Half Sauced BBQ

Yesterday I found myself with an appointment in Russellville in the morning and Eldon in the afternoon, and time in between go a few miles beyond Eldon to the Lake area.  I decided to try Half Sauced BBQ 4186 Osage Beach Parkway Osage Beach MO.  I do not know how long they have been at the lake, but it has to be getting close to 10 years.  During the first several years they were open I ate there several times, once with some other administrators, once with my wife, and a couple times on my own. None of these occasions really impressed me, so I have not been there for probably six years.  I decided it was time to give them another try.  My memory is suspect in issues like this, but I believe they have moved a couple buildings to the south from the last time I was there.  The setup of the restaurant is considerably different than I remember with the atmosphere more restaurant, less bar than when I was there before.  I do not know if there has been a change in ownership, or if they were able to purchase a building.  It is a very clean, very well run restaurant.  It is not as large as before, but more than large enough for all but the height of summer weekend business.  They had a couple of very nice waitresses, and the service was quick and pleasant. 

I had the brisket and sausage along with fries and slaw.  One of the first places that I have noticed offering two types of slaw at the same time, vinegar and creamy.  The vinegar coleslaw was the best I have had in a long time.  The fries were good.  The brisket was cut a little thicker than I like, but was excellent.  It had a strong smoke flavor, and was very tender.  The sausage had an odd after taste, that I do not believe was related to being smoked.  I expect it was a local/or limited production with some interesting spices added to give it a distinctive flavor.  They accomplished their goal, though I would have liked it a little less distinctive….by the last piece I had forgotten the aftertaste and enjoyed the smoke flavor.  Great portion, good price, delivered quickly, hard to beat!  I am going to move it back on to my must visit list, and try it again here in a couple weeks when I go back to the lake for the spring meetings.  

I was thrilled with the dogwood that was in bloom all around the lake.  This has to be a month earlier than normal.  I am sure it is going to but a kink in several communities traditional Dogwood Festival.  I guess global warming is going to make them move the date of the festival up a couple of weeks if they are going to have dogwoods in bloom when they have their festival.

A beautiful day on the bike!

I had lent my truck to my daughter, and when she was done with it the choice to figure out how to pick it up incentivized me to get on the bike.  Really not a difficult decision when temperature is in the 70's with a light wind and abundant sunshine. 

Really the only negative is the traffic.  When I was in north Missouri over ten years ago, riding a bicycle was very pleasant.  A lot of paved roads with minimal traffic and courteous drivers.  I could also hear the traffic coming a mile away.  The only real down side was the fact that they generally used a less expensive paving process that they called "cold patch."  It was a mixture of tar and gravel that was generally not smooth by any definition.  It caused me to move away from a very ridged bike with small high pressure tires, to a more forgiving frame geometry with larger tires.

 When I moved to central Missouri the traffic was so much more intense.  There are still many back roads with light traffic, but usually in the ride there is a connector piece that has much higher traffic, and often little or no ride able shoulder.  The path to my daughter’s house has that dilemma.  I can ride eight to ten miles on a rather major two lane road before cutting off on a nice back road that brings me into Columbia on back streets, or I ride three miles of recently graded gravel to get on a series of smaller roads with less traffic.  Riding on the recently graded gravel on a thin tired bicycle is like riding on ball bearings.  It can be done, but it is certainly not easy or safe.  At any moment you can lose forward motion, or have too much.  Either causes a crash.

I had fixed the spoke on my drop bar road bike, and wanted to test this out.  It has 700X25 tires, not thin but getting there.  Not ideal on the gravel, so I decided to go on the more major road.  It is a nice road, wide gravel shoulders and great visibility.  I usually ride on the white line on the side of the road, after years of riding rollers I am comfortable with my stability on a bike, and do not have a fear of riding near a ditch or drop-off. I have learned on this road to ride fairly far into the lane.  If traffic comes behind me they must go wide around me, and as they come on me I move to the side giving myself the most space.  If I do not do this many drivers will not alter their lane at all, driving within inches of me. 

If traffic from in front and the rear come at the same time I will usually take the shoulder if that is possible, or I will stay wide so that the two cars don’t pass me at the same time.  On this ride I had two cars that decided to pass me anyway.  They were at different times, but both decided that they could pass me and the oncoming traffic with me half way in the lane.  They really have little appreciation for life, theirs, the drivers in the oncoming traffic or mine.  My little mirror on my glasses gives me a good idea of what is happening, and I usually go straight for the shoulder or ditch.

I also don’t mess with semi’s, they have enough wind suck that it makes it dangerous, and most of the drivers have no idea where their rear wheels are, or if they do they do not have any appreciation for the trouble they will be in after they run over me, kind of ruins their good driving record and makes insurance a much harder thing to find.  Of course at that point I will be dead and can only haunt them for the rest of their days……

You can usually tell the rural drivers from the city drivers.  Rural drivers will give you the space and wave at you.  They think you are crazy for riding a bike, and they were brought up not to mess with women, children and crazy people.  City people don’t even know you are there.  I don’t know what they are looking at, but it is not what is on the road in front of them, and they certainly are not looking at the scenery.  Most of the time when I find someone being inconsiderate they have a cell phone pressed to their ear. 

The thing that burns me the most is when you have a car that runs you off the road, and you look up in time to see the little Christian fish symbol on the back of the car……so much for their care for fellow man…..

