Monday, April 30, 2018

Penny Lane...

Musings from a highway rest stop(s) 2018.  I have a strange fascination with rest stops.  The one stop kind that the real truckers hit up.  While Randy pumps gas, I tear in there to look around.  Here's just some of the things that keep me guessing and coming back.

What is the obsession with peanuts in the south?  I saw boiled peanuts, peanuts in a can (huh?), peanuts in bags-salted and unsalted, and even peanuts in crock pots!  No thanks, I'll stick to Planters-until someone tells me why you would ever boil a peanut.  You can purchase 50 different flavors of pecans-if that's your bag.  I know this because I sampled about 25 of the flavors and purchased 100.00 worth!  Plus a giant bag of oranges  What can I say-they were/are fresh and the dude told me his whole life history.  I am a sucker for a good story as well as a good pecan. You can hardly beat a good story ABOUT a pecan. And can we just talk about the cinnamon rolls that are as big as a Frisbee?  3000 calories in cellophane wrap with no expiration date!  Yep, and covered with-you guessed it-pecans!  There are special bathrooms that you can take a number for and when they announce it, it's your turn to shower if you are feeling sorta funky.  There is a small theater if you have time to catch a movie.  I saw an alarming number of fireworks.  Those thing scare me and I prefer to be viewing them with a real pyro tech.   And I am puzzled as to why anyone would want to use the 'Penny Press.'  Apparently you can pay a buck  to get a penny with a local historical event on it for a souvenir.  Huh?  Not once have I ever seen anyone pressing a penny.  Seems like a waste of space when there could be room for more peanuts.  I saw a chapel where I guess you can go to pray for safe travels or the avoidance of indigestion from all those peanuts.  Alligator heads and rebel flags, rock t-shirts and seashells, saltwater taffy and mirrored beer signs.  Those places have it all.

Why, you ask, do we frequent a rest stop as opposed to say, a regular gas station?   Well, pulling a boat behind a big truck necessitates a large parking lot.  So we wheel in, get gas, hit the rest room, grab a coffee and hit the road.

That's all she wrote till next year.

I may even press a penny.    XOXOX from this weary road warrior

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Some of those trucker rest stops have some good food.

Erik Donald France said...

All aboard for funtime! Those places are wild America, boiled peanuts and all. The weird penny presses and such things seem to go with the territory. Imagine being the penny press salesperson, giving the pitch . . .

jodi said...

Charles-there's always the Awfulle House! Randy will happily tuck into a plate of biscuits and gravy and then fight the food coma for the next 50 miles!

Erik, it's Americana at it's best. Rebel flag stickers and bandana's! It all amazes me!