UPDATE: March 19, 2008

I have been looking at my web stats and I find it so interesting that I get at least a half dozen people a week who are searching for tater tot pizza. Where is all this interest coming from? Why are you searching for tater tot pizza? Where did you hear about it? Please leave a comment.
Thanks,
Dallas


The day breaks with a tasty feast featuring venison steak. The kill is courtesy of a local resident who bagged several deer so far this season with his Amish friends.

It was prepared with care by Brenda, Cowboy Bill's wife of 27 years. She makes eggs to order and serves us grits, skillet toast and tender grilled venison. This is a true breakfast of champions.

We spend the afternoon at an Amish farm taking care of Blackie's needs for hoof care and fresh shoes. The young men running the shoe shop bang out a set of horse shoes in a half hour. That's fast.

They work in the 12' by 12' one room shoe shed, akin to a little roadside barber shop. It has a woodstove, anvil, hitching rail and a rack of horse shoes. They can do two at a time in this meager space. And they do it all day long, six days a week for less than $40 a horse. That's cheap.

Bill does his own shoeing, expertly at that. The three chat and trade stories for an hour.

Later, the young boy cracks a bull whip in the air outside testing a fix he did to the whip while watching Bill work away.

He heads to the barn and mounts a rowdy mule. He breaks him, running in extremely tight circles around the barn. In a few minutes, he leads him out for a short jaunt down the dusty dirt road. He continues to use the whip to simulate gun shots, conditioning the mule for hunting excursions.

The one room schoolhouse on the hill overlooks the farm, just across the road. Children attend through the 8th grade. Then learn life by living it. It's a simple life. And a good one at that.

We all part company in the early aftenoon.

Now I sit at Chet's Pizza, typing my reflections of the day. A cold beer hits the spot. Chet is a Korean War vet and former Golden Glove boxer undefeated with fifteen of seventeen knockouts in his pro career. He makes his own Italian sausage and serves up tasty pies in a tiny Tennessee town.

His pizzas are layered so thick you need a fork lift to serve a large. Seriously, you could feed a farmload of Amish with these pies. I've never seen a pizza so thick.

I order it with his secret 14 spice sausage, jalapenos and green olives.

Chet asks me, "Did you want some tater tots on that?"

"Sure Chet,", I reply with gratitude, "I'd love some tater tots on my pizza".