Hoss's Market and Rotisserie

One of the pleasant surprises I made several years ago was Hoss’s Market located at 1010 Club Village Drive Columbia, MO on the south side of town corner of Nifong and Forum drive.  I had seen the building, and heard the name but had no idea that they served food.  I assumed that they were an upscale grocery store, selling gourmet food and wine....and they are.  But they are also a very reasonable deli.  They serve a variety of meats, a variety of breads, salads, vegetables, really quite an extensive menu.  I think they are probably best known for their catering, and for the meals busy people can stop and pick up on their way home from work.  They also have a wonderful brisket and pulled pork. 

It is hard to call it BBQ in the traditional sense when it is served on a French baguette.  I really like the brisket.  It has a wonderful flavor.  I can combine it with a number of different sides.  They do have fries, and not just a cheap frozen variety.  I am also partial to their ranch pea salad, and the almond chicken salad. 

They have a BBQ sauce that is an excellent blend of a tomato sauce with vinegar.  I am partial to mustard based sauces, but this is a very nice sauce.  

I like the atmosphere, mostly market with high end gourmet food and wine, and no small amount of Mizzou paraphernalia.  It is not the normal BBQ restaurant atmosphere, but it does have a limited number of tables and a very professional staff behind the counter.   

I would recommend you try Hoss’s Market.

Dickie-Doo Bar-B-Que, Sedalia Missouri

One of the first BBQ restaurants I remember eating at was Dickie-Doo BBQ in Sedalia.  It goes back more than thirty years.  At the time I was a principal in a rural district near Sedalia.  Frequently on the way home from a ball game I would stop at Dickie-Doo more for the beer than for the sandwich.  The principals, coaches, referees would all congregate for some lies and replays of the evening games.  It was a fun time. 

The years have gone by.  The restaurant and lounge remain the same as in my memory.  I stopped there a couple of years ago, and again yesterday.  It is a nice friendly atmosphere.   Nice waitress, reasonable service. I liked the decor....the BBQ not so much.   I don't know what it was but it was not BBQ from my perspective.  I got the three meat plate, beef, ham, and pork.  I did not think the pork and ham had been smoked.  I did not use sauce, and I did not taste any flavor associated with the bbq process.  It was ok, it was what it was slab of ham and a pork chop.  It tasted ok, but it was not BBQ.  The brisket was more like an old piece of shoe leather.  It had no flavor, was stiff as the sole of a shoe, dry and hard, and only one piece.

Work had taken me close to Sedalia and I decided to go on over for some BBQ.  There are at least five BBQ restaurants in Sedalia....

Dickie-Doo, 

 Kehde's Barbeque, 

Bar-B-Que Pit Stop, Bandana’s BBQ,  and a new place

 Little Big Horn Cattle Company.

 In my biking of the Katy trail a few years back I used Sedalia as a staging point.  It gave me the opportunity to try several restaurants.  I really liked the Little Big Horn Cattle Company, it had the best food.  Kehde's Barbeque had the most unique atmosphere with the regular restaurant as well as the old railroad car.  The food at Kehde's was ok, hampered by the fact the place was very busy and the service was slow.  Once again Dickie-Doo had not done much for me, I was frankly disappointed.  So in this trip I knew I had several choices.  I choose Dickie-Doo for the nostalgia factor...a mistake.  Next time I will go for the quality of the BBQ, not reliving my youth....

Broke Down on the Road!

I was out for a bike ride today, and I broke a spoke.  The wheel went out of true and started to rub on the chain stay.  I haven’t broken a spoke in several years.   Given my weight, and the general rough nature of the roads it is amazing that it does not happen more frequently.   I went through a spate of them a number of years back.  I finally just re-spoked the entire wheel, and the problem was solved.  Today I opened my bag to get the tool kit, and it was not to be found.  I had taken it out, and had not replaced it.  No spoke wrench, no screwdriver, nothing….

It was a beautiful day.  I had gone to my parents’ house to check in on my dad, who just had a cataract removed.  At the last minute I decided to take my bike, intending to leave the truck and ride home.  Sunny and 75 degrees with a mild south breeze was just too much to pass up. It certainly started as a nice ride.  Things are starting to bloom.  I think this is going to be a year where everything blooms at the same time.  We already have the daffodil and crocus blooming.  The bradford pear trees are going to be blooming by the weekend.

I had gone about 13 miles when I hit a rock on the road wrong.  I heard the twang, and then a thump.  I thought that I had flatted, but when I got off the bike I realized it was a broken spoke.  A few moments of contemplation,  the search for the tools, realization that my choices were pretty limited.  I choose to call my parents, who came and picked me up.  Moral of the story…always carry the tool kit.

Beauty in the eyes of rural Missourians....

 It is also time for the purple fields!

I am not at all sure that it is time to mow the grass.  This is not the first person I have seen mowing, but he must really like to cut grass.....

On a sad note, I saw a dead mink on the road today.  Like most bike riders, I have gotten accustom to road kill.  It is almost a perverse attraction to look and identify what we see on the road. Today I passed a form that I did not immediately recognize, so I stopped and took a picture....

After I came home I looked up pictures and I think it is a mink.  I initially thought it was a river otter, that have been restocked in Missouri in the last couple of decades but they have webbed feet.  This does not appear to have webbing between the toes.  I know it is not a muskrat.  After some searching I have decided it is a mink.  I know that mink were plentiful in this area up to the early 1800's.  I did not know they were around now.....I would welcome any opinions that others might have.....