"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh", said Piglet at last, "what’s the first thing you say to yourself?"
What’s for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet
Pooh nodded thoughtfully, “It’s the same thing” he said."I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet
- A.A. Milne
After some extensive internet research, I had picked Tootsie's Take or Bake in Thayne as our Wyoming breakfast stop. I liked the name, it got some good reviews, and had some delicious sounding menu items. We arrived at our motel in Thayne in the early evening and set out for dinner. Thayne has exactly five restaurants, four of which were closed on this Tuesday evening. The only one that was open happened to be Tootsie's so that's where we headed to dinner. As we approached Tootsie's door I noticed a sign that said, "Closed on Wednesdays". There went my carefully constructed breakfast plan. It probably didn't matter. I ended up jamming the button on their self-help soda machine and caused a flood of Dr. Pepper to pour all over Tootsie's floor so I probably would have been persona non grata anyways.
Yet now I was in a quandary. There were not a lot of options. I started to feel a little panicky. Directly across the street from our motel there was a cafe that opened at 6 AM on Wednesdays. On our walk back to the motel from Tootsie's (which went a little slowly because the bottom of my sneakers were sticky from the soda incident) we stopped and looked in the windows of this potential breakfast candidate. "Eh" I remarked. We looked at the menu and again I remarked "eh" but on the other hand it said breakfast was served all day which is usually a good sign. Not convinced that this cafe was the best place for us, I got on the internet back at our motel to see if any other possibilities existed. The next town up the road had a breakfast cafe but reading the comments on Yelp it appeared it also doubled as a shrine to our current president and his policies and I was in no mood for that. There was also a doughnut and coffee place that a few people raved about that might have a lot of potential.
"Are we going across the street or for doughnuts tomorrow?" asked the Healthy One. Both options had her worried.
"Let me sleep on it", I replied.
"So, what did you decide?" she asked the next morning.
"We're going to both", I replied.
WAGON WHEEL CAFE
Thayne, Wyoming
There are about 8 seats at the counter, maybe 25 chairs at the varnished wooden tables in the middle of the room, and four and a half booths along the windowed front wall. That's correct, due to poor planning, inadequate space, or both, only half of a booth could be fitted along the wall. When we arrived no one was sitting at the counter, and no one was sitting at the tables but all four booths had occupants. We figured a half booth was better than none and settled in the corner. The picture is overexposed, but that's our romantic booth in the corner, where we sat side by side staring out the window at the front grill of a Chevy Silverado parked in the lot.
4 out of 5 stars
FOOD: There was nothing real exotic on the menu. This was good old Western grub. I ordered eggs over easy, hash browns, English muffin and sausage. The eggs were beautifully cooked and fresh, the hash browns were very good, the English muffin was perfectly toasted, but it was the sausage that really shined. The patty must have weighed somewhere between a quarter and a third of a pound and was perfectly spiced, not-to-greasy, oh so satisfying pork. It was the best sausage I had tasted on the almost completed breakfast tour.
Then Healthy One received her eggs scrambled, her whole wheat toast un-buttered, and her bacon stacked high and mighty. Sitting side by side it would have been easy to swipe a bunch of bacon ("Hey, look at that cowboy getting out of the truck!") but she was very generous and allowed my pitiful countenance 5 strips.
The bacon was jam packed with smoky flavor. It was incredibly delicious and almost brought tears of joy to my eyes. No doubt, it was the best bacon I can remember ever having and I once belonged to the Bacon of the Month Club. Wagon Wheel Cafe was meat heaven.
Having low expectations result in little disappointment. If I had the highest expectations about the food coming into breakfast at the Wagon Wheel, I would still be one satisfied customer. Having low expectations made the meal so much more special. I felt like a student who thought he had bombed the essay exam but when the test was returned it had a big "A" on top.
5 out of 5 stars
Twenty minutes later and fifteen miles up the road, we pulled into Delish Donuts & Coffee in Alpine Wyoming for our breakfast dessert. I ordered a half dozen plain mini-donuts. The woman behind the counter looked at me like I was crazy. "Is that all?", she asked increduously. I guess it is the rare person who goes in and only takes away six donuts of a size that you can easily ingest in two or three bites.
