West Auction - Stockyards Cafe Revisited

We're leaving for the annual Carmel trip in nearly four weeks - driving again this year.  Jay's new car has to have all its fluid drained and replaced once he puts on 1,000 to 1,200 miles.  We used that as an excuse to head down 35E to the thriving metropolis of West, Texas.  There's a cattle auction barn on the west side of 35E and in said building is a little cafe called The Stockyards Cafe.  I stumbled across this place ten or twelve years ago when my sister and I took Mom and Aunt Irene to San Antonio.  Sweet things for breakfast just doesn't do it for me - not even pancakes - so the kolaches for which West is famous was not enticing me.  We were directed to the Auction Barn Cafe.  This place has it all.  sweet, savory, and an awesome looking burger that passed our table today.

I'm still sticking to my NO SUGAR / NO GRAINS program, so I ordered eggs over easy with bacon.  Our perky waitress asked what kind of toast I wanted, but I declined.  She didn't quite get the concept of NO GRAINS and brought me this:

Yes, that's a whopper of a pancake even though it was declined.  The plate to the right was nearly empty when I finished - just left some of the hash browns.  Jay had scrambled eggs, French Toast and bacon.  He did a really good job of cleaning his plate.

So this Auction Barn is a working auction barn and each Thursday evening, the cattle are brought there for auction.  The aroma of their presence is apparent once you leave your vehicle.  Inside the cafe, it's lovely fried food smells.

I don't know if these guys/gals are sad because they didn't get purchased, got purchased, or the HEAT!  Poor dears.

After breakfast, we headed to the Outlet Stores in Hillsboro.  Wait - what outlet stores?  I could NOT believe my eyes.  More than 50% of the stores were vacant.  Granted, it's been several years since I stopped into this center, but was stunned.  It looked like a ghost town.

Not wanting to go straight home, we took 35W through all the little towns - where Jay got his Dairy Queen cone - and then north to Denton.  We got home with over 200 miles later.  Which means, we're going to have to head to Terrell next week to the peach orchard.  I think that should about do the trick and Jay can get his car into the BMW place for the fluid-letting.

So stay tuned as we'll be heading west in just over four weeks.