Touring - Pie in the Sky

Seems like food is on my mind these days and I'm not even on the road.

But as all of you know, nothing, absolutely nothing makes for a better tour stop than good old homemade pie - a la mode optional. There are two places I've been that are off the charts in piedom:

1. The little cafe in Gibbonsville, Idaho on US 93 just south of Lost Trail Pass.
(I heard, though, that she had sold it.)
2. The olallaberry pie at the Davenport cafe north of Santa Cruz, Calif.

Any other nominations?

Cousins Country Inn, The Dalles, Oregon.

The Troutdale Mercantile, Troutdale, OR

Loman's Kitchen, Smithville, MO

No place on the western edge of Iowa from Sioux Falls, SD to Smithville, MO has pie! Well, one place did but they shouldn't. I know, I searched and I searched (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journal/?o=as&doc_id=888&v=98) but I couldn't find any.

Betty's Pies, Two Harbors, MN (highway 61 on Lake Superior North of Duluth)
Waitress didn't bat an eye when we came in and ordered pie for breakfast.
http://www.bettyspies.com/

Oooohhh yaaaa! The restaurant at Shabaqua Corner at the junction of Hwys 11 and 17 (TransCanada) 35 kms west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. This place specializes in pies -- I had oven-hot cherry. To die for....

Was the little place in Gibbonsville the Broken Arrow?? (It was sold, by the way :( ). I never got to eat there, too bad, I love good pie.

Most pies are a diappointment, unless home made with fresh fruit.

My place. Hot apple pie with raisin's, served with (home made) cinnamon icecream.
Almost forgot the Double Espresso :-)

My place. Hot apple pie with raisin's, served with (home made) cinnamon icecream.
Almost forgot the Double Espresso :-)

Okay, if you want to be that way ;) : My oven. Homemade bourbon laced, maple syrup based pecan pie. Nothing else needed. So good, I only make it twice a year - Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Okay, if you want to be that way ;) : My oven. Homemade bourbon laced, maple syrup based pecan pie. Nothing else needed. So good, I only make it twice a year - Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Maple syrup based pecan pie sounds very good, I'd have to try that one out, I'll check out some recipes on the net, unless you're willing to share that secret :-)
But I just can't imagine it being laced with bourbon, I've tryed bourbon once and it was awful, prefering to stay with single malt scotch :-)
I don't know if that would work.

Maple syrup based pecan pie sounds very good, I'd have to try that one out, I'll check out some recipes on the net, unless you're willing to share that secret :-)
But I just can't imagine it being laced with bourbon, I've tryed bourbon once and it was awful, prefering to stay with single malt scotch :-)
I don't know if that would work.

You use dark corn syrup like a normal pecan pie but you replace about 1/3 of the usual corn syrup with Grade B maple syrup. Grade B is the still bottoms from making maple syrup and has a very intense maple syrup flavor. The bourbon isn't too good for drinking but single malt would be to delicate for cooking. Sip the scotch and pour the bourbon in the pie (prior to cooking, of course :D )

I was thinking about all the wonderful pies during my various trips and it seems that they came when I was in little, bitty places. In larger towns and cities, restaurants are more institutional - even non-chain restaurants. It's the hole-in-the-wall places that still have the real thing. And it's only by biking around in the middle of America that you find them.

Betty's Pies in Two Harbors, Minnesota?
Ufda! You betcha!
Have tandemed several times from Duluth to Betty's just for the pie.