I once had the Shoney’s breakfast buffet in VA the morning after a Dave Matthews Concert. I remember it to be one of the best breakfast buffets I have ever eaten. I would stop again if ever I pass one again. The one place I love to stop anytime is White Castle or Stewarts Root Beer Stands.

Funny, Bucky, we do just the opposite - we avoid the chains and will find a local place, preferably with a lot of cars in front of it. Diners, Inns, whatever.

True, the quality won't be as even as at the chains - there, you definitely know what you're going to get. But by trying local places, we've had some truly memorable meals. Some bad ones, too, but that's what makes it exciting!

We make semi-annual trips to Kentucky and like to stop at Fazoli's. It's fast-food Italian, but actually pretty good. We also always have to stop in Cumberland, MD at the Roy Rogers on the way home, because you just never see them anymore.

Bucky et al --

American Pie references was a category just this past Tuesday night at the Wharf Rat's trivia night.

this was the supef final bonus question :

what well-known entertainer (musician) was scheduled for that fateful flight but wasn't feeling well (or something) and gave up his seat to the Big Bopper?

No fair Googling...

We always look for diners and Ruby Tuesdays when we're road tripping.

I always travel with my copy of The Beer Lover's Guide to the USA". Additionally we really like cafeterias like Picadilly in the South and in Ohio and Indiana MCL. Out west there was chain called Wyatt's. Quick but very good and you can get your daily dose of vegetables. Why do cafeterias have such good beets? Pickled for my salad and harvard as a side dish. In good weather get some pie to go and enjoy it at a picnic table or one of those senic view pulloffs. In bad weather eat it at the restaurant. During our trip to St. Louis at Thanksgiving we ate three meals at MCL's.

gorelick - Probably talking about Waylon Jennnings, who was a fill-in Cricket for Buddy Holly. I didn't google.

>>American Pie references was a category just this past Tuesday night at the Wharf Rat's trivia night.

this was the supef final bonus question :

what well-known entertainer (musician) was scheduled for that fateful flight but wasn't feeling well (or something) and gave up his seat to the Big Bopper?

No fair Googling...

Wasn't it Waylon Jennings ??? And no I didn't google it, for some reason that factoid is stuck in my head.

I agree with Zevonista. I refuse to eat at anyplace on the road or on vacation that I could find at home. Road trips are the venue for adventure and nothing evokes adventure like trying new food. I will however revisit local favorites. I just returned from a pleasure weekend in Nashville where I couldn't wait to return to one of my absolute favorites. I ate two days in a row at Monell's. I'm still daydreaming about their corn pudding.

what well-known entertainer (musician) was scheduled for that fateful flight but wasn't feeling well (or something) and gave up his seat to the Big Bopper?

Waylon Jennings, I think.

ShannonDab - Not sure what area you are in, but there is a Roy's in Westminster, Route 140, before you get to McDaniel College.

Have to agree with Zevonista - avoid the chains go for the local spots. Sometimes (like at the diner in New Jersey that had scrambled lox,onion and eggs or the restuarant on the way home from NC that was somewhere in northern VA and had the best tuna steak ever) we've been very very lucky sometimes just ok.

gorelick - don't know that answer, but I do know that "the joker on the sidelines in a cast" refers to Bob Dylan. Do I get points for that? :)

I travel extensively for work and pleasure and I use Michael & Jane Stern's Roadfood books plus Roadfood.com as one of the guides to regional food places to try while out and about.

Yeah, I avoid chains, too, except sometimes for breakfast. I do like Eat N Park's breakfast buffet. It has a large selection of the basic food groups - sugar, fried and meat. Usually a little fresh fruit, too.

Besides that, I'd rather find the diner, local sit down or BBQ joint with lots of cars out front. If you have BMWs, pickups and 20 year old Chevy's in the parking lot, you've probably found something close to heaven.

Or a strip club.

South of the Border!

gorelick - Waylon Jennings

Long aog, I learned that when I'm driving alone semi-cross-country (Nearly Memphis) that chains are safest. There was a time when those local places could be a bit rough. (There was a place in Chatanooga....)

When I have a travelmate, I love to stop in local eateries.

My favorite roadtrip was about 8 years ago. We went up to Cleveland to the R&R Hall of Fame, and St. Louis, where we played a little BlackJack on the Riverboat and went up in the Arch. Hit Lambert's Cafe (Th'owed Rolls) in Arkansas, and Graceland in Memphis and then caught NASCAR in Kingsport/Johnson City/wherever tthat is.

I'd really like to drive Route 66.

We did a cross country trip a few years ago and one of our rules was that we couldn't eat at a fast-food place, the exception being Sonics, since they don't have them around B-more. They have the most amazing limeade! We also ate at Uncle Bud's Catfish & Such in Tenn, where I had an unfortunate incident with whte gravy, mistaking it for pepper parmesan dressing and putting it on my salad.

