Saturday, August 22, 2009

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING RESTAURANT


Thursday was hot at 88 degrees and we decided to spend the time sitting in the shade of this beautiful park and read and swim and stay cool. That is, I swim. Jim doesn't go in the pool.
As the day got warmer, I decided I didn't want to cook and I'd seen a sign for Katharines Kountry Kitchen in the little town of Ethel. Let's go.

We drove to Ethel; there are no population signs, because its a blink-and-you'll-miss-it sorta place. We saw a post office, a few crumbling unpainted buildings, Morton's Country Store, Burgers at Kelly's Kountry Kafe. Kind of a nondescript burger shack with NO appeal. And then...a church...and then...we were well on the other side of blink and still no restaurant. "It must have been on your side and we missed it," I declared. So we drove back through and still no Katharines Kountry Kitchen.
Jim believes I imagined the place.
I remember the a in Katharine, the unusual spelling.
Let's ask. (Another male hang-up worse than running out of toilet paper, they never ask for directions or where something is.) I bounce into Mortons Country Store, buy the toilet paper, and ole' Mort tells me,"there is a Katharines Kountry Kitchen in Onalaska. A very good restaurant. You must have seen it there. But, Kelly's Burgers is open. He makes a great burger."
Jim and I don't eat beef normally, but we do eat a burger once in awhile. I wanted a real, sit down restaurant with a tablecloth.
Jim's reply? "We haven't even been to Onalaska. How could you have seen it?"
I couldn't explain it. Onalaska is just a blink over the hill. We must have been there. How could I have known Katharines Kountry Kitchen even existed?
"You couldn't possibly have seen it, we haven't been there?" he insisted. "The three K's...you must have gotten mixed up."
A whole restaurant, missing in action. I think the heat is getting to him. He even went in the pool with me, only the second time on this trip. Hmmmm!





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