On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 14:33:10 GMT, (A.T.
Hagan) wrote:
>
>Unless we're really pressed for time and simply need to shovel down
>some food (i.e. a drive through) when we're on a road trip we have a
>policy of trying never to eat at a chain we have locally, and better
>still a local place if we can.

Ditto here. Why eat the same food you can find at home? One of the
things I like most about traveling is trying local foods.

On Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:15:18 -0400, Nancy Young
> wrote:

>"A.T. Hagan" wrote:
>
>> Unless we're really pressed for time and simply need to shovel down
>> some food (i.e. a drive through) when we're on a road trip we have a
>> policy of trying never to eat at a chain we have locally, and better
>> still a local place if we can.
>
>I really wish I had even the tiniest knack for finding places to eat
>in a strange place, but alas, I don't. I mean, I once had a terrible
>lunch in a fast food place, even my dog wouldn't eat it, upon driving
>away, I saw that I was *literally* *no exaggeration* across the
>street from this restaurant where I'd wanted to try for years.
>Didn't realize I was even in that area of the state.

We have two rules for choosing a local place. First is there must be
local tags on the cars parked there, the more the better. The second
is that it must be clean.

We still get the occasional dog, but more often than not we find good
eats. Locals generally won't continue to frequent a place with poor
food if there's any choice in the area at all.

>However, I do tend to play it safe on the road, I'm not wild about the
>idea of eating something that doesn't agree with me when I am not
>near 'facilities' if you get my drift. I had a horrible experience
>with food poisoning at a little place in Vermont and I always bring
>just cold cuts and sandwich makings when stuck on the road for long
>stretches. Now, if I have a hotel room, I'd be more adventurous.

Of the rare times we've gotten a belly bomber on the road it was a
known chain place that did it to us except for an Aunt Sarah's Pancake
House in Richmond some years ago. For short trips we may carry
sandwiches and stuff, but this last one was much too long in duration
(two weeks) for carrying perishable foods but we did carry a drink
cooler and a box of snacky stuff to gnosh on for in-betweens.
Developed an appreciation for prunes that way.

>> Had en excellent opportunity to do just that this summer when I took
>> the family on a road trip from Florida to Maine for my brother in
>> law's wedding. We skipped the I-95 megalopolis and went up through
>> the mountains and then did the same on the way back but skipping all
>> of Massachusetts in favor of a cross country drive across southern
>> Maine, New Hampshire and into New York. Just over 4,000 miles start
>> to finish.
>
>That's the best part, driving around. My favorite. That's how I
>wound up at the crappy fast food place, taking a drive in north jersey
>leaf peeping.

Yep, we came down part of the Taconic parkway in New York, Skyline
Drive in the Shennandoah National Park and the first and last sixty or
so miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way back.

......Alan.


Post no bills

Buy the book ROAD FOOD. BG