Highway Gourmet

My husband and I travel several times a year to the coast for golfing vacations. Not too long ago, we made the trek for his birthday. After a long, hard day of work, we got it the car and drove to the beach with a birthday picnic packed in my cute new picnic tote. It looks like a lunch pail made of toile and it’s insulated with various zippered pockets so I can separate things and put a small freezer pack in any compartment. Friendly Gus’s Truck Stop is the halfway point where we leave the state highway and take the scenic route. My husband likes this route off the main highway because it’s one of those wonderful, well kept, two lane country roads with pretty little white churches.
The truck stop has a microwave , which I have been known to use on occasion depending on what I’m serving, and fair bathrooms. Friendly Gus’s is a truck stop deluxe; fried everything, mashed potatoes and cobbler along with all the usual gas station fair. I always check out the buffet just to be thankful for what I’ve brought along. Truckers patronize it the way New Yorkers would a deli; it’s probably the finest truck stop in middle Georgia, but I bring my own, nonetheless. Just past Macon, I like to serve the appetizer. It’s dark, so hubby can’t see what I’ve bought to pop in his mouth. Prosciutto wrapped melon. Now don’t count the presentation, I had to feed these on tooth picks while he was driving. He was thrilled. Since I’m not driving, I sip on one of those nasty little screw top wine bottles. Yech! But it makes the ride so much shorter. When we pulled into Gus’s, I serve the main course, crab cake sandwiches with rich remoulade sauce and exotic vegetable chips, a portable way to get the veggies in. We giggle at the location, and open a present. Finally, what would it be without the birthday cake., his favorite angle food, in mini bundt cake size with lemon glaze and a small candle. Something about the ambience of a truck stop and screw top bottle wine made it one of his most memorable birthday meals.
Tonight, we are on that same road, with flank steak sandwiches and horseradish sauce which my husband says will open up the sinuses followed by Woopie Pies.
The ride home is never much fun. We have to stop at one of those dreadful fast food joints. This time I insist we try a new franchise dedicated to chicken. It took forever to get our food and I’ve consumed a quart of water afterwards from the sodium content. My husband takes a few bites and tosses the rest. He’s so spoiled.