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[Crusty]

And Now, a Word From Our Sponsor


When I first started Mining, I had a boss who would say, “Do something; even if it’s wrong.” When I joined AA, I learned, “If you don’t know what to do, do nothing until the right thing becomes apparent”. There are times when either of those opposite statements are applicable, just as there are times when neither is appropriate. In this case, I’ve decided to stall my departure from Waltham for one more day. I’ll head out tomorrow morning for Western Massachusetts, then go north to ride the length of Vermont Route 100; which is one of my favorite roads. (Another Favorite road is US Route 12 between Missoula, Montana and Lewiston, Idaho. It’s 100 miles of motorcycle Heaven. Maybe I’ll ride that in September.) Anyhow, I’m going to finish up a couple of small details today, and ride off on a pleasant Sunday morning.

I’ve accumulated a few “Bests”, or maybe “Favorites” is a better term, on this ride so far. To start with food, (Ride To Eat, Eat To Ride) The best burger I ate was at the Marysvale Diner in Marysvale, Utah. It’s a little hole in the wall that does breakfast and lunch, I stopped there on my way north on US Rt 89, and really enjoyed the sausage and eggs i had for breakfast, so I stopped there again on my way south and got a burger. It was the best burger I’ve had in a long while. A very long while. If I get close, i’ll go out of my way to eat there again.

The best donut I had was from Paula’s Donuts in Buffalo, New York, though the Holy Donut in Portland, Maine was a real contender. The two shops make very different donuts, but the Key Lime filled donut from Paula’s was delightful. The Maine Blueberry Donut from the Holy Donut is worth going out of my way for, too, but I have a thing for Key Lime.

The best BBQ was from the Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. I admit to a bit of prejudice in this, but it’s my opinion. I haven’t had any bad BBQ on this trip so far (well, maybe the Pulled Pork sandwich at the Du Quoin Mile), but of all the places I stopped in, the Syracuse Dinosaur is the one I like the best.

Dunkin Donuts still is my favorite coffee on the road; though it’s overpriced and their donuts taste like recycled cardboard. McDonald’s coffee is pretty good, and it’s reasonably priced; especially if you’re an old Tramp who’s trying to get by on short funds; but when I feel like being irresponsible about my spending, I’ll hit a Drunkin Donuts. I admit though, that I’m looking forward to stopping at a Tim Horton’s or two while up in Canada.

The best free City Park for tenting that I stayed in is easily the City Park in Lander, Wyoming. It was much better than any other free park, and better than almost all the pay Campgrounds that I’ve hit. If they had showers, it would top the entire list. The worst is a tie between the park in Roundup, Montana and the park in Columbus, Nebraska

The best climate I found is in Montrose, Colorado. While it gets hot there, the humidity is really low and that makes all the difference. If I were to settle down now, that’s where I’d head for. There’s a lot to like about Colorado. Cincinnati is nice, but it’s just too wet and humid for me and there’s no way in hell that I want to spend a winter in Buffalo. I like Massachusetts a lot and I have some really nice friends here, but last winter pushed me over the edge, I think.

The nicest people I’ve met were all over the country. There are good folks everywhere and I can’t pick out any one place where people were nicer or friendlier than other places. Folks in Iowa were really nice (and I still have a thing for that waitress), but I found really nice people everywhere I stopped. Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Cincinnati, New York; there were nice people all over the country. There were a few buttholes, too; but they were also pretty evenly distributed. The biggest horse’s ass I’ve encountered was here in Massachusetts where I have the most friends.

My favorite National Park is Glacier National Park. I’m planning to go back just to ride the Going-To-The-Sun Road  in its entirety. All the National parks I’ve been to are Incredible and worth visiting, but Glacier is the one that grabs me most. I really liked Capitol Reef, too, but for different reasons, and, as much as I liked it, it isn’t as moving to me as Glacier is.

And I have to put in a word for McDonald’s. They get dumped on by everybody, including me, but I can get a cup of coffee (with free refills) and a Sausage McMuffin there for under two bucks. They have clean Restrooms and they even have free Wi-Fi. Most of my Snippets were written while I was sitting in a Golden Starches. And, if I’m running low on cash, I can get a double cheeseburger for under two bucks for lunch or dinner. They’re definitely a boon to an old Tramp.

That’s about it for today.

[Aaron D.]

Thanks! Great review! And I agree, McDonald's is a lot better than everyone's (me too) grumping. The Asian Salad is a lifesaver.

[rboe]

Best beef I've ever had (it was in a French Dip); Shamrock Club in Wibaux Montana off of I-94.

