I Can't Believe all the Cracker Barrels

[Spock]

I have driven extensively through the south over the years-but never on as much interstate driving as this year to Charleston.

Holy mother of God-From southern Wisconsin to Illinois to Kentuckiana to Tennessee to Asheville to Charleston to Atlanta to Chattanooga across Northern Alabama to Corinth to St. Louis to Iowa to southern Minnesota-I swear to god that there was a Cracker Barrel at every interstate hotel/restaurant node-It was unfrickin-believable.

We ate at one in Asheville area. Had hoped to drive through Great Smoky Park-but lost a lot of time due to road construction traffic jams in Indiana and Kentucky so it was almost dark by the type we would have been there.

Night 1 -Danville Illinois on Ill/Indiana border-a 2/3 day drive. Ate at a Fuddruckers in Southern Wisc.
Light Industry is pretty obviously a mainstay in Indiana.

Night 2-Spartanburg SC-Cracker Barrel in Asheville Area.

Nights 3 and 4 in Mt. Pleasant, SC-suburb of Charleston.
First day in Charleston-did carriage ride and boat to Fort Sumter-ate at a downtown Seafood restaurant-Me and youngest are the only 2 of us who will eat seafood-Had Mahi Mahi.

Second day in Charleston-morning went to Patriots' Point-toured the ships and other stuff-this was a surprise bonus as I had done no trip research-then ate at Red's Icehouse on Shem Creek-I had Low Country Boil-good but not great. Then me and youngest went fishing and did well on Red fish-others went to beach-then Chic-Fil-A-Then a really fun/spooky Charleston Ghost tour.

Last Morning in Charleston-toured Boone Hall plantation-this was probably the main reason for the trip as wife (and all of us) are fans of the miniseries "North and South" and Boone Hall played "Mount Royal" in the show.

As we were almost driving by we made a quick stop at Stone Mountain in Atlanta area-totally different than I expected-this was probably the area of greatest friction of the trip as 4 of us wanted to stay for lightshow-however, Mrs S did not and one vote beats 4. We had reservations in Calhoun, Georgia and she did not want to get there too late.

Night 5-Calhoun, Georgia
Great visit to Chickamauga Battlefield-happened to make it in time for the first of only 2 daily ranger tours of the battlefield. Had an obviously autustic teenage boy on the tour whose area of focus was obviously the Civil War-encyclopedic knowledge of everything he talked about.

Then stopped at a BBQ shack-great meal-but our whole family is wondering how you eat a "Bone-In" rib sandwich-we have had the same question since our 2012 Texas trip.

Went to a military surplus/hobbyist shop across from the BBQ joint. Me and Littlest Spock could spend hours there. As a sidenote-they can't keep confederate flags in stock since the late events-they are selling like hotcakes.

Drove across northern Alabama-never been through that area-would have liked to stop at NASA in Huntsville-but you can only do so much and we had just visited Florida NASA in 2013.

Did an evening driving tour of Shiloh.

Then went back south to Corinth Mississippi for Hotel and my favorite meal of the trip-Mississippi Catfish-it was really good.

Next day-headed back north with a stop at St. Louis Arch-this took about 4 hours as it was a popular day with a long wait. It was something to do once-I can't envision doing it again-unless with grandkids or something.

Spent the last night in Cedar Rapids, Iowa-a much larger city than I expected. Then on to home and saw that the Cracker Barrel infestation has moved to southern Minnesota now (LOL).

My favorite part of visiting places like Chickamauga is visiting the park bookstores-winnowed my choices to 2 books-"War upon the Land"-environmental history of the war and "The Grand Design:Strategy and the US Civil War"-bought a biography of Zebulon Pike at the Arch.

[Estonut]

Then stopped at a BBQ shack-great meal-but our whole family is wondering how you eat a "Bone-In" rib sandwich-we have had the same question since our 2012 Texas trip.

It is my understanding that this is just a way to get a smaller portion of ribs (3 or 4) than a rack or half rack. Obviously, it's not intended to be eaten as a sandwich, since it has bones in it. It also has JUST white bread, no other sandwich stuff. If they took the rib meat off the bones, it would look like too small of a portion.

When I've had it, we were told to use the bread to keep our hands (relatively) clean and eat the ribs, pulling off bones when encountered. Some people eat the bread (maybe dipping it in sauce, if available), while others throw it away once it's served its purpose.

[BackInTex]

The infestation of Cracker Barrels is not near as bad as the Waffle Houses along the gulf coast from Biloxi, MS to Panama City, FL. I'm sure there are two actual touching each other somewhere along the way.


Sounds like you had a great trip.

[jaybee]

Ah, but the big question is: When you rolled into that Cracker Barrel for your evening meal.....did you have breakfast?

I just did a quick check. Number of Cracker Barrels within an easy 45 minute drive from my house = 12.

