Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Convenience
Ok, I'm finally getting around to posting on this thing. God only knows how regularly I'll post, but here goes:
So we (me+wife+daughter) are driving up the New Jersey Turnpike to a birthday party last Saturday, and I'm seeing the signs for the rest areas, and I'm thinking, "Man, these oases (plural of oasis-didn't know 'til I looked up here) of convenience are the only places you can find a Roy Rogers, Popeye's Chicken or Bob's Big Boy restaurant anymore." I mourn the disappearance of each from the suburban landscape.
Roy Rogers served good burgers and that thinly sliced roast beef, but what kept me a regular customer was the Fixin's Bar. I would load up a sandwich with about 2 pounds of onions, pickles and BBQ sauce and eat the droppings off of the foil wrapper.
Popeye's served the best fast food fried chicken and a host of other deep fried items. Their spicy chicken was gooooood (Sho-nuff).
Big Boy's? 3 words: cheap breakfast buffet. 2 more words: hangover remedy.
Now I guess I could still eat at these places if I was willing to go to one of the Turnpike/Parkway rest areas, but my values forbid me to do so. I refuse to pay the inflated prices for everything from bottled water to No-Doz. Burgers, gasoline, frozen yogurt, sunglasses, generic tee-shirts with the the name of the state or local tourist trap, all annoyingly more than you will pay elsewhere.
Now I know what some people will say, (affected voice) "Your are paying for the convenience of not having to get off the highway, particularly in an unfamiliar area." Come on people! Convenience is cooking dinner in half the time, or cutting a half-hour off your commute, or paying all your bills with a few clicks of the mouse, or uploading 200 vacation pictures to Sam's Club, not saving the 2.5 minutes it takes to get off the highway and get back on again.
And it's not like you exiting the interstate and landing in the middle of Deliverance. Even the most remote areas generally have a few signs of civilization just off the highway. In fact there seems to be some law in all states south of Maryland that requires that a Cracker Barrel be constructed within 500 yards of every interstate exit. If you don't believe me look at the freebie franchise map available at any location. The little numbered circles are covering every square inch of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. It appears that they've built them where the Stuckey's once stood. (Mmmmm... pecan log).
So no Fixin's Bar for me, and I feel good about my decision. It's a moral stand.
Footnote: They are starting to build Long John Silver's in Southern New Jersey (Mantua, Berlin, Willingboro, more on the way). Now if we could just get some Golden Corrals around here.
So we (me+wife+daughter) are driving up the New Jersey Turnpike to a birthday party last Saturday, and I'm seeing the signs for the rest areas, and I'm thinking, "Man, these oases (plural of oasis-didn't know 'til I looked up here) of convenience are the only places you can find a Roy Rogers, Popeye's Chicken or Bob's Big Boy restaurant anymore." I mourn the disappearance of each from the suburban landscape.
Roy Rogers served good burgers and that thinly sliced roast beef, but what kept me a regular customer was the Fixin's Bar. I would load up a sandwich with about 2 pounds of onions, pickles and BBQ sauce and eat the droppings off of the foil wrapper.
Popeye's served the best fast food fried chicken and a host of other deep fried items. Their spicy chicken was gooooood (Sho-nuff).
Big Boy's? 3 words: cheap breakfast buffet. 2 more words: hangover remedy.
Now I guess I could still eat at these places if I was willing to go to one of the Turnpike/Parkway rest areas, but my values forbid me to do so. I refuse to pay the inflated prices for everything from bottled water to No-Doz. Burgers, gasoline, frozen yogurt, sunglasses, generic tee-shirts with the the name of the state or local tourist trap, all annoyingly more than you will pay elsewhere.
Now I know what some people will say, (affected voice) "Your are paying for the convenience of not having to get off the highway, particularly in an unfamiliar area." Come on people! Convenience is cooking dinner in half the time, or cutting a half-hour off your commute, or paying all your bills with a few clicks of the mouse, or uploading 200 vacation pictures to Sam's Club, not saving the 2.5 minutes it takes to get off the highway and get back on again.
And it's not like you exiting the interstate and landing in the middle of Deliverance. Even the most remote areas generally have a few signs of civilization just off the highway. In fact there seems to be some law in all states south of Maryland that requires that a Cracker Barrel be constructed within 500 yards of every interstate exit. If you don't believe me look at the freebie franchise map available at any location. The little numbered circles are covering every square inch of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. It appears that they've built them where the Stuckey's once stood. (Mmmmm... pecan log).
So no Fixin's Bar for me, and I feel good about my decision. It's a moral stand.
Footnote: They are starting to build Long John Silver's in Southern New Jersey (Mantua, Berlin, Willingboro, more on the way). Now if we could just get some Golden Corrals around here.
# posted by PapaGoose @ 1:02 PM 
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I loved the fixin's bar. They never put enough pickles on burgers (except, maybe, at Wendy's).
One of the many things I take pride in but cannot claim credit for is our practice of avoiding chain resturaunts when we're on vacation. That's Sharon's doing.
Sometimes it's just a sub or pizza place. We did find a couple decent brew pubs. We've plenty of breakfasts that had an McMuffin beat. There was even this odd steakhouse place in Virginia....
One of the many things I take pride in but cannot claim credit for is our practice of avoiding chain resturaunts when we're on vacation. That's Sharon's doing.
Sometimes it's just a sub or pizza place. We did find a couple decent brew pubs. We've plenty of breakfasts that had an McMuffin beat. There was even this odd steakhouse place in Virginia....
A couple years back, after way too many bad highway fast-food meals, Andrew and I made a decision to always get off the highway when traveling and try to seek out a local place to eat. We've been lucky so far, usually finding pretty good places. Occasionally (rural NY) we thought we heard banjos and got back on the highway to try another exit, but that's pretty rare.
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