October 13, 2009

What I Found Important

Just got back from a quick road trip with my wife. The place was not important, the purpose was not important. At least not for the purposes of this post. What was important was breakfast. 3 days on the road, 9 meals, and 6 of them were breakfast. Yesterday was an all breakfast day, the beauty of the American road trip is the inalienable right to eat breakfast all day long, with nobody giving you grief for doing it (my wife is great!). I had 4 meals on the road, all of them breakfast (my wife eats a more normal diet, trust me), all of them courtesy of the fine folks at Cracker Barrel, which has become our road meal of choice. They all look the same (very pleasant), the menu is the same (very consistent) and has lots of options, the best of which is all day breakfast availability. They always seem to be open when we are traveling and hungry, which is most of the time (hungry, not traveling). And the wait staff wear aprons with 1 to 4 stars on them, giving the meal a military feel (always good to feel safe on the road), you feel quite special when a 4 star comes up to you.

However, one sweet and sour note. We stopped for a drink and a rest break at a Burger King (drinks only, no meal) and I got served and paid for a senior coffee (that's what they call it, and I didn't realize it until I had paid and left and puzzled at the low cost of two drinks. The slowness of uptake might have been part of the reason for the sale at senior prices. Who knows?). Ah, to be humbled with a simple cup of coffee. But I am going to get old anyway, might as well start scoring one of the senior perks (no pun intended) on the road, reduced price coffee to keep us old folks awake and between the white lines. I guess I had it their way this time.

But lots of breakfast on a 3 day traveling holiday weekend. I tip my hat to the American breakfast on the road, a truly great meal.