[BackInTex]

Ah, but the big question is: When you rolled into that Cracker Barrel for your evening meal.....did you have breakfast?

I just did a quick check. Number of Cracker Barrels within an easy 45 minute drive from my house = 12.

7 for me. Expand to 1 hour and I get 10.

Cracker Barrel used to be a one-time must for us on any road trip. Back then, the kids were young and we liked them getting healthier choices (vegetables, soup, etc.) than the kids meals at most restaurants (Mac & Cheese, fried chicken fingers, fries, etc.). We also like the biscuits and rolls. And playing checkers or the triangle-peg game (whatever it's called). And we bought our share of the "memorabilia" at the country store at check-out.

[Kazoo65]

We've got a Cracker Barrel here-conveinently located right near the highway and right next to a motel. My grandpa liked their meatloaf a lot. He would order it whenever we took him there for lunch.

[smilergrogan]

It's all the crackers I can't believe.

[Spock]

Ah, but the big question is: When you rolled into that Cracker Barrel for your evening meal.....did you have breakfast?

I just did a quick check. Number of Cracker Barrels within an easy 45 minute drive from my house = 12.

Don't remember what I had-not Breakfast though. What I do remember is----

I absolutely love regular size plain hershey bars-I have been known to drive to town (7 miles away) just to get my hands on one. However, I detest King Size Hershey bars-the texture is just wrong. However, Hershey recently came out with an XL size that is really good. The texture works-However, they are getting hard to find-Cracker Barrel store had their version of the XL and that was good.

The Spocklette loves Kit Kats and we often mention how good the Hersheys and Kit Kats were at the Hershey store in Pennsylvania. They were fresh.

Li'l Spock mentioned from his baseball trips that there were 4 Dunkin' Donuts on the same block in an eastern city (Boston?) so I told him the joke about a Starbucks inside a Starbucks.

[ghostjmf]

Tell Li'l Spock that Boston is the home of Dunkin'. Of IHOP too. A friend of mine worked at the orig IHOP before it was IHOP; it was a steakhouse south of Boston that had a sideline of fancy pancakes, & my friend was outside broiling the steaks during the 1st moon landing, so couldn't watch, they once told me.


While I'm still on the subject, I once asked a Southern friend how Waffle House, & also Huddle House, South-only phenoms, managed to remain in business. This was after I had had the worst cup of decaf at one of them I had ever had in my life. Mud-water taken from the ground outside would have tasted better. What passed for food was comparable in quality, though grits fans told me their grits passed muster.


"Look around" said the friend. "What else here is open at this (10:00pm) hour?"

[tlynn78]

I haven't seen the light show at Stone Mountain for probably twenty years, but can only guess it's gotten even better over time. Too bad you couldn't stay for it. Sounds like a terrific trip, otherwise.

Two Cracker Barrels in Montana, approximately 350 miles apart.

[Spock]

Tell Li'l Spock that Boston is the home of Dunkin'. Of IHOP too. A friend of mine worked at the orig IHOP before it was IHOP; it was a steakhouse south of Boston that had a sideline of fancy pancakes, & my friend was outside broiling the steaks during the 1st moon landing, so couldn't watch, they once told me.


While I'm still on the subject, I once asked a Southern friend how Waffle House, & also Huddle House, South-only phenoms, managed to remain in business. This was after I had had the worst cup of decaf at one of them I had ever had in my life. Mud-water taken from the ground outside would have tasted better. What passed for food was comparable in quality, though grits fans told me their grits passed muster.


"Look around" said the friend. "What else here is open at this (10:00pm) hour?"

The only place that we talked about going to and didn't make it was Waffle House. With a 17YO boy. 14 YO Girl and 12 YO we tend to stay at places where we can get 2 beds and a couch-usually some sort of suite. These places also have breakfast so we don't do other breakfasts-altho, I am very sick of hotel scrambled eggs by now. I am not going to pay for a nice hotel room plus breakfast somewhere else. One of the ways I rationalize staying at Hampton Inns-etc.

[ghostjmf]

I was still delivering cars for a (sort of) living when roadside places went over to using powdered eggs. Ever since then, though I generally prefer omelettes, I don't get them on the road if I think the place is using powdered eggs; I get sunny-side-up. Can't fake that. Same rules would apply to scrambled as do to omelettes.

[Bob Juch]

Tell Li'l Spock that Boston is the home of Dunkin'. Of IHOP too. A friend of mine worked at the orig IHOP before it was IHOP; it was a steakhouse south of Boston that had a sideline of fancy pancakes, & my friend was outside broiling the steaks during the 1st moon landing, so couldn't watch, they once told me.


While I'm still on the subject, I once asked a Southern friend how Waffle House, & also Huddle House, South-only phenoms, managed to remain in business. This was after I had had the worst cup of decaf at one of them I had ever had in my life. Mud-water taken from the ground outside would have tasted better. What passed for food was comparable in quality, though grits fans told me their grits passed muster.


