3000 Miles Of Food

Travelers need to eat. We have done very well in that category. Most of the food was inexpensive, There were good meals and there were horrid meals. Sometimes the need to feed a diabetic husband got in the way of an intelligent choice.

Horrid

TGI Fridays was one of the worst places for a senior citizen (and perhaps anyone else) to stop. We were in the Keys and well past time to eat. There was no senior menu, so we decided to split a meal. We selected the steak, shrimp combo, and I had a extra side salad. The salad was small, the steak was pre-salted with tons of butter and sodium. The steak was overcooked. Even the shrimp were salted. The restaurant may have a good bar, but it had little else that pleased us.

Pretty Darn Good

In Montgomery, Alabama, we stopped at Lek's Railroad Thai. The food was fresh, with crunchy veggys, tasty sauces, for a very reasonable price.

Georgia had several very inexpensive and delicious restaurants: The Bamboo Curtain was a small take out restaurant with several tables. The best $6 meal around. Then we really hit the jackpot at Kikko' Asian Buffet. We normally don't do buffets, but this one was $6, so we felt we wouldn't lose money. There were over 100 items of delicious and well-prepared food. My meal included salmon, barbecued chicken, a great salad with apples and cucumbers. Great eats in Savannah, but we didn't gain 20 lbs eating Paula Dean's special dishes or spend a fortune doing it.

In Atlanta we found the Landmark Diner. Known for its incredible cakes, it also served very generous portions of pot roast or leg of lamb. Chuck and I would split a dinner and even enjoyed a slice of caramel mouse cake.

Somewhere in North Carolina we found Melvin's Barbecue. Barbecue is a big specialty in the south, so we tried this restaurant that had both eat in service and a drive up window. (And heavenly smells.) We ordered pork platters, but I had a side of fried okra. I couldn't imagine what fried okra would taste like, so I was surprised to find that it was pieces of okra, breaded, and deep fried. Very sinful, but very tasty.

When we were at the Keys in Florida, I received a recommendation from a guy at a gas station who just happened to be a chef. He suggested the Conch House, so we followed his directions to a little restaurant in a house hidden in the trees. Our meal was fish tacos with yellowtail fish, and homemade chips. Perhaps the best part was their homemade key lime pie. Excellent flavor.

Best Ambiance

We took Waldie and Carolyn to their choice of restaurants. It was a seafood restaurant on the gulf that they used to enjoy a lot before a hurricane had taken it out. The new Angelo's still had a wonderful view of the bridge and gulf, and even better seafood. Since the restaurant had its own fishing boats, they had very fresh fish, and it was beautifully prepared. Chuck and I shared a stuffed grouper, and savored the incredible sauce and the scallop and shrimp stuffing.

Perhaps the best part of the trip was returning home feeling well-fed, but not over-fed.