ON THE ROAD WITH IOWAN’S BOB & SHEILA EVERHART
California…..”The big sign on the side of the Coaster passenger train,” says Bob Everhart, “reads ‘The Doctor Is Encinitas.’ So, we thought we would leave our comfortable nest in Oceanside, and go to Encinitas and see what it was all about. We also wanted to visit Whole Foods before we started our trek back east to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.”
“It’s a cute catch-phrase,” Sheila added, “and Encinitas is a very different kind of California town. It’s full of surfers. Everywhere you look, especially along the beach and inland a short distance, is lots and lots of really small little houses, with a Volkswagen bus out front, and a surf board leaning up against the house. In these very busy areas are also lots and lots of little diversified restaurants catering to all kinds of food tastes, everything from Lao to Mao.”
“We thought we’d have lunch before we went grocery shopping,” Bob added, “so we walked down the main street of Encinitas looking for an interesting restaurant. Lots of nice looking Italian restaurants with outside dining on the sidewalk, but I must say, the downtown area is far different than the ‘surfer’ area. This is tourism at its best. The menu prices on the first couple of Italian restaurants we looked at didn’t seem too appetizing, so we kept looking. Then I heard Bobbie Lhea (the Everhart’s 15-year old daughter) pipe up, “Oh look, there’s a Peruvian restaurant.”
“So off we went,” said Sheila, “not expecting a budget lunch thats for sure. Even though it wasn’t all that expensive, the food was quite good. The name of the restaurant was ‘Qero,’ and the ambiance and interior decoration was really neat. Very Inca like with lots of bright colors. Bob ordered a kind of bread pie with ground beef in it along with a beet, onion, and goat cheese salad. I had an empanada, which is also a kind of vegetable bread pie, also with a beet salad. Bobbie on the other hand had a ‘skirt’ steak, a small steak that appeared to be like a small sirloin, with grilled vegetables. We all liked what we had for lunch, but probably wouldn’t do it on a regular basis.”
The Everharts are very busy with their entertainment schedule, especially this year of 2012. “This is the 100th birthday of one of our fellow recording artists, Woody Guthrie,” Bob enthused. “He isn’t alive of course, he died at the young age of 55, but we are certainly going to have a good time remembering him this year. I received a nice e-mail from his daughter Nora Guthrie, who is also very busy making sure everyone knows about her dad’s 100th birthday. We’ll be doing some special shows this year, at least one Oak Tree Opry show dedicated to America’s most popular folk singer, lots of activities at LeMars, and even a small show at our Fremont Festival. Do you remember his most famous song. Here’s just a few…”So Long It’s Been Good To Know You,” how about “Going Down This Road Feeling Bad,” and of course his most famous one of all “This Land Is Your Land.” In this political season, we sure do need to keep that one in mind.