It's interesting how when most people travel they look for the familiar and stick to it--I am the same--currently I am in a small town in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, population about 179,000ish, small. I feel like such a lame hypocrite as I complain about how Wal-Mart is the devil of America, while I ask my front desk attendant where the Starbucks is in town. The familiarity of the soft guitar melodies being strummed with someone quietly accompanying vocally is something that I don't like to lack in my life. She responded that there was no Starbucks--my GPS had lied to me. There had been one and it went out of business. Apparently sitting and sipping on a hot cafe Americano isn't the thing to do in Scottsbluff, NE, I thought.
This land of fast food franchises in America has spread like a malignant disease--as I drive down the main food drive, 27th St.; I am thinking to myself, how do they eat this shit every day? Apparently they don't love food here, but their waists don't reflect that much. For lunch I made my way to Taco del Oro--a little locally owned taco shop--and ordered a soft taco that my very Anglo-Saxon mom could've made with much ease, but what made me happy was that it was a local joint doing such a great business. So many times in these little towns the major franchises take precedence over the locally owned businesses--where typically the ingredients are fresher and much better for you. This forunately got my spirits up a little higher than they were previously. I'm not sure about anyone else out there, but I judge a place always by the food, music, and its people--the same goes for restaurants. You can tell a lot about a person by what they eat, the type of things they put into their bodies and where they frequent. I digress.
Getting back to the point, the familiarity of a cafe provides the comfort and type of atsmosphere that makes me feel pleased in any location throughout the world. It's interesting how I am sitting in Scottsbluff writing this post and by the looks of this place I could be anywhere in the world. I should be trying out the steak houses, but I am drawn to familiarity, what I like.
By the way, I did find an incredible restaurant called "Paradise" that reads from the road "Paradise Tanning, Carwash, German, Cocktail, Diner"--amazing right! Marketing completely confusing when you drive by, but I was bound and determined to find good food here and did. So basically, I could go tanning, wash my car, eat a good meal and then have a cocktail all in one place, astonishing!