"Look around" said the friend. "What else here is open at this (10:00pm) hour?"

There are three Waffle Houses here in the Tucson area and a bunch more around Phoenix. There aren't any in New York or New England.

Huddle Houses are south only except for North Dakota.

[Bob Juch]

I was still delivering cars for a (sort of) living when roadside places went over to using powdered eggs. Ever since then, though I generally prefer omelettes, I don't get them on the road if I think the place is using powdered eggs; I get sunny-side-up. Can't fake that. Same rules would apply to scrambled as do to omelettes.

Waffle Houses sell more eggs than any other restaurant chain.

[ghostjmf]

BJ says:

Waffle Houses sell more eggs than any other restaurant chain.

Ah, but can you sift the ones used for omelettes/scrambled eggs out of the box?

[TheConfessor]

I have never seen powdered eggs in any grocery store. I feel like I'm missing out. What aisle are they in?

[ghostjmf]

They are in the "we supply big restaurant chains" supplier places. This is probably not where you shop.

Oops; I can't do links on this tablet, but google Walmart; if you actually want some, they have them. So does Amazon.

The "take-home", pun intended, from this is that if something tastes awful there's generally a reason beyond "the cooks can't cook", though sometimes that does apply.

[ghostjmf]

For instance: On the "things that taste awful" front, according to America's Test Kitchen, a cheekily self-named crew, "quakers" are under-ripe coffee beans. Which can make cofee taste awful. Pick them out before you grind the beans, & get better coffee. According to ATK, there are 12 (or was it 24) in a bag of beans that, when ground & brewed, tasted awful to them, maybe 1 in a bag that tasted good.


Waffle House & Huddle House should read up on that, & use their underpaid staff to sort beans. Except they probably buy their awful coffee pre-ground.

[mrkelley23]

I haven't seen the light show at Stone Mountain for probably twenty years, but can only guess it's gotten even better over time. Too bad you couldn't stay for it. Sounds like a terrific trip, otherwise.

Two Cracker Barrels in Montana, approximately 350 miles apart.

And those may be the two buildings closest to each other in the state, right?

Light industry is definitely king in Indiana, although I might call it light manufacturing. We've mostly been going in and scavenging the businesses that want to leave high-tax, solid labor states and convincing them to business here, where the labor force is better than the cheapest countries. It may sound like a good strategy for a short-sighted governor, but it spells disaster to me.

They'll probably just blame it on whatever Democrats are left in the state when it all falls apart, though.

[tlynn78]

Two Cracker Barrels in Montana, approximately 350 miles apart.
And those may be the two buildings closest to each other in the state, right?

That might be slightly exaggerated, but only slightly.

[jaybee]

Waffle house is a legend in our house.

A few hours after Mrs. Jaybee and I wed, we were driving through nowheresville Georgia on our honeymoon. At 9:00 pm, a torrential storm moved through, chasing everyone off the interstate. We found a place to stay and went to eat. The only choice was Waffle house, so it became our first official meal together as married folks.

It's been 26 1/2 years and we haven't been back although we joke about it often.

[ghostjmf]

here are some powdered egg links, oh any nonbelievers:

http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=Po ... 99&veh=sem


http://pleasanthillgrain.com/ova-easy-e ... HwodqaAPZA (this one sounds aimed at those who have eaten previous, ugh, product)

http://www.amazon.com/Powdered-Whole-Eg ... B0006ZN4XE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powdered_eggs

Since the Wiki article says they were available since WWII (actually, 1912, but ref not given; also article says Chinese have been drying eggs since the middle ages), why weren't roadside diners using them ages ago, instead of starting in the '70s? Answer: Roadside diners used to specialize in non-gourmet but decent local food. And eggs from local farmers were probably cheaper than powdered. Then roadside diners became chains instead of local privately owned places, & chains like to cut deals with other chains, guarantee supply, etc, etc. Consistency was in, but quality was out.

[Spock]

On the subject of "Kinda Gross" eggs.

At one time I was a (minor) shareholder in an egg production coop-A few million hens-I forget how many.

Anyway-the production model was as an "In-line Breaker."

The eggs are directed into conveyor belts and taken directly to the "Breaking" building.

They are broken there and shipped out as semi loads of liquid eggs to McDonald's suppliers (etc).

Since they are broken on-site the hens don't need to be fed as much calcium because the eggs don't have to be durable for transport.

[ghostjmf]

This makes me even sicker than what I thought were powdered. Its amazing we who eat at these places all aren't dead of salmonella. Eggs are sterile. Until you open them, that is. Though I bet they antibiotic-up the chickens, part of what is making antibiotics useless when we really need them.

[TheConfessor]

It's been 26 1/2 years and we haven't been back although we joke about it often.

That good, huh?