A 12-Hour Road Trip

So my brother overcame some obstacles this past term and pulled off an awesome report card and my parents wanted to take him out for lunch to celebrate. When she asked him randomly the other day what his favourite restaurant was he replied "The Cracker Barrel". As you may know, there are no Cracker Barrels in Canada, so as a surprise for him we spent the day driving the 2 and a half hours to one just outside of Buffalo. While we were there we stopped and shopped a bit, here are some pictures from the day.

Please excuse the quality, I only had my phone on me.

First, maybe the best restaurant I know, here is my Cracker Barrel Lunch:

1. Sourdough - Probably the best sourdough I have ever had that wasn't handmade
2. Cornbread - Real down-south cornbread, it has some ingredient that gives it a special taste
3. Biscuit - Imagine the Popeye's biscuit, but without the dry floury texture and the saltiness, this practically melts in your mouth.
4. Raspberry Lemonade - I have never seen this outside of the southern U.S. (With the exception of Cracker Barrel) and it is a really odd yet comforting combination
5. Chicken 'N Dumplings - Probably the closest you can get to comfort food outside of your mother's kitchen. The dumplings slip down warm and the comforting warmth just spreads throughout your body as you swallow. My favourite meal to have at the Cracker Barrel, perhaps at any restaurant.
6. Macaroni 'N Cheese - This is without question my favourite of the massive list of sides available. This isn't some KD mac and cheese from a box, this is down home mac 'n cheese straight from the pot.
7. Steak Fries - While their fries are excellent and seemingly fresh cut, this second side can be replaced with any of many excellent choices. Usually one of the vegetable choices. I am not usually one who enjoys vegetables but with their smoked carrots or brown sugar green beans, not even a strict meatararian such as myself can resist. Unfortunately today I wasn't in the veggie mood, so I stuck with the ever popular steak fries. 
8. Peg Game -  While definitely not a food item, no Cracker Barrel Meal is complete without this classic game. The object is to get rid of all but one peg, you get rid of pegs by hopping them, like in checkers. Every table has a set and they are for sale in the store. 

Like I mentioned, there is an attached store with all sorts of odd, unique things.

Here are a few of them:

Here is a set of Gumby and Pokey action figures. They are from an old claymation show, it's pretty awesome. We have a set of these at my house and me and my friend enjoy setting them up in weird action poses around my living room, I'll post pictures at some point if I remember.

Hershey Bars in the original packaging!

Some of the old toys they have including the original Slinky, 8-ball and Jacks.

 A set of magnetic salt and pepper shakers in the form of Sally kissing Linus. Just an example of the random nick nacks you find here.

They had a whole stand of individual jelly belly flavours.

Outside of every store they have these rockers and checkers sets set up, the rockers are for anyone to sit on, it is a pleasant atmosphere, some music, good food in your belly, sitting in a rocking chair playing checkers while eating some candy you just bought. Of course the chairs are also for sale, we have been debating getting one for years. 

And some other stuff from the day: 

An awesome game I found at Barnes and Noble called "Dirty Minds". 

The point of the game is to guess the item from the clues, except the clues sound very suggestive but describe a non-sexual item. See the pics for examples.

I love this game because me and my friends have extremely dirty minds and this is the kind of game that would amuse us for hours. I debated buying it, but it would be too hard to justify to my parents.

GRAMMAR NAZI TIME!

So bad grammar on ads is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine.

I found this ad about 15 minutes past the border after we had crossed back into Canada.

For those that can't read it it says: "I  want something fresh, healthy and taste great."

How the hell does something like that get approved? How did so many people miss it.

Ugh. Stupid people annoy me. 

Anyway, thats it for this post.

Thanks for bearing through that journey through my day.

Next time you are in the states make sure to stop at a Cracker Barrel, they are everywhere.

'Till next time,

-MAESTRO

P.S. HAHA GLITTERBUG I HAVE HELVETICA. I WIN. AT LIFE.