Best cafe, Johnson's Cafe in St. Mary Montana (east entrance to Glacier Park the Uber Park).

On of the best tent camping sites (don't think it was free - it was cheap) was the Lewis & Clark State Park east of Williston North Dakota (got lost going through Williston at night trying to maintain highway 2 and failed. :D The park was a complete blunder. I learned to fill up when possible. Didn't have to walk, but it was close.

I avoid McDonalds like the plague most days - but on the road they are a savior. Their little cheese burgers and breakfast burritos' are small enough to fill the tummy. And I second Dunkin Donuts (but I do like their donuts!). For frugal wallets (guzzi content again) Taco Johns in the west is a favorite stop. Their Taco Bravo is an affront to anything Mexican when it comes to food (not unlike a veggie lasagna), but it's cheap, tastes great and fills you up.

[rodekyll]

'Asian' salad: nonspecific pabulum or politically correct pablum? 

[Aaron D.]

Mostly the sesame-ginger dressing and mandarin oranges, plus edamame. And greens, which is a blessing west of, well, New York as most road cuisine in the Midwest is brown or beige.

[Lannis]

Thanks! Great review! And I agree, McDonald's is a lot better than everyone's (me too) grumping. The Asian Salad is a lifesaver.

I'm sort of like an anaconda, I suppose - Once I eat, I'm good for a long time, so I don't need a "savior" on the road that would make me go into a McDonalds for any reason.  I don't like their food or their philosophy, and so I don't go into them ever, as a matter of principle.    If I need to skip a meal as a result, I skip it, but I don't EVER remember "not eating" on the road because a McDonalds was the only choice.   There's always something else.

Also, I don't "need" coffee.   I drink it when I brew it at home, but I've never found myself "needing" a coffee on the road.   Doesn't taste very good out of anyone's paper or styrofoam cup anyhow, although if they have a freshly brewed cup in a diner, I'll give it a try ...

I've found that's it's easier to have a very pleasant time on the road if one doesn't have these "needs" .... ?    Little pleasures, certainly, but they don't arise to the level of needs ....

Lannis

[Bill Hagan]

I'm sort of like an anaconda, I suppose - Once I eat, I'm good for a long time, so I don't need a "savior" on the road that would make me go into a McDonalds for any reason.  I don't like their food or their philosophy, and so I don't go into them ever, as a matter of principle.    If I need to skip a meal as a result, I skip it, but I don't EVER remember "not eating" on the road because a McDonalds was the only choice.   There's always something else.

Also, I don't "need" coffee.   I drink it when I brew it at home, but I've never found myself "needing" a coffee on the road.   Doesn't taste very good out of anyone's paper or styrofoam cup anyhow, although if they have a freshly brewed cup in a diner, I'll give it a try ...

I've found that's it's easier to have a very pleasant time on the road if one doesn't have these "needs" .... ?    Little pleasures, certainly, but they don't arise to the level of needs ....

Lannis

Not sure I see any particular harm in "little pleasures."

That said, I, too, prefer local dives.  Still, I don't loathe fast-food places, but neither do I frequent McDonald's or any of them EXCEPT Chick-fil-A. 

Those folks -- I presume it's top-down leadership -- get it right.  Especially chicken biscuits, sausage burritos, and, in some of the larger ones, biscuits and gravy.  I wish I hadn't written that last: I NEED that.     


As for coffee in paper or styrofoam, I agree, but, as I always carry my own mug, that's not an issue.  Works great with hot java ... and, as I I think it's disrespectful to drink whiskey in a plastic "glass," the mug is mighty fine with bourbon and a cube or two later when I recount my derring-do day.   

Bill

[Aaron D.]

I like greens. Greens are rare out west. After a while I get tired of choices between beef, pork or taters.

[Bill Hagan]

I like greens. Greens are rare out west. After a while I get tired of choices between beef, pork or taters.

Green what?

Surely you do not mean salad and the like? 

Aside from the trite but true, "Salad is what food eats," the Lord's Prayer does not ask that God "give us this day our daily salad."

I rest my case.

 

Bill

P.S.  Jockette and nutrition nazi Kathi will never see this post.   

[Lannis]

Not sure I see any particular harm in "little pleasures."

That said, I, too, prefer local dives.  Still, I don't loathe fast-food places, but neither do I frequent McDonald's or any of them EXCEPT Chick-fil-A. 

Those folks -- I presume it's top-down leadership -- get it right.  Especially chicken biscuits, sausage burritos, and, in some of the larger ones, biscuits and gravy.  I wish I hadn't written that last: I NEED that.     

