Day 20: Flamin' Hot!

SURVEY RESULTS: Before launching into today's events, let me thank the thousands who responded to our "What do you enjoy most" survey (actually only 7 folks voted). 57% chose humor, while 2 out of 7 selected food photos, and 1 lone soul picked people photos. No one could care less about scenery photos...oh well, travelling across country is really about having a great time eating all kinds of yummies with family and friends...who cares where you are! Right!!!

Now to today...After an "authentic" Mexican dinner in Willcox, Arizona at El Ranchero...and a friendly reminder each 2 hours thereafter, through the night, of how "authentic" the meal was, it was time to get back in the car and head to Tucson. We had precious little time to keep our schedule, but having never visited my cousin Shari and her husband Todd at their own restaurant, Todd's Place, we really wanted to enjoy breakfast with them....this is a lovely breakfast and lunch spot with a perfect view of the airplanes and runways at Ryan's Airfield just south of Tucson...

Todd has been chefing for much of his life and Shari (my cousin...I only have 3 total in the entire world) is the co-owner/marketing guru...
Their daughter, Gailee, (my 1st cousin once removed for those keeping score) recently married Ryan, this amazing young man
who knows how to chill with the cool looking chef pants...
Now to the "Flamin' Hot" part of the trip...you might think the 112 degree temperature in the morning was what motivated the title...but you would be mistaken...
Here is the way to cook hot dogs! Ok, so you've probably guessed that there is only 1 location outside of Buffalo where there exists a Ted's Hot Dog establishment. It happens to be in Tempe, Arizona, where the grandson of Ted retired and opened one up. Any time we are within 1500 miles of the place, we go and get some hot dogs...duh! Well when you ask the "chef" to burn 2 of the regular dogs...they know how to please...Peggy's is done grilling and sits unburnt on the left :( although even hers has some signs of fire love...mine on the other hand are smack in the middle of flamin joy... and did these babies taste great!
Shipped in from Sahlen's in Buffalo, NEW YORK, Stu, when they are fully dressed with extra hot sauce they look
like this! We also always order a large Loganberry soda, an order of onion rings and a chocolate shake. But seriously, look at the crispy perfection peeking out of both ends of the buns. Sure, a little heartburn may result, but no pain no gain...
We continued on along the southernmost part of Arizona, Interstate 8, where you are so close to the Mexican border, you can see the black barbed wire border patrol fence from the road..
With a few border patrol stops to encounter, we easily passed through them when we mentioned that we had just dropped our daughter off at Disney World where she is becoming a Skipper on the Jungle Cruise. This one always works...they smile and say "Cool...now move along". And we did. Arriving in San Diego on Coronado Island (which is really a peninsula) we had the superb privilege of meeting and dining with CJ Lassiter's parents, Dave and Jane. CJ and Kevin are an item, and so the first parent meeting went well...actually they are great people and we hope they don't make CJ kiss Kevin goodbye as a result of our dinner together...but time will tell... :)))
On to Irvine tonight where we will enjoy Grace Fellowship and some time with Ben, Kevin, CJ and Kate Jordan...it's 12:31 and time to catch some zzzzzzzzs.