Okay, let’s see, where were we.. oh yes…After our (previously documented) eating spree in the Crescent City we headed east again, constantly reminded of the results of a recent sporting event held there lately.
We decided to take a little detour to drive through Biloxi, and there were still reminders of Katrina
After crossing the boot heels of Mississippi and Alabama, we finally got to the sunshine state
by “P-Cola with some familiar images on overpasses
And, no matter where you are, there are local restaurants..
Finally, after nearly 2000 miles on I-10, we turned right at Lakeland, Florida headed south to visit some friends in the central part of the state. After dealing with restaurants for a while, it was nice to have two lovely home cooked meals there, and I even got in a little birding
What turned out to be our final “food experience” fittingly was dessert-like. Plant City is a little town that is sort of the hub of the produce belt, so there’s lots of stuff. A local (and not so local) legend there is a place called Parkesdale Farms and groves.
They’re famous for produce, but mostly for their (jumbo) strawberry shortcake. People come from miles around (that famous city) to stand in line
for various preparations of ripe strawberries, cake, and mounds of whipped cream. Mostly you go there for the experience.
We got ours,
and i ate most of it
After a restful couple of days with friends (there’s that word again) we headed north toward home. The original plan had us stopping in either Charleston or Savannah, but by this time days on the road, motels, roadfood meals, took its toll and we decided to just beat feet and come home to the digs.
So our last night on the road was spent in Florence, South Carolina, another one of those spots that seem to exist for letting you stay overnight as there is every motel chain and box restaurant you’ve ever heard of clustered by the well traveled I95. We stayed in our mainstay Fairfield Inn, and on the way to the place we noticed an Outback. Now, in all our travels I don’t think we had a steak once, and the thought of that seemed appetizing. So, after lugging the mounds of luggage (we travel heavy) to the room, we got mildly DFD’d and headed out. We got to the place only to find people standing around outside. Uh oh (it was Saturday night). Undaunted we go inside, and encountered the cheery young lady at the stand and said we wished to have dinner for two. “yes, sir, it will be only about 80 minutes, will that be all right?” Excuse me, 80 minutes means an hour and twenty minutes? “well, yes, we’ll let you know, is that okay?”. I don’t think so. What followed was a visit to several other similar places (even the dreaded OG) and were met with the same crowds and varying amounts of waiting time, all over 40 minutes. Crestfallen, we stopped at Burger King for a bag of reality and retired to the room to eat off yet another ottoman.
Next day we traversed the rest of I95, over the Nice Harry bridge, and found our way back home. So now remains notes, pictures, credit card bills, receipts from a myriad of restaurants, a few menus, but mostly the memories of meeting friends, sharing food, and most likely a once in a lifetime journey. By golly we did it! And through it all, I can honestly say we were always
DFD
No comments:
Post a Comment