Waffles!
August 1
Filly woke up hungry. Maybe she should have eaten dinner last night after all because all she could think about was the food that the characters in the book she was listening to had talked about. The meal they described was simple pork and beans. But the beans had salt pork in them, and the author said that the pork must have been fried separately because it was crispy not mush and the beans were flavorful and hot. Filly loved pork and beans. She made hers with ketchup and brown sugar as well as crispy bacon.
And then when she was driving she saw a ranch with a horse stature that she thought said “salt pork ranch” but it actually said “salt FORK ranch” lol. What happens when a person is hungry. She had also liked the cars parked in front of the hotel when she checked in.
Filly liked salt on her food. She thought about how she had written about making corn pone and when she looked up the recipe that would best match the one her dads mom had used, the lady talked about how many spices and cooking ingredients were hard to find in the pioneer days…like baking soda. Which has salt.
She said baking powder, which is minus the salt, tastes like chemicals or tastes metallic.
Filly liked biblical references with regards to salt, and Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt. Too much salt was why death valley was dead and the salt flats only produced little pup fish but not much else. The dead sea also had just salt.
Jesus called his disciples the “salt of the earth”. Filly looked up why he said that.
“By using this salt metaphor, Jesus may have meant that His disciples are called to be “preservatives” in the world, slowing down the advancement of moral and spiritual decay. Psalm 14:3 says, “All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Believers are to preserve truth and goodness in a fallen world.
Salt was also used as a flavor enhancer. Jesus may have been instructing His disciples to “enhance” the flavor of life in this world — enriching its goodness and making God’s work stand out from the normal way of doing things. “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back”
Filly thought about Salt the movie. She included a movie reference because Good old Kevin Costner wants people to “stand up for movies” (when Hollywood kneels for the flag) Which Filly thinks is ironic. She looked up, online, why (Evelyn) Salt was the name of the movie. But could not find a reason. But she DID find out that SALT is an acronym for State and local tax.
NO WONDER salt was about dead sea and Lots wife and Death valley. Taxes fit right into that category but its an economic death instead of physical death lol.
Well Filly decided that she needed to get up and go eat. She appreciated the first days drive, with the little dust storm she saw, the heavy clouds with rain in the distance and the ridges of read clay and tumbleweed. The drive had been pleasant and the small towns “echoed” things she knew about…as if the earth itself could “speak”. Like Armstrong County. Like Potter county right next to it. So interesting.
But that was yesterday. This morning started with a delicious Texas shaped waffle with butter and syrup and a banana and milk. A great breakfast. One bite of the sausage…not a favorite..but ok. The room had been fabulous, great bed, great temperature and quiet.
Loading everything up in the car only took one trip with both arms full, and then off driving and looking at the mesa’s on the side of the road, feeling like it was right into a John Wayne movie.
The drive went quickly, and the audio book kept Filly interested and engaged in the story making the drive not seem tedious. It was one of the better audio books that started with a slow burn but built up gradually. The road was pretty bare of other cars and the sun was bright but the temperatures were about ten degrees cooler in New Mexico and Arizona.
Without stopping, and eating an uncrustable, she made good time. She got to Holbrook by four pm. She wanted to stop there…but once checked into the room, she discovered the TV, internet, and even phone service did not work because of the storm outside. So she had to pack everything back up and drive on into Flagstaff, where she stopped for the night.
She felt pretty smart having one bag with just PJ’s and essentials, and the other bag with the food that needed to be kept cool. The drive had been accentuated by calls to four of her five kids as well as a text from her mom, who had found a missing card with twenty dollars that had been lost. The rejoicing was abundant. She and her sisters and mom had hunted EVERYWHERE for that card, knowing it did not get thrown away. Turned out it was in a drawer.
The new hotel room was smaller but everything worked gratefully. Time to fall asleep. Or maybe watch some TV first. Or maybe write.