Day 30 Gee Brief: The Truck, The Welcome, The Pizza!!!

July 20th
Spearfish, SD to Gillette, WY

THE TRUCK
Day 30, July 20th was our first day with the new truck. One weight was lifted from my mind in that J would no longer be travelling in the "break down waiting to happen" formerly known as our Dodge Dakota. Don't get me wrong everything was AWESOME about the Dakota, except for the complicated part that ran from the engine to the wheels and made the truck GO. The knowledge that the woman that fills the hole in my soul would be driving a truck that the entire state of Texas chose as it's truck of the year gave me great comfort.


THE WELCOME
Upon entering Wyoming the first person I met was Joanne. We chatted for a bit about retiring v. working, and both decided that it's always better to have SOMETHING to do. After retiring, Joanne decided to try working in this convenience store right on the Wyoming/South Dakota border as something to get her out of the house. Six years later, she's still brightening up the place with her easy going, friendly demeanor. She truly made me feel welcome to Wyoming!

Mile 0 for South Dakota, 207 for Wyoming

THE PIZZA

Sometime around noon each day, J and I touch base.  I let her know how many miles I think I've got left in me and we decide on a specific exit/destination to "camp" for the night. We decided on the specific exit in Gillette. As I came closer I saw signs for Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom. 

REAL deep dish pizza has been a long running obsession of mine. It started on one of the travelling food channel shows. I SWEAR the featured pizza was more like a layered topping affair rather than just thick bread. The pizza I saw had topping/cheese/topping/more cheese piled high in a deep dish. It was so crammed packed with goodies that just ONE slice was a meal. The featured place was in Chicago. Since then, every time I see "Chicago style" advertised, I go for it. And EVERY time I've been disappointed. Up till now the commonly accepted definition of deep dish has been deep bread. I even tried describing it to my favorite local pizza place in Connecticut. They were willing to experiment and make me one. Theirs too turned out to be deep bread.

What I got at Old Chicago in Gillette, WY was not exactly what I expected in a true "deep dish" pizza, but it was also NOT just deep bread. Honestly, I think it was better than the deep dish pizza that so far exists only in my mind. It was a layered affair of all the goodies we ordered: meat, garlic, veggies nestled within a deep doughy base. Every ingredient seemed as if it had been individually prepared with the same care that a master violin maker would take in creating the perfect instrument. And then each individual "violin"  (sausage, bacon, garlic)  was blended into the symphony of taste that was our pizza. It was that good.  

The perfect companion for this pizza lies in the exquisite wings we got at Plummer's Tavern in Ripley, New York. We actually didn't order the wings, but the owner/cook/bartender gave us a couple of samples. I have NEVER tasted sauce on wings as wonderful. As with the Old Chicago pizza, I could detect each individual ingredient....and this was just the sauce that was put on the wing!

Some day, when I'm Bill Gates, I'll throw a huge party and fly in pizza from Old Chicago, and wings from Plummer's Tavern. This is the latest edition to my bucket list.