Miraculous Christmas Eve Tacos

It's a Christmas miracle and the family is heading to Iowa. We're currently in a rental car trying to find a detour back to Highway 20.

Look at my mom's pretty toaster.

I got up around 8 because I wasn't packed yet. Oops. For breakfast I had two pieces of Ezekiel 4:9 bread with fresh-grind peanut butter and a little honey. I figured it was best to start with a healthy breakfast because I would be flying today. I've ended up eating pretzel covered hot dogs from more Aunt Annie's than I'd like to admit.

These are apples but I think they look like pumpkins.

The sister and me.

Flights were pretty expensive so we decided to only fly to Chicago and then drive the rest of the way to Independence. We had a 12:35 PM flight from LaGuardia and a rather pleasant flight to Chicago-O'Hare. We met a man who had just returned from Afghanistan in the Enterprise shuttle. He retired from the army and now works security. Apparently things are getting worse over there. Hopefully 2012 will hurry up and get here and we can get a real leader back in office.

Shuttle to the rental car.

Enterprise gave us a Ford Explorer (apparently there was talking of upgrading to a BMW X3 but someone else rented it while we were waiting) and I'm a fan. I REALLY want a Ford Flex (anyone want to get me one?) but I'd like any Ford SUV to be honest.

"How do I turn this thing on?" - Dad

We drove for maybe a half an hour when my sister and I started asking when we would be fed lunch. We were told no stops until Walmart for wine. But then Boozewanda (my mom) spotted a liquor store and my dad was pulling into the parking lot.

"We must stop to get wine. Feeding you is optional."

Like the special family that we are, we couldn't figure out how to get inside and decided the store must be closed. An elderly woman, with a smoker's voice similar to my old driving instructor Kim's, croaked that the other door was open. Uh, duh.

Thankfully Taqueria Bravo was located in the same strip. It might have been the best Mexican food I have ever had, no joke. The tortilla chips were homemade and came with a mildly spicy salsa. My dad ordered three tacos (chicken, beef, and pork) and huevos con jamon. My sister ordered the steak nachos and it was stop in your tracks delicious. The chips were just the right amount of salty, the steak was cooked and seasoned perfectly, the lettuce was fresh and to top it all off was melted cheese and a sour cream sauce. My sister doesn't eat tomatoes but they were an option. I ordered the steak fajitas (well actually, I ordered a steam chimichanga but they were out, and then I ordered shrimp fajitas) and they were also delicious. If you're near Genoa, Illinois go for the huevos con jamon and the steak nachos. While everything we had was tasty, those two were worthy of calling home.

Delicious.

Now we're trying to make up for the time we lost eating and being rerouted by an accident. Wish us luck.