Conference jump4::eats

    Oh yes, I concur with the Cracker Barrel. Went to one for breakfast
    when driving from West Palm Beach to Orlando. Great place for a
    breakfast (although I did pass on the grits).
    
    Never saw one up here in Mass.
    
    joan
    

    There is a great Truck Stop on Route 84 in Pennsylvania, I think,
    that we have to look for when we travel that way.  It is far off
    the road.  Been awhile so maybe someone else who travels frequently
    can give more details.

Waffle House, Cracker Barrel or any major truckstop.  Most of these will serve
anything on their menu at any time of the day, which is real convenient for
the overnight driver.  The truckstops are also good for taking a quick nap in
the car if you need.

Dave

    ... but the Cracker Barrel has rocking chairs on the porch!  And great
    food, not your ordinary 'quick stop' fare.
    

    Larry, do not even CONSIDER going without a copy of Jan and Michael
    Stern's classic book _ROAD FOOD._  It lists dozens (hundreds) of
    interesting eateries all over the country.  (It's a few years old, but
    it seems that the good places don't disappear.)  Last road trip I took,
    the Sterns led me to the door of Sprayberry's Barbecue in Newnan,
    Georgia, and it's a spot I wouldn't have wanted to miss!

There's a pretty good web site pertaining to this too...

http://www.eathere.com/index.html

  THE ONLINE TRAVELERS' GUIDE TO  Road Food In The 90's

I second Cracker Barrel...wish we had them up North, they're great!  The
breakfast buffet at Shoney's is also very good, but the seafood buffet was
awful at the one we went to.

Laura

There's a Cracker Barrel near the jct of I90 and US4 
in N. Greenbush, NY. Not sure if it's the same chain,
but it just opened within the last 3 months or so...

    Well I'm back.  I must admit that road food is better than it used
    to be when I was a kid although next time I'll look at the book
    Dick recommended.  The Cracker Barrel lived up to my memory of it
    although by the 2nd day of the return trip I was tiring of pecan
    pancakes!  BTW they have there batter mix on sale at their shop
    which is an all in one mix (just add water).  They claim to use the
    same stuff in the restaurant which surprised me because the cakes
    are quite good.  I think its the amount of pecans they add (lots) that 
    make them so good.
    
    Also hit a couple good buffet places as well.  I like the buffet's 
    because at least I can get some veggies.  The one's down south have
    a southern slant to them which is nice. Different kinds of greens 
    show up.  The two we hit were the Long Horn in Walterboro SC and
    the Western Sizzler in Ashland VA.  Both were decent. I like the
    Long Horn better because it was not part of a chain from what I
    could tell.
    
    I wish I could remember the name but there is a very southern home
    cooking place in Rocky Mt, NC.  Its well known and liked down there
    and I went there on a previous trip.
    
    Happy Driving (although I much prefer biking)!
    -Larry
    
    

    
    Just did the MA->FL drive and back myself!  Mostly stuck to pizza's
    on the road this time, but of course I had to stop and get *something*
    at South Of The Border :^)

    
    >> but of course I had to stop and get *something*
    >> at South Of The Border :^)
    
    Now there is a topic worthy of discussion "tacky tourist traps".
    This is probably the wrong notes conference but what the heck ...
    there is food at them usually.   The two that come to mind for me are:
    - South of the Border in South Carolina.... as you mentioned.
    - Wall Drug in South Dakota
    
    There are probably others.  What distinguishes these places is the
    billboards that are sometimes 100's of miles away advertising them.
    When you get within 50 miles there is one every 5miles it seems and
    they have tacky lines like:  " I cant believe a sausage such a place".
    Unfortunately their time has come and gone (at least south of the
    border).  They were probably great back in the 60's when there where few
    options.   .... But its still hard to resist stopping!  must be
    some subliminal hypnosis one gets from reading those billboards :-)
    
    -Larry                                      

For what is it worth, I have stopped at South of the Border off and on
since the 60's and frankly I am more apt to stop now than then.

I would call it passable and certainly an interesting place to stop
occasionally, sort of like Spag's.  Wall Drug struck me as similar
but a perhaps a bit less tacky keeping in mind of course that it is
a tourist stop.

There are worse places, Shoney's immediately comes to mind, and better
place, such as the Cracker Barrel.  But then isn't the real joy of
those trips going to the one of a kind restaurants that you can never
find again on the next trip?

Bob...

re: .8

>>>    I wish I could remember the name but there is a very southern home
>>>    cooking place in Rocky Mt, NC.  Its well known and liked down there
>>>    and I went there on a previous trip.
    
   Gardner's I believe.  I've been there...it is hard core southern fer sure.  
   Us Yankees best be prepared for tastes we have never experienced before.
   Quite interesting, and worth a curiosity visit, but I didn't take to some 
   of the flavorings.

   Clark

    >> Gardner's I believe.  I've been there...it is hard core southern fer
    sure.
    
    Yep!  thats it.  If you dont want standard fare this is the place.
    -Larry

    Re .10
    
    > hard to resist stopping [at South of the Border]
    
    No, it's not.  I stopped there once, in the early '70s.  Remember that
    adverb: ONCE.  The place was the epitome of tacky, it was dirty, the
    food was bad and overpriced.  I can't help recalling the epithet that
    Brits apply to Sabena, the Belgian national airline.  They say SABENA
    is an acronym for Such A Bloody Experience - Never Again!
    

    
   >               The place was the epitome of tacky, it was dirty, the
   > food was bad and overpriced.  
    
    I know, isn't it great!  :^)
    
    I guess you have to enjoy things in the so bad they're good category.
    If it was *just* tacky that'd be one thing.  But it reigns supreme
    as *THE* monument to over-the-top tackiness.  It is the King of
    Schlock...  which makes it something to see.
    
    When we were kids and our parents drove us to FL, watching for all
    the SOB signs made the long drive a little more fun.  I guess you
    remember that nostalgiacally more than anything else.  And besides,
    you gotta stop and go to the bathroom *somewhere*  :^).
    
    Anyway, on this stop, I picked up a little 50 cent book of pictures
    of the more famous billboards.  My personal favorites were:
    
      "South of the Border, 347 rooms - Heir Conditioned!"
    
      "Kids - start yelling!  Your parents will stop!"
    
    
    - Sean