QUILT SHOPS & CONRAD HILTON

       It was Ethel who spotted the billboard advertising the JT Ranch Quilt Shop. Google Maps took us right to it, in the small town of Cisco, Texas. Located about 100 miles west of Fort Worth and just a handful of miles off I-20, it’s a town of 3900 people who take pride in their high school football and girls volleyball teams, who decorate for Halloween and lined their main street — Conrad Hilton Boulevard — with gaily painted old bicycles.

       The street is so named because Conrad Hilton started his hotel chain with a single hotel he bought there in 1919. According to one of the clerks at the quilt shop, he came to town to buy a bank, but the owner raised the price when Hilton arrived. The latter noticed the booming business going on at the local Mobley Hotel, so he bought it instead. Today, the former hotel is a community center and local museum with a dozen white rocking chairs stretching across the ground-level, cement front porch and a statue of Hilton on the lawn.

       As for the quilt shop, it is named for the cattle ranch owned by the shop owner and her family. Ethel managed to drop a few dollars there, despite the fact that it was the third quilt shop we had visited during our three-week, cross-country trek.

       We lunched at the Slowpoke Farm Market, which features grass-fed beef and other products its owners either raise themselves or buy from friends and nearby farmers. Each table features a wire cup with two dozen Scrabble tiles for the diner’s entertainment while waiting for the food, which arrived quickly. Ethel had organic pinto beans simmered with a ham hock and accompanied by cornbread made with cornmeal and whole-wheat flour. Lucy had a three-cheese mac-’n-cheese that had slices of bratwurst in it, accompanied by broccoli salad. The pies were like none you’ve seen since sitting at your great-grandmother’s kitchen table. Despite choices such as peanut butter cream, cream cheese pecan, apple crisp and sea-salt chocolate pecan caramel, we passed on desert.  

       All in all, Cisco proved to be a serendipitous experience that re-affirmed our tradition of not passing up a spontaneous side trip down a back road. 

DON'T EAT GRAPES IN A HONDA PILOT

If you are following Lucy and Ethel’s backroads adventures on Facebook, you know we’re doing the second half of Route 66. We did the first half — Chicago, Illinois, to Adrian, Texas — last year. The second half will take us from Adrian to Santa Monica, California, where Route 66 ends at the pier. 

We left Alabama Sunday, October 6, and drove I-40 to the midway point in Adrian, which is about 30 miles west of Amarillo. After two days of cruising along just fine, Monday evening we encountered a problem that threatened to strand us in Amarillo, cost Lucy (me) lots of money and give us nightmares. The problem? Suddenly, my car wouldn’t shift into reverse!

I have a 2017 Honda Pilot Elite, with electronic gear shifting via buttons in the center console. It had been shifting just fine, then suddenly wouldn’t go into reverse. We found a motel and parked across three spaces with the front-end pointed outward so we could leave without backing up. I have the cell phone number for the salesman who sold me the car, and called him. He had never heard of such a problem! I googled it, and discovered it could be a bad solenoid or low transmission fluid — or something more serious. Having had the car serviced right before I left, I felt pretty bummed about the possibility of low transmission fluid.

I didn’t sleep much that night. Next morning, when I cranked up the car and tried to put it in reverse again, lights and error messages flashed where the odometer is supposed to be. “Transmission failure” and “blind-spot monitor system failure” popped up. As if I weren't worried enough!

We were at the local Honda dealer at 9 a.m. A young man named Dillon took all our info and showed us to the waiting room. We had our needlework and were prepared to spend the day. Imagine our surprise when Dillon returned in five minutes. “I fixed it,” he announced, a big grin spread across his face. We were stunned. “What was the problem?” I asked. “Was it some button I pushed by mistake?” Holding up a teeny-weeny grape stem, he asked, “Was someone eating grapes in the car?” We both nodded. “I found this stem stuck under the reverse button.”

Can you believe it? A tiny grape stem! When he removed it, all the warning lights went off, the reverse gear button worked, and we were good to go. I hugged him, did a happy dance, and told him I took back all the horrible things I’ve said about automobile dealers. We were at their mercy, and they were so refreshingly honest!

So, we jumped into the car, laughing and bouncing in our seats. As we said our last good byes, I promised to give Brown Honda of Amarillo a great rating on Facebook. As we pulled off, I glanced sideways, and saw Dillon talking to another technician, who was smiling broadly. I’m sure that grape stem was the topic of conversation around the coffee pot all day. It certainly was for Lucy and Ethel, who will stick to apples and bananas from now on!