Bill

Me too, just differentiating between "pleasures" and "needs".    I (being a carbon-based life form) "need" water every day; I don't "need" to find a Starbucks, although I have traveled with people who will go 10 miles out of their way and make us both late for a meeting because they HAVE TO have their Starbucks .....

Lannis     

[jdgretz]

Now that's just funny - a McDonalds discussion and an ad for McDonalds at the top of the page - although the ad is really from a marketing company that wants to ad a spam producing/providing chunk of software to your computer.

On the left coast we have a different set of really good places.

One of my riding groups does an annual 200 mile ride to Nipomo and Jocko's for the biggest and best steak in California.  Then there is the burger at Jalama Beach Cafe that is worth going well out of your way for.

I will stop in McDonalds on the road just because it's a no-brainer solution if I don't want to search out something local - and it is quick and clean.  You're never surprised.

So far the best slice of pizza found in SoCal is Pellicola Pizza in downtown LA.  Really is amazingly good.  I'm open to suggestions for NorCal.

jdg

[Aaron D.]

I see Lannis is in a crotchety hair-splitting mood. May all his crotchety hairs get split.

Anyway, greens-especially kale-are something I love. Never understood how anyone can eat just meat and potatoes.

After an Iron Skillet meal of liver and onions (good, though) the McD salad was wonderful. And I like liver and onions-but if you've been in an Iron Skillet and viewed the "buffet" (a word that has come to mean hell) perhaps you will understand.

[Rich A]

Normally I like to eat at Mom & Pop restaurants while on the road. But I had the worst fried chicken ever at one of those, along with some inedible veggies. With McDs and the like you pretty much know what you're going to get, and I think that's one of their main selling points.

Rich A

[Lannis]

Normally I like to eat at Mom & Pop restaurants while on the road. But I had the worst fried chicken ever at one of those, along with some inedible veggies. With McDs and the like you pretty much know what you're going to get, and I think that's one of their main selling points.

Rich A

Variety's good too, is my thought.   I'm willing to take the chance that sometimes I'm going to get terrible food at a Mom and Pop place ("Teresa's" at Sprouse's Corner, VA is pretty bad) occasionally, when sometimes I find the BEST food I've ever had at a similar place, like the best pizza I've ever had was at Papous' Pizza on the town square in Tallapoosa, Georgia, a place I never would have expected; Fay and I were on the SP on our way home to Virginia and were tired and took a chance, and it was worth it ..... I've still never found, though, the need to use a McDonalds because there just wasn't anything else.   They're never the first ones to set up somewhere ....

Lannis

[rodekyll]

We stopped at a roadside café in ND one day that advertised buffalo burger.  Since it was attached to a corral full of buffalo, we believed them.  Good thing.  Other than getting our order lost in a shift change, it was one of the best burgers I ever had to pack along the leftovers from.

[Lannis]

I see Lannis is in a crotchety hair-splitting mood. May all his crotchety hairs get split.

Possibly ... it's just that when I see "savior" and "lifesaver" in regard to McDonalds green salads, it's kind of like hearing "My GPS has been a lifesaver for me, I never leave home without it" or "I've been saved more than once by my cell phone, I wouldn't go anywhere without it any more ...", and I go into WWKHD mode ...

One man's hair is another man's 2 foot thick knotty tree trunk, and looks like it needs splitting .....

Lannis

[Aaron D.]

There are those who believe it is best to travel mildly constipated. I prefer, well, not.

[Lannis]

There are those who believe it is best to travel mildly constipated. I prefer, well, not.

There are upsides and downsides to both philosophies .... Traveling as empty as possible is not a bad idea, but has limitations too ....

Lannis

[oldbike54]

 No greens out West , you boys have never been to Oklahoma , hell , we even let our beef get a bit green before cooking it , sheesh  Where do you guys think all of that green stuff comes from when it is 20 degrees in the East , NEW YORK CITY 

  Dusty

[charlie b]

Normally I like to eat at Mom & Pop restaurants while on the road. But I had the worst fried chicken ever at one of those, along with some inedible veggies. With McDs and the like you pretty much know what you're going to get, and I think that's one of their main selling points.

Rich A

This.

Even some of my old favorite places out here have let me down.  Bad service or bad food or both.

I like the southwest and asian salads at McD.  Heck, in this area you can even get green chiles for your burger.

It is sad, but, some of the best fried chicken I have had is at KFC.  Also had some of the worst.  :) 

I have had bad luck with smaller local places.  Only about 1 in 4 is better than a fast food place.