These miniature nuggets of goodness, crisp on the outside, moist and warm on the inside, were fantastic. I took a picture of four of them on the hood of our car. Two of the donuts were gobbled down somewhere between Delish's door and the car. These four never made it inside the car. Now I know why the counter woman thought I was crazy.
COFFEE: I was smitten with the coffee at the Wagon Wheel. It just went down real nicely. I commented to our waitress that I thought the coffee was excellent and asked who the roaster was. She sort of chuckled and said it was from Farmer Brothers. Sounded to me like a couple of brothers had set up an roasting operation in some old barn up a nearby dirt road. When I later googled Farmer Brothers to get more information I was in for a surprise. Farmer Brothers is a 1,800 employee wholesale coffee roasting operation based in Texas. This proves that I am not a coffee snob and that I can't tell the difference between a mass produced generic restaurant coffee and coffee brewed from high altitude coddled beans harvested one at a time by Guatemalan virgins.
I have a few theories on why I liked this coffee so much. One is that the coffee to water ratio was such that it resulted in an optimal strength and boldness that I could appreciate. A second theory is that Thayne has really good water. A third theory is that my taste buds were so titillated by the marvelous sausage and bacon that I could have drunk Sanka and been happy. Finally, maybe Farmer Brothers does have a good product.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
I have a few theories on why I liked this coffee so much. One is that the coffee to water ratio was such that it resulted in an optimal strength and boldness that I could appreciate. A second theory is that Thayne has really good water. A third theory is that my taste buds were so titillated by the marvelous sausage and bacon that I could have drunk Sanka and been happy. Finally, maybe Farmer Brothers does have a good product.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
SERVICE: Our waitress who I am guessing was also the owner, was soft spoken and business like. She came to our half booth promptly, took our orders graciously, and delivered our food without fault. I have nothing to complain about nor nothing to rave about it in terms of our service.
4 out of 5 stars
.
4 out of 5 stars
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THAYNE:
Thayne is tiny with only about 350 people. In sits in the southern part of the 50 mile long, 10 mile wide Star Valley near the Idaho border. The pulchritudinous valley is filled with meadows, lush green farm fields, and the Salt River and is hemmed in by two mountain ranges with peaks over 10,000 feet. Thayne itself has an elevation of 5,945. The sunny 70 degree June day we visited evoked my idea of the perfect summer climate. On the other hand, winter is said to be brutal. In December and January the average low is 4 degrees and the average high is 27 degrees. Thanye's record low is -38, recorded in 1979.
More than half of the population identifies themselves as members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Star Valley was settled by Mormon apostles in the late 1800s. Many of these Mormons practiced polygamy and came to the Star Valley seeking refuge from prosecuting lawmen in Utah and Idaho who were enforcing the federal Edmonds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882. It is unknown how many current residents in Star Valley still practice polygamy but I would recommend that they not use the half booth at the Wagon Wheel.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
Thayne is tiny with only about 350 people. In sits in the southern part of the 50 mile long, 10 mile wide Star Valley near the Idaho border. The pulchritudinous valley is filled with meadows, lush green farm fields, and the Salt River and is hemmed in by two mountain ranges with peaks over 10,000 feet. Thayne itself has an elevation of 5,945. The sunny 70 degree June day we visited evoked my idea of the perfect summer climate. On the other hand, winter is said to be brutal. In December and January the average low is 4 degrees and the average high is 27 degrees. Thanye's record low is -38, recorded in 1979.
More than half of the population identifies themselves as members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Star Valley was settled by Mormon apostles in the late 1800s. Many of these Mormons practiced polygamy and came to the Star Valley seeking refuge from prosecuting lawmen in Utah and Idaho who were enforcing the federal Edmonds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882. It is unknown how many current residents in Star Valley still practice polygamy but I would recommend that they not use the half booth at the Wagon Wheel.
BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:
We took a beautiful hike on the Big Elk Creek Trail just over the border in Idaho. We then spent the next two days exploring the wonders of Yellowstone National Park.
June 13, 2018
NEXT UP: MONTANA
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