I'm with Zevonista et. al. about looking for local places when I'm traveling, especially if there is an iconic specialty in the neighborhood -- the equivalent of a real Baltimore crab cake. Over the years I have picked up remaindered copies of Rachel Ray's $ 40 a Day and Alton Brown's companion to Feasting on Asphalt which have some pretty good recommendations. And when a good review in Zagat and the AAA tourbook match up on a place it's usually worth a stop.

Sometimes I am in charge of getting a group of people fed at a meeting or conference, and then I will fall back to one of the more upscale chains like P.F. Changs or Bonefish Grill.

Oh, and as a kid traveling with my family (two parents, five kids and a pop-up trailer from, say Philadelphia to San Diego and back -- we are no longer very close!) we had to stop at at least one Stuckey's a day.

I stick to the grocery store salad bars.

Dion. Pretty sure. Waylon Jennings was in Buddy's band at the time.

well done everyone . it was Waylon Jennings. Bucky got it first.
I am a fill-in Cricket for no one :-(

Joyce, yes, points for you! Points for everyone!! (except for people)

except for some people.

Sessa - have you ever been to South of the Border? Back when I was married, I forced the husband to stop there while on a late-winter roadtrip to Hilton Head. I browsed tacky shops for hours. He bought a trunkful of fireworks and then leaned against the car, waiting.

Pigtown - What a great name "Uncle Bud's Catfish & Such"!! How was the catfish?

Uncle Bud's has a website:

http://www.unclebuds.com/menu.html

gorelick and all - That Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to the Big Bopper is the legend (as told primarily by Jennings himself in later years.)

I've also heard a story that originally the three seats on the aircraft were made available to three of : Holly, Valens, Richardson and Dion Dimucci (Dion & The Belmonts, who were the 4th headline act on the tour.) Apparently Dion declined for some reason and that's why Holly, Valens and Richardson were on the plane.

One never knows which story is true; the Jennings story became more accepted as Jennings' fame grew, I think.

I swear by Roadfood.com. It is a great resource, and most of the people are very helpful and very friendly. I've gotten some great tips there. Places like Tom Jenkins BBQ in Fort Lauderdale (if you go there get the collard greens) that I would have never found on my own.

Now Bucky, you know we could have made the American Pie post work. First, obviously, pie in all its manifestations. Apple, Pumpkin, Blueberry, Moon. Also the reference to "whisky and rye" (aka Still Water) would prompt fond reflections on Maryland Rye. Surely someone broke out the wieners and marshmallows "as the flames climbed high into the night". And that "sweet perfume" in the half time air : Pit Beef. "With no time left to start again" ... well, certainly not after you've been waiting an hour for your menu, right Pigtown? We could wonder what happened to all the supper clubs of yore while pondering the line "And can you teach me how to dance real slow?"

I really want to read your annotated version Bucky.

I wonder if Maryland Girl Scouts put Old Bay on their s'mores?

Did y'all read that menu from Uncle Bud's? It was the "& such" that had me worried. Gator, frogs legs, white beans... all washed down with gallons of sweet tea.

Bucky, around 1974, while I was working in Germany, the American Armed Forces Radio Network broadcast an hour-and-a-half analysis of American Pie, likely for the 15th anniversary. I still kick myself for not taping it. Could you post a reference to your "other" blog post so this can truly be "The Only Blog You Need."

Depending on where I was when I was traveling, I usually had been there often enough so that I knew some good local places. It was only when I was traveling with someone else that we wound up going to the national chains. Some folks like the consistency.

Laura Lee and R-I-E, here you go

http://newnotesfromthemorningmeeting.blogspot.com/

Lissa, you gave me a good outloud chuckle!

Bucky, Gorelick, etc.-

According to Dion Dimucci, he was offered a seat on the plane but declined due to the cost. The two remaining seats then went to Jennings and Tommy Allsup, both member's of Buddy's band. It was Richardson who was sick and got his seat from Jennings. Valens persuaded Allsup to flip a coin for the remaining seat.

I confirmed my original answer by referring to Philip Norman's Buddy Holly biography, "Rave On".

FWIW.

When we're traveling, more often than not we'll look for a diner rather than a chain. I remember one in Hartford, CT where I had a fabulous homemade pastitsio and my husband had the best New England clam chowder he ever ate. I love diners!

Paul R - it's worth something to me because my source for the second explanation was a guy hanging out at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake on the day I visited it in...maybe 1998, 1999...somewhere around then. You cite a reference much more authoritative than "a guy hanging out at the Surf."

Eve, Lambert's is in Missouri.

