Food, Signs, Food
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Day 19: January 9, 2015 Food, Signs, Food Comment via blog |
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Today I did something I rarely do. In fact, I think it's possible that
this was the first time I've done it while traveling alone. What I did was
drive to breakfast before checking out of the motel. It solved a problem.
One of my all time favorite places for breakfast is in Chattanooga where I
was headed and which I could reach in a couple of hours if I wanted to.
Just a few miles from the motel there was another restaurant with a big
reputation. I'd never eaten breakfast there but had eaten dinner once and
had no doubts that breakfast would be just as good. Rushing to Chattanooga
would leave the nearby restaurant out of the picture and would be at odds
with my plans to hasten not to the land of ice and snow. So would leaving
the motel early. On the other hand, if I hung out at the motel a bit then
ate breakfast locally, I would probably be too full when I reached
Chattanooga to eat anything at all. The solution was to drive to the
nearby joint around 7:00, come back to the motel do some catching up until
10:00 or so, then head to Chattanooga at a leisurely pace and have a
little lunch when I got there.
The nearby restaurant is, obviously, the Marietta Diner. It is not a factory built diner. All that chrome and neon are on a rather large built-on-site structure. In 2012 I had their signature pastichio. Today I had a three cheese omelet. In case you think that omelet looks delicate and thin, consider that it's next to about half a bushel of home fries. Look at the toast and coffee cup and recalibrate your scale. That's a huge plate. The sun came up while I ate so I grabbed my first day time picture of the diner. My meal, by the way, was $7.37 -- including coffee. |
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By driving northbound, I see things, like this sign in Kennesaw, that I
missed driving southbound in July. I didn't go inside but I have to
believe that the surplus has been pretty well picked over by now.
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The south wall of
Young Brothers Pharmacy in Cartersville, Georgia, was
the very first to have a
Coca-Cola advertisement painted on it. That was in
1894. Twenty-five layers of paint were removed when it was restored in
1989. I couldn't help looking for a fountain inside the store but wasn't
surprised not to find one. What I did find was a professional
"normal" pharmacy with some Coca-Cola items displayed up front.
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I spotted just one of these Dixie Highway signs in July but saw about half
a dozen today. Maybe I was just more observant, maybe there are more on
the northbound route, or maybe these were recently placed. I don't know
but I do know there is an ongoing effort to get the route signed in
Georgia. The signs are not big or flashy and you almost have to be looking
for them to see them but they are there, they are increasing, and they
help.
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In Chattanooga, I eat at Aretha Frankenstein's whenever I can. That omelet was
nearly eight hours in the past when I reached here today and I was ready
to be fed. I had resigned myself to the fact that this would be a
non-breakfast visit and ordered a beer while I studied the menu. I settled
on "The Marilyn". It was very good and filling but, when the
waitress delivered a pancake to a fellow just a couple of stools away, my
resistance crumbled. Despite the waitress's assurance that "beer goes
with anything", I switched to water, ordered a pancake, and ate it
all.
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I had anticipated this being the effective end of the road trip. After
waddling to the car, I made it official. The weather at home still sucks
but the temperature there have increased ever so slightly and it's not
exactly tropical in Tennessee. Plus, I might be able to get home before
the freezing rain hits. There will be one more overnight (Drives in
the dark at the end of a long day just aren't my thing anymore.) but there
will be no more touristy stops -- probably. Serendipity is always welcome.
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