When stopping over in a small out of the way community your choices for a meal may be very limited. Hence, the reason for this title: Pros & Cons of Eating on the Road.

I’ve been on the road for 2 weeks now. I almost always eat dinner out and always seek non chain local restaurants. I sometimes go out for breakfast when I don’t take advantage of the hotel’s freebie. I use the same criteria as I do for dinner.

Oh boy have I had some bad meals. I won’t bore you with all the gory details, but I will tell you that the 1st night’s meal in West Virginia was pretty bad. A locally owned Mexican restaurant, they managed to be both flavorless, overcooked and even the standard refried beans were from a can with no seasoning. Live and learn.

Only open weekdays for breakfast & lunch

Monday morning at 9:30am & it’s packed

The breakfast places are more likely to have better food. As the saying goes: What can you do wrong with breakfast? Sometimes plenty. However, by researching with my iPhone and viewing the menu, you can get a pretty good idea about the quality. I have had great success with choosing breakfast restaurants. As an aside: local breakfast places are usually the best place to get the local flavor of an area. The people, food, wait staff, ambiance often reflect the local culture better than other choices.

Wonderful breakfast at a local 2 location chain

I finally had a good dinner in Lafayette, LA at Fezzos recommended by my colleague Keith Guidry who lives there. My next good dinner was in Chandler, AZ. Of course my friend, Paul who was in town visiting his parents picked the place.

It appeared my  research and choice of restaurants for dinner was not working well. The biggest factor is the out of the way places I stop in that have very limited choices. However, when in a better area I finally nailed it at a great gastropub in Chandler named My Wine Cellar.

My waitress at My Wine Cellar

And finally, since this post is about eating, I couldn’t leave out my favorite meal so far: A Weber Q grilled meal at my good friends George and Suzie while they dry camped in Quartzsite. AZ. Read about my visit here on their blog.

Whole chicken, baked potatoes & carrots. All cooked on the Baby Q

As always, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. And be sure to check back fo another installment of my adventures on the road.