LIssa ... my daughter was a girl scout, and no, she did not use Old Bay on S'Mores. On toast for breakfast, yes; on salad for lunch, yes; on mystery meat for dinner, yes. On dessert, no.

Sigh ... Some lessons a dad tries to teach just don't take.

EEL,
There are actually three Lambert's. Two in Missouri and one in Foley Alabama. Sikeston, MO is the original and the one in Ozark as well.

If we are to believe the Wikipedia entry (advance apologies to Prof. McIntyre), the plane was originally chartered for Buddy Holly and his back-up players, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup. Jennings ceded his seat to the Big Bopper, and Allsup lost his seat to Ritchie Valens in a coin toss. Dion DiMucci decided not to seek a spot on the plane because be couldn't bear the thought of paying $36 (the same as his parents' monthly apartment rent in the Bronx).

My condolences, MD Canon. I hope your grandchildren put Old Bay on their melted marshmallows.

THE OHIO TURNPIKE

When we drive the 14 hours to my parent's house in Michigan, we eat granola bars and cross our legs through PA until we get to the first service area on the OH turnpike. Each service plaza is an oasis that shines like gold on the horizon. Always clean, decent gas prices, and at least 5 fast food choices from McD's to Au Bon Pain. After we leave Ohio, we like to stop at a Meijer store (they were around years before Super Walmart) and eat from the in-store cafe and salad bar.

I wonder if Maryland Girl Scouts put Old Bay on their s'mores?

Not the troop I lead 20 years ago. They did enough else.

(This might be a second posting....this laptop is really pushing its luck with me!)

EEL - I dare you to tell the difference between SE MO and NE AR

Lissa - I'm with Joyce, you just made me laugh out loud...Reading through about American Pie,travel food, Uncle Bud, then bam, your Old Bay comment! Definitely a "shiny thing" moment! By the way, I have to share this with you. I had a steak last night and I thought of you. Why? Because a long time ago, the topic of steak fat came up, and you made a comment that I think about every time I have a steak..."I adore steak fat"!

Eve, I spent a lifetime in SE Missouri one year. Cape Girardeau to be exact. Helped Alberici Construction build a cement plant. When my VP said next stop was New Madrid, MO (south of Sikeston) for an aluminium plant I said no thanks and headed north.

AmyLynn, I hate those new plazas on the Ohio Turnpike. They replaced the old, quiet plazas, with professional waitresses who kept your coffee mug full and real, cooked to order food.

Now, especially if I'm driving overnight, all I can get to eat is, at best, something cold and too sweet. No protein. If I'm driving the day shift, they are loud, too bright and no one refills my (suddenly very expensive) coffee.

Trixie, I hope your steak had very tasty fat . I can't wait until the JFX market reopens, so I can get steak again.

Local places scare me. Especially down south. It takes alot for me to even try a local place here.

I know exactly where the first Bojangles, Sonic, and Hardees are on 95 South. And it's all eaten in the car. I have no time to stop. Gas, bathroom, and food all in one trip and it's back in the car to eat it. Only stopping for 10 minutes, max. Once at our destination, there is always a trip to Waffle House.

Of course, if I go the other way (95 North) and get anywhere within 100 miles of NYC, I have to go into the city and get pizza. Anyone who knows me knows that's a given.

Carey wrote there is always a trip to Waffle House

I love the Waffle House, although it isn't a road trip destinaiton for us. It's an after-poker, late-night breakfast place for the guys I play poker with. With whom I play poker. You know.

We like the local places, too, but we don't usually go find them while we are traveling, due to time constraints. We're more likely to find them at our destination when we are going to be there for a few days and don't have to get on down the road that day.

Waffle House just isn't right since they went non-smoking.

Waffle Houses, while sometimes a little rough around the clientele edges, are a safe stop for a woman driving alone.

Heading North, I skip the Maryland Houses and the Delaware stop and go to Mike's Famous Harley's, just before the Delaware Memorial Bridge into NJ. The bathrooms are cleaner, the food is a limited menu but pretty good, small boys in the party can look at motor cycles, the parking lot is ringed with trees for the dog and there is outdoor eating so the dog can get a few extra minutes out of the car.

When passing Hancock MD (whether by car or bicycle) I always stop in at Weaver's for salad bar and pie. Weaver's is the kind of place where you start with breakfast.

(P.S. Italy has the best reststop food Autogrill.)

We used to stop at Weavers in Hancock on our way to Green Ridge State Forest to camp. It was always our last comfortable meal for a few days, especially since we camped mostly in late fall and winter.

Ten or fifteen years age my hus.and I were on I35 going in our motorhome to Mn. we camped in a small city park and drove our car into the town. we ate at a restruarnt on a large lake. we had woleye (sp?) Can anyone tell me where we were? I can't remember.

Sounds like walleye, Bobbie. Good fish.