40 x 40 - 8. Have a Monthly Date Night with My Husband (Part 4)

We have made it to the final three date nights.  June, July, and August.  Planning a year of dates was a lot of fun.  It definitely encouraged us to do things that we have always talked about doing, but just never followed through on.  June's date night was a prime example of this.

The Cowboy Dinner Tree is one of those places that is legendary around these parts.  It's hard to believe that way out in the middle of nowhere is a restaurant that is famous for large servings of steak and chicken.  We have always talked about going to see this place for ourselves.

 

Simple directions to the Cowboy Dinner Tree:  Head about 50 miles direct north of town until you see this sign:

 



 

Drive past the large herd of pet buffalo:

 

Keep going until you see this sign at an intersection just before you actually enter the town of Silver Lake. And by town, I mean gas station, tractor parts store, and cemetery. Don't be alarmed that it appears to be a road that leads to nowhere.

And just when you are convinced that this can't possibly be right, you come around a corner and find an oasis of cars and old-timey yard decorations.  That's when you know you have officially arrived.



The menu is fairly limited, steak or chicken.  When you call to make reservations (which is highly recommended) you place your order.  Scott made the wise decision to get one steak and one chicken.  The steak is more like a roast and the chicken is literally an entire chicken! 

You are immediately seated and served lemonade, salads, and rolls.  Before you can finish your salad,  she brings a large bowl of soup for you to share.  I am not sure if you noticed in the picture, but the concept here is that no one goes home hungry.  Everything is served in large quantity.



And whatever is leftover is happily bagged up for you to take home for the next day. 



The Cowboy Dinner Tree was definitely worth the drive, and possibly someplace we would take guests to.  It might become an annual event for us.

So now I have some bad news.  But first let me preface it by saying that planning 11 months in advance did not allow me to take into consideration changes in our plans.  For the month of July we were supposed to go on a canoe ride and have dinner up a local lake.  We had every intention of doing this, it's just that life happened and the canoe trip did not.  Between hosting a baseball player for a local summer league team and traveling Scott's niece's wedding and our summer vacation, we did not have a free day to squeeze this in.  But rest assured we had several other date nights in the month of July.

August was our 12th and final planned date night.  This was the one that I was most excited about!



Summer in our town gets very warm.  Not willing to spring for air conditioning, there are many nights in the month of August where it is almost unbearable to be inside our house.  Since it was August when I was originally planning these, this one came easily.



Using a white sheet from our spare bedroom, and some strategically placed binder clips to prevent holes, Scott hung a "screen" on the backside of our house.



With Daisy supervising, he ran the laptop, projector, and speakers out to the middle of the yard.



And then everyone waited patiently for it to get dark.

This night really lived up to my expectations!  It was such a beautiful night; warm enough that blankets were hardly needed.  We picked the perfect movie to watch under the stars.  I would absolutely do this one again, only next time I would invite some friends over for a movie party.

Well there you have it, a year of date nights.  I hope that you enjoyed these as much as we did, and are maybe inspired to try some new things.