Thursday, July 12, 2012

On the Road...Eating

I’m in Iowa now, but I didn’t get here without some eating: 

--I was too tired the first night after driving to go traipsing around town, so I was the person I hated, eating in the Holiday Inn restaurant.  On the plus side, I got to eat walleye pike, which is a Midwestern lake fish that’s incredibly difficult to find on the East Coast.  Yum!

--The most beautiful sight outside of your Holiday Inn is a branch of Tim Horton’s doughnuts.  Tim Horton was a Canadian hockey player, and he knows his doughnuts.  Double chocolate was even better than as it sounds, and sour cream glazed was slightly less good than it sounds.  And fabulous iced coffee…when she asked if I wanted the standard “one cream, one sugar,” I was worried there wouldn’t be enough cream, so I got two…which resulted in a delicious blend that tasted a lot like coffee ice cream.  No wonder I loved it!

--A quick stop in South Bend, IN, for an Italian beef sandwich at King of Gyro.  Not the best beef I’ve had, but the best beef I’ve had while driving halfway across the country.  I was planning to get a Chicago hot dog, but at the last minute grew worried because they weren’t serving Vienna beef dogs.

And in non-food-related news:

Spotted while driving on the interstate—one groundhog, one deer, one funeral procession, two giant wind turbines (6 stories tall!), lots of thirsty-looking corn, a zillion Krazy Kaplan’s fireworks billboards outside of  Chicago.

Surprisingly, after leaving the Beltway and 270, the craziest drivers were in Iowa, on I-80.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe a couple of state troopers might keep things in check?  But thank you for letting me drive for free, Iowa.


Yes, Ohio’s reputation as a state where one shouldn’t speed seems intact…very well-patrolled.

PA Turnpike, you’ve got your nerve charging me $12.50 to drive on that crappy road!

Work-in-Progress

DC-area author Leslie Pietrzyk explores the creative process and all things literary.