"Freshly Baked Pies" — I'll Be Ready in Five Minutes

Last day of the weekend was sad :( It felt like I blinked and the weekend was over. Probably some sorcery the spider performed on me. In any case, I did NOT want to leave...! Speaking of the eight-legged little bugger, the two of us had an eventful morning. As I said before, I made sure I had eyes on him at all time. The important thing here is to not be caught unawares. So, I woke up early in the morning to go to the bathroom. It's sooooo pitch black dark that your eyes never adjust. So I had to literally crawl on the floor and pat my hands around for my phone to get a little light. Finally with my flashlight in hand, I slowly open the bedroom door. I knew Old Eightlegs was last spotted on the wall directly across from my door. So I shine my light across and nothing... I start panning the room and still nothing! I can feel my heart rate going majorly up as I slowly scan the room again - still nothing!! I'm full on panicking now, and Conor is all the way in the main house too far away to hear me scream should an attack occur. I've just about made up my mind to trek it to the bathroom when I realize I didn't check the walls right beside me. I flash to the right, nothing, flash to the left, BAM!! There he is, not a full 3 inches FROM MY FACE. Screamed and bolted to the bathroom, locked the door, threw up (not really), wiped the cold sweat from my forehead (really), and considered my options. When I came back out, he was smack in the middle of my door and we had a full blown standoff until I admitted defeat, threw on a sweater and went to join Conor watch football. Oyyy

Anyway! Back to leaving :( It was so amazing to spend real time with Conor's family. I felt so welcomed and taken care of and even loved by the whole Davison lot. They are a warm and witty bunch, my favorite kind! So sad to say goodbye, but hoping to come back soon!

Back on the road.

There are two ways to get from Sydney to Orange. You either take Bells Line or the mountain road through Katoomba. From Sydney to Orange, we drove the Katoomba way, and Conor mentioned that he had been to an amaaazinggg pie place when he did the drive during Uni, but to our dismay it was on the Bells Line route. But driving from Orange to Sydney, that's the way we went! A few hours into the hilly, windy drive, we were all famished. Jess remembered about the pie place and told Conor to pull over once he saw it. Not even five minutes later, we came across a sign, "Freshly Baked Pies"! So excited, we pulled over and hopped out.

Super gorgeous location... The restaurant is perched high up in the mountains and the back of it looks down into a valley. Also I should mention that pies are a big thing here. Like savory, "meat pies". I've never had a proper one, but a "servo pie" (pie from a service/gas station) is just as popular. Anyway, this place looked good, and boasted savory and sweet apple pies.

There was a line of about 10 people (always a good sign!) and by the time we made it to the register, all the savory pies had been sold! Pretty big bummer, since we were all starving, but we just figured we'd go for the apple pie. One slice was $6 and a whole pie was $10, so math told us to get the whole thing. I picked a cute table by the window and we sat around for a few minutes before realizing we had no way of eating this whole pie. Conor went to the register to get plates and cutlery, but was denied since we only paid the "takeaway price". Annoying. So we brought the pie outside and dug in.

A few bites in Conor asked if I liked it. I said I did, and he instantly knew I was lying. I guess when you have a "weird thing about food", it's pretty obvious. But literally this pie was like bad. Which seems so odd because they are on an apple orchard, like this shouldn't be that hard, right? But the apples were mushy and the pastry was flavorless... so sad. Conor said it had been a while since he was here and maybe it had just changed over the years. So back on the road we went, still hungry and a little crestfallen.

Not even kidding, maybe 4 minutes into the drive, we see another sign, "Freshly Baked Pies". Conor yells, "This is the place!! This was totally it!" He pulls over and is talking excitedly about how it's way more familiar than the last place and how it's definitely the one he visited while in Uni. Jess and my spirits are completely lifted as we head inside to order. A quick glance at the pies on display had me suspicious but we were determined. We ordered our savory pies first - I got a sausage roll, literally a sausage rolled in pastry dough - and sat down. Conor and Jess immediately declared this place to be no good. I didn't really have any reference for my sausage roll and quite enjoyed it. Silly American, what do I know? But I did know better than to attempt the apple pie again...

We got back in the car a little sad that the pies were such a letdown, but at least we weren't hungry anymore. And whaddayaknow, we pass a THIRD "Freshly Baked Pies" sign, and Conor says - yet again! - "THIS was the place!! This was TOTALLY it! "Pie in the Sky, that's the name!!!"

Jess and I begged him to turn around but onward he drove, arguing that we had already eaten AND had pie. It was a fair point but we wanted the real deal. So it was decided that when we all make the drive again for Christmas, we will stop at PIE IN THE SKY. Just to irk Conor, Jess and I looked up reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor and start reading them aloud. Pie in the Sky has like 100 amazing reviews on TripAdvisor; the other two places barely get mentioned, and when they do, it's not pretty... And then to top it all off, Jess gets a text from their mum telling us about "a great pie place called Pie in the Sky that we should stop at"... I literally can't make this up. Conor nearly drove us off the mountain.