If you hang around private aviation pilots long enough, you are eventually going to hear references to getting a one hundred dollar hamburger. You might wonder where on earth these guys go to spend that much money on a hamburger? Even a Wagyu beef burger in a ritzy restaurant does not cost that much. How do these guys acquire such expensive tastes and how do they afford it?
Flying is about adventure – big or small – and the $100 hamburger run is a bit of an adventure. The $100 hamburger is a euphemism for a burger purchased at an airport restaurant on a cross-country trip taken for fun. (Sometimes the restaurant is near the airport.) It is an excuse to get the plane out and go fly somewhere besides the local traffic pattern. Such trips actually help a pilot maintain proficiency, benefit the airplane by running the engine at operating temperatures for an extended period, and, of course, are an excuse to spend some time with friends. I am sure pilots can come up with a million other excuses – err, “reasons”, that is – to fly to a restaurant for a meal.
There is even a book about it: “The $100 Hamburger” by John Purner. His website, 100dollarhamburger.com, is an evergreen site supplemented by the community that participates there. There is a minimal monthly fee to be a member of the community.
Now, if one lives in New Mexico, you are generally not flying out to get a $100 hamburger, you are looking for a great $100 breakfast burrito! The breakfast burritos in New Mexico are nothing like those pale imitations you get at the fast food or drive-in places.
There are two basic categories of breakfast burritos: handheld or smothered on a plate. The handheld burritos use large flour tortillas, have eggs, papas (potatoes), and your choice of sausage, bacon, or chorizo. Many places offer to add New Mexico’s primary contribution to culinary culture: green chile! This wonderful concoction will be rolled and folded up (so full it can barely be rolled), and you will be asked the state question of New Mexico: red or green? (Do you wish red chile sauce or green chile sauce?) You are then given a small container of your choice to be drizzled judiciously over the end of your burrito as you hold it in your hand and eat it.
The second version is the smothered burrito that comes on a plate, and it is a wonderful thing! Same large flour tortilla, same ingredients, usually wrapped more loosely since it will not be handheld, and smothered with your choice of red, green, or Christmas. (Christmas is red on one half of the burrito and green on the other.) Woo-wee, good eatin’!
Now part of the fun of flying is going to new places along with seeing and doing new things. My flying feet had been getting itchy, I wanted to go to a new place or a place I had not visited in a long time. I needed to be able to grab a $100 breakfast burrito, and I wanted something interesting to see. Not too picky, right? I also wanted to take my friend, Jack Miller, along as he was a student pilot who was having a few nerves about some aspects of flight. Experiencing a full cross-country flight with its bumps, burbles, navigation, radio calls, etc. can help because is not uncommon for early student pilots to be overwhelmed with all they are trying to learn and the opportunity to simply sit and watch during a private aviation flight can be helpful. (And it’s fun! Did I say that already?)
So, where to go? In casting about, I remembered I had seen a booth at an airport event and read an article about the museum on the airport in Grants. The museum had an old air mail and Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) concrete arrow route guide as well as a beacon that was used to light the flight path once night flights began. There were also the generator shed that would be located at beacon site and other historic items. The museum would be interesting to see, and I had only flown to the Grants-Milan airport once and that was almost 20 years ago. That long-ago trip was for the initial in-person training Angel Flight required at the time. Grants was where the trainer was located, and Richard Ridenour (my partner in the Saratoga I was flying at the time) and I flew in, got the training, and flew right back out.
So, I had not visited there in a long time – check. It had something interesting to see – check. It would be about an hour long cross-country flight, so it was within reason but long enough to be of some value – check. BUT, what about the food?
Thank you, YouTube. Not long before our trip, a pilot out of Albuquerque had published a video about his fun flight to Grants and restaurant he visited. The restaurant was about a mile or so from the airport, but Grants-Milan, being a great, typical small town airport, had a crew car available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKgRf8CsHBw Food? – Check.
(Photo courtesy of Grants-Milan Airport Facebook page.)
On a Saturday morning in November, Jack met me at the airport, we fired up RizAir1, and away we flew to Grants. RizAir1 has quite a bit more performance that the Cessna 172s that Jack had been flying, so throughout all phases of flight I explained to Jack what I was doing and why I was doing it. I could see him relax a bit and the light start to come on as the flight progressed.
Here is a screenshot of our flight route going to Grants.
On the way back, I shot the GPS Runway 7 practice approach into Farmington to give Jack a quick exposure to the next step after the private pilot phase. (I was unable to log it as a practice approach because I did not have a legal safety pilot.)
But what about the food, you ask??!! Well things were working well for us that November day. The crew van was not present when we arrived, but the couple that had it returned with it within 10 minutes of our arrival. Jack and his wife each have independent businesses that necessitate travel to the Grants and Gallup area so Jack was somewhat familiar with Grants. Crew resource management dictates the more knowledgeable/experienced person handle the situation so, in this case, Jack became the designated driver. The map showed we could throw a rock and hit this place.
It was a good thing Jack was driving because road construction on the other side of the interstate almost turned our one mile trip into Gilligan’s Island three-hour tour. But after numerous detours, we found it and soon were on walking in to try out the Kiva Café (which is actually at the Love’s Truck stop in Milan).
It was a slow morning and there were only three or four other customers. Our waitress was prompt and friendly and we quickly ordered. What do you mean what did I order? A breakfast burrito, of course: Bacon – Red.
The interior of the Kiva is pleasant and interesting:
After a short wait, the purpose of the trip of the trip appeared before me – what a great looking burrito!
Yes, it tasted as good as it looked.
For you wayward souls who would want something besides the burrito, here is a portion of the breakfast menu, but be aware that prices have increased substantially with the minimum wage hikes and inflation that have occurred since this menu was posted online:
Fat, dumb, and happy, we proceeded back to the airport to enjoy the tour of the Western New Mexico Aviation Museum. The history preserved there is very interesting; but, alas, that must await another blog. After the tour, we mounted up and pointed RizAir1 home and were back in front of the hangar by 12:30 p.m.
Grants-Milan gives you the opportunity to visit a town that is along historic Route 66, along a historic airway, and that was the site of much of the uranium mining that provided the fuel for our weapons and naval vessels throughout the Cold War. Grants has the only museum in the world dedicated to uranium mining and it includes a re-creation of an underground mine. I need to plan a trip back to visit the mining museum.
Now where should I go next for a $100 burrito/hamburger?
Clear skies and tailwinds.
Gary Risley
© February 2023 RizAir Blog 23
All photos are the author’s unless otherwise noted.
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