Vic Smith wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:53:16 -0400, H the K
wrote:


If you want to find a microcosm of "what is wrong with America," look at
the just terrible food available along the interstates. There are a
couple of exceptions, such as Waffle House and Cracker Barrel, but
generally...what's offered is just the worst of the worst.

Probably more to do with cheap, fast food and consistency than
anything else. Franchising those qualities drove the rest out.
Cracker Barrel and Waffle house don't fit the fast food mold, but
have the consistency.
That Nathans was an exceptional stop.
Imagine going through the Carolinas before franchising, and eating
hit or miss. Without local knowledge you don't know what crap
you'll be fed.
That's why we always brought a cooler and made up our own food
back in the day.

--Vic


We still do. We pace our trips, leaving before dawn so that we get to a
Waffle House in two or three hours for breakfast, then we cooler-dive
for lunch, and hit a Cracker Barrel for dinner. Pretty mundane, I
suppose, but it's worthwhile being very careful when eating on a long trip.

I often wondered what happened to that Nathan's. Every time we stopped
there, it was jammed. The chain is still around.

In the Carolinas...I try to imagine we've already driven through
them whenever we're driving the interstate in them. I like the OBX and
the South Carolina coastal areas, but the areas along the interstates
are just locales I wish we could "hop" over when driving. That's
probably why these days we mostly hop on an airline flight when heading
to Florida.