Dad has always loved to go out to eat. For his birthday in July of 2007 my daughters, Leslee, Mom and I all took him to lunch. There is a restaurant called "The Claim Jumper" in Tempe that is about 35 minutes away. We all met there and he had lunch with "the girls". He ordered his favorite - Chicken Fried Steak. This comes with two pieces of fried steak, potatoes and gravy, a biscuit and salad. He was in heaven as you can see from the pictures. In the first picture, dad is "stretching" his mouth to be ready to smile, and he says we took the picture before he was finished stretching.
One day about 6 months later mom and dad went to visit Leslee. Dad was still driving at that time, but was only to drive to familiar locations....Sonic, church, and to Leslee's and back. He wanted to go get some lunch on the way home, it was about 5:00 at night. He didn't tell anyone he was going to lunch somewhere other than on the direct route from Leslee's house to my house. At 6:30 I called them and found them on their way trying to find Claim Jumper. He knew it was on the road "Baseline" but didn't realize the restaurant was about 25 miles or 40 minutes away on Baseline, an especially long trip during rush hour. I gave him directions on how to get back, and then we talked about the importance of letting someone know where you are going....especially when you are only supposed to be driving from one or two locations to another.
Since then, I have taken dad to Claim Jumper a couple of times, and he always orders the same thing. This July we went again for lunch for his birthday, and he ordered the same thing. I knew he was in a different place physically and mentally as he thought I had gone out and moved the car during lunch. He "knew" we had parked somewhere differently that where the car actually was.
Dad had also learned that his favorite meal is too much to eat in one meal and this time he ordered his lunch divided, with half put in a take out box ready to take home and the other half served "on a hot plate" of course. Very clever as he had double the mashed potatoes and biscuits going that way.
Claim Jumper will always be known as dad's restaurant.
One day about 6 months later mom and dad went to visit Leslee. Dad was still driving at that time, but was only to drive to familiar locations....Sonic, church, and to Leslee's and back. He wanted to go get some lunch on the way home, it was about 5:00 at night. He didn't tell anyone he was going to lunch somewhere other than on the direct route from Leslee's house to my house. At 6:30 I called them and found them on their way trying to find Claim Jumper. He knew it was on the road "Baseline" but didn't realize the restaurant was about 25 miles or 40 minutes away on Baseline, an especially long trip during rush hour. I gave him directions on how to get back, and then we talked about the importance of letting someone know where you are going....especially when you are only supposed to be driving from one or two locations to another.
Since then, I have taken dad to Claim Jumper a couple of times, and he always orders the same thing. This July we went again for lunch for his birthday, and he ordered the same thing. I knew he was in a different place physically and mentally as he thought I had gone out and moved the car during lunch. He "knew" we had parked somewhere differently that where the car actually was.
Dad had also learned that his favorite meal is too much to eat in one meal and this time he ordered his lunch divided, with half put in a take out box ready to take home and the other half served "on a hot plate" of course. Very clever as he had double the mashed potatoes and biscuits going that way.
Claim Jumper will always be known as dad's restaurant.
