4:00 AM heading out and hungry. Have any of you ever thought about the salvation of Waffle House? This is the best read of the week:

https://mythoamerica.substack.com/p/the-metaphysics-of-waffle-house?utm_source=pocket_reader

Never been. I have no problem breaking two eggs into a cast iron skillet, and putting them on two pieces of toasted, whole wheat, with a slice of cheese, along with a cup of Joe and maybe a piece of fruit or a cup of yogurt, at 3:30AM.

Bill Cosby noted an American could eat anything on the face of the planet, if he had two pieces of bread.

I guess, salvation is where you find it.

Best,
Ted

__________________________________________________________
Lonny should be along with a picture of his pack of Chesterfields, and his jug, in a few moments.

Pretty tough to prepare your own breakfast at 4 a.m. when you're 600 miles away from home and enroute to a duck blind. While I think the writer's "comparison" of a Waffle House to a Christian church and heaven is silly, it is a small comfort that Waffle Houses are usually a constant, regardless of their location. And, at least in the case of those in the Deep South, they know how to cook decent coffee and grits. Not great, but decent.

This is more like it.

Same for Cracker Barrel up here in "Damn Yankee Land"" also Bob Evans- both have good coffee (no Yuppie Starbucks swill) and fairly good grits. No cathead biscuits though- pity that. RWTF

It’s not Waffle House, it’s Waffle Home.

Argo44,
I laughed my tail off when I read that article. I went to college at Auburn, and my buddies and I were a Waffle House regulars. Just last week I saw one of my best friends from college, he and I have been friends for 35 years, and we were joking about scattered, smothered, covered and chunked… Here is some more Waffle House lore, and the lady who wrote this even suggests it’s a suitable place to take your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day! Thank you for sharing that.

https://aginggracefullymyass.wordpr...hunked-topped-diced-peppered-and-capped/

Waffle House, home of the World’s thinnest bacon!

Funny, but not true. Shoneys and Perkins (more common in the north) wis that prize and have much worse food too.


But Sunday morning here in the backyard shows winter's dying breath is a pretty one.

When I do drive 600 miles, to hunt or, fish, give or take, I’m pretty much self contained, as there hasn’t been a Waffle House for 500 of those miles. I have thermoses of soup, charcoal, a grille, and plenty of coolers in the back of the truck. Hanging around with Lloyd in Lake of the Woods county, he does know of a few restaurants, and if I clean myself up a bit, and promise to resist humping any legs, he will bring me along on an evening.

Otherwise, I am Waffle House, in the tin shed at Walleye Retreat.

Best,
Ted

Ted, if you do all those things, how will they know you are a friend of Lloyd? Just asking for a friend? Stay safe my friend.

Best pre-dawn breakfast I ever had was a few mornings at the Blue & White in Tunica, MS while there duck hunting. Way better than any Waffle House or Huddle House.

https://blueandwhiterestaurant.com

Sometimes, often, the hunting spot is a good distance from bigger towns that might have a chain restaurant. To me, mom and pop places rule. I usually have the food I'm planning on eating, but ocassionally a lazy midday chicken fried steak or burger break is not the worst thing in the world.

The title of this thread brings back some good memories. When I was in high school a group of us loved to get up early on weekends and go duck hunting. There was one place in particular just on the South side of town that was a boarding house with a dining room which opened early for breakfast. It was called "Ma Groovers" if my memory is right.

The breakfast there was south GA standard fare of the finest kind. I particularly recall that a number of the most wealthy men in the area regularly showed up every morning at 5:00 a.m. They invariably dressed in khaki shirt and britches. The men that worked in the woods wore knee length leather boots. Others wore a tie.

I grew up and went off to school and the army and when I came back home, the place was gone. The property is still vacant. I think of it every time I drive by on the way down to "a lake South of town"...Geo

You and the late Nash Buckingham both favored that storied cafe. Did they have real cathead biscuits?? Hope so!! RWTF

I can't remember what I had over the course of four meals except that I had the most wonderful potato soup twice. Once for supper and again for breakfast the next morning. Best I'd ever had, with cheddar melted on top and bacon crumbles.

Different angle here

Get up early and stoke the stove fire. Fry up deer heart, make pancakes, fruit cocktail.
Plenty of butter and syrup.

Another would exit the surplus medical tent get metal bucket and add oats with molasses.
Have the horses come to the corral and blanketed and saddle them to warm them up.

Others would do small camp projects. Eat and clean up and go elk hunting. First one back to
camp would catch cutthroat trout for supper. BUT if the sheep herder stove smoke was laying on the
the ground, EVERY one would cut and split wood.

Good times
Mike

earlyriser,
You must have gone to Auburn after the Kopper Kettle blew up because of a gas leak, before then, that is where the students and early workers went for breakfast.
Mike

This may not be quit the same thought but I grew up duck/goose hunting with some cousins north of Baytown TX. They are Catholic so after we were dressed and loaded we would drive about 10 miles to a Catholic church that had a 3:30 -5:00 AM service on Sat and Sun for hunters. It was fast, my cousins would duck in for about 20 min. and then we were off.

I really wanted to go to Auburn, but.. . . you see. . .I could read, so I graduated from Alabama.

When I was in high school (early 70’s) and when I was home from college, used to be a truck stop called the Dixie Boy, that was on the way to my dog driving club. My buddy and I would get up a little early, so we could stop there for some breakfast. The waitresses were mostly young, and for the most part, sort of attractive. They were exceptionally friendly to us young guys. Food was so-so, but it was the only place between home and the club. Always wondered about the help there. It was not near any town that had more than 10 residents, so having young, friendly waitresses seemed a little strange, but we never though much of it.

Years later, after the truck stop had closed down, I was schooled about the Dixie Boy. They sold fuel, amphetamines, and food downstairs. They ran a cathouse upstairs. It catered mostly to truckers. I was young, green, and naive. It never crossed my youthful mind that semi-attractive, friendly, waitresses working at 5:00 in the morning in the truck stop in the middle of nowhere were anything more than waitresses.

Argo44,
It is lucky you could read, that would put you in the top of your class. These ones that can't read have to be able to play ball to graduate.

So, unlike Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" you could get the same "extras" at the Dixie Boy that you could get at the Blue Ox truck stop in Brainerd, MN. Hummm-- RWTF

There actually is an Alice's Restaurant in Baudette, Minnesota but Ted & I have yet to grace it with our presence.

Think it was closed, last pass through, Lloyd.

Best,
Ted

It was Ted, but it has since reopened. Breakfast up there is largely dependant on what you're hunting. Waterfowl generally means breakfast is after you come back in (and that goes for deer as well), but walleye and grouse don't usually require such an early departure. More gentile hours for those pursuits and departure is usually only after a nice cuppa Joe and a wholesome meal, generally warm.




Marshgrass - That "Dixie Boy" story is pretty unique.

this has been an enjoyable thread....and argo44's post has added a touch of realism....at 2 or 3:00 in the morning the waffle house may have some aspects that don't add a great deal to the dining experience....here in longview in the last 30 days, we've had shootings (both doa's) at two different waffle house locations....

actually lloyd3, if you have much knowledge of "old school" truck stops - the "dixie boy" story may not be as unique as you think....

best regards,

tom

BTW, the YT video of the two British men and their "guide" was videoed in my hometown at the local "Awful House, aka, Unlawful House, aka, Waffle House." Remember, nothing good ever happens after midnight except maybe childbirth. The SNL video was hilarious and close to realistic. Gil