.

Hey Toonnnnyyyy...Here, TonyTony

Look what Nana and Grandad unearthed from storage. This tent was originally an accessory for a VW bus. It connects to the open side of the bus, and you can camp without worrying about the weather.
Inside things are a bit redolent of 25 years of storage. But the thing is in perfect condition. Iain likes to go inside and open all the zip windows.

He brought some trucks, obvy.

What do you think, Tony? You need this?

On the Puke Train to Pukeville

I'm not saying it was a hard day.

I'm just saying that when the first vomit cannon fires at 8:30am, and the second one goes off at 9:15, you ask yourself: "What am I doing in Wyoming?"

Thank goodness for the combined powers of Super Grandma (who activated her network of informants to determine the appropriate treatment for infant car sickness) and Super Dad (who located a grocery stocking towels, wipes, Dramamine, warm Coke, paper towels, bottled water, and Febreze in a town where one horse would have been a big step up).

Stay tuned for photos of the toys Nana had all stored up for Iain. Some of them were made for The Dad by The Grandad and The Great-Grandad. They're gorgeous, and Iain loves them. In fact, he's in bed talking to one right now ("Evah! And evah and nevah!" No, I have no idea what that means.)