January 3, 2012 by steve.

Our last trip to Mayakka State Park was immediately before our Great American Road Trip in March of 2010. On our previous trip we’d done the ranger tours, the airboat ride and the tram tour, so this trip was to have a bit of a different tone to it. We were going to do stuff outside the park.

We stated with a trip to the Rosa Fiorelli winery that is located just north of the park. In addition to collecting all the local state park stamps, we’ve also started making sure we drive to every winery within a days drive of the places we camp. This winery was a pleasant place, don’t ask me about the wine, I don’t drink it, that’s Lady CurbCrusher’s job. The folks that ran this place were friendly and jovial, and that made the stop pleasant. The shop was small, and had about 10 people in it, and only room at the tasting bar for 2, so it made for an intimate wine tasting.

Our next stop was Hunsader Farm, which we passed on the way to the winery. This was a cute, kitschy kind of place with a produce stand, petting zoo and other activities.

Finally it was time to eat, so we headed into Sarasota to Yoders Amish restaurant. Lady CurbCrusher had heard about this place, so we decided to try it out. They are famous for their pies, but all the food is excellent. The line was out the door when we got there around 3:00pm, and we when left about ninety minutes later, the line was around the side of the building. We indulged in large high cholesterol meals of country fried steak, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Then topped it all off with pie for desert. We had apple, peanut butter cream and pecan pie. All the food was delicious and the portions were generous. It was definitely worth the wait.

The next day we headed out to a farmer’s market that we’d seen on the way out the back entrance to the park the day before, and found much more. It turned out it is the Crowley Museum and Nature Center. In addition to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning, they have a local history museum and a nature trail that wanders through the area. If you are a first time visitor to the farmer’s market, they will give you a free ticket to the museum and nature center. Always looking for free stuff, we took advantage of the offer and spent an hour or so looking through the exhibits and walking the nature trail. The exhibits were a good representation of the local history and very informative.

Our final activity for the trip was to eat at the Alpine Steak House. Mr. CurbCrusher had been watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives a couple of weeks before the trip and seen the Alpine Steak House and it’s TurDuckEn dish featured. Since we were going to be in Sarasota, it seemed only natural to go eat there. There was no line at the Alpine Steak House, so unlike Yoders, we were inside and seated within seconds of arriving. The food was good, but did not live up to the expectations. Mr. CurbCrusher had the TurDuckEn, while Lady CurbCrusher had a chicken, and Little CurbCrusher went with a hamburger. We all enjoyed our meals, but they weren’t anything great. Given a choice, I’d probably make the trip to Yoder’s and wait in line.

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November 6, 2010 by steve.

I always enjoy a good episode of Guy Fieri on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Unfortunately I have never visited any of the places featured on the show, but hidden away in Astor, Florida I found a place with a burger that rivals anything seen on the show’s burger lovers special. Located just west of the State Highway 40 St. John’s bridge is a place called Sparky’s. On our Labor Day camping trip to Salt Springs, I was able to convince my Lady CurbCrusher to take a Sunday drive. I’d heard about Sparky’s from a friend that lives in Astor, and had been plotting how to get there on the trip to Salt Springs.
Once at Sparky’s I found the nirvana of burgers, the Sparky Burger. Made with a half-pound of ground beef and an equivalent amount of cheddar, with a some peppers and onion mixed in for good measure, the ultimate burger is on the menu, with fries for only $7.50. The burger is cooked on a griddle, and then when turned, smothered in cheese and then steamed. This creates a tasty crusty skirt of cheese that hangs off the exceptional buttered bun, hiding the lower half when served. Heaped next to this beefy-cheesy goodness is a huge helping of hand-cut fries that are seasoned and so tasty that there is no doubt that your cardiologist will hate this place. Add a glass of sweet tea, and you’ve got a meal that matches anything Guy has ever shown on Food Network.

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June 16, 2010 by steve.

Well, almost 60 days and we are all still here and blessed to have had a great family experience traveling around the country. Today was a day to enjoy the Cloudland Canyon State Park in north-west Georgia. We visited this park back in September 2007, during one of the worst droughts in modern times. Of course what is Cloudland Canyon known for? Its waterfalls. And what do waterfalls need to survive? Rain.

We started the day with a visit to both the falls, which are creatively named Waterfall #1 and Waterfall #2 on the hiking map. The waterfalls are at the end of about a half-mile trail, straight down. I’m not sure why they post a distance on the trail, the distance is not important. What is key to surviving the trail is the fact that there are more than 400 stairs on the trail. They are both very pretty sights, and worth the stair climbing. One nice thing about this trip is that both waterfalls were active. On our last trip they were little more than drips. Once we get the pictures posted, I’ll post some comparisons in the blog.

Following the waterfall hike, we headed back to the RV for lunch and a nap (at least CurbCrusher napped, Lady and Little CurbCrusher played on the computer and sat outside and read.). The nap was important as we needed to be rested for our trip to the Canyon Grill located a couple of miles from the park. Truth be known, this is the real reason for our stop in Cloudland Canyon. On our last trip we discovered the Canyon Grill, and had such a great meal, we knew we wanted to come back some day.

The Canyon Grill opens at five in the afternoon Wednesday through Sunday, so we showed up at the door around five-fifteen so that we wouldn’t look too eager. Once again we had a great meal, Little CurbCrusher enjoyed the chicken strip appetizer and a sweet potato, Lady CurbCrusher ordered the ground fillet, and I had the pork tenderloin. As with our first trip, I can’t say enough good about the food, the portions, the value and the service that you get at the Canyon Grill. We sampled the deserts, Lady CurbCrusher had the short cake with strawberries and pecans, while I had the amaretto brownie sundae and Little CurbCrusher went for the vanilla bean ice cream. Everything is homemade, and Little CurbCrusher said the ice cream was better than Blue Bell (our gold standard (actually homemade ice cream of the kind cranked out on Aunt Pansy’s porch at family holidays is the gold standard, but sadly that doesn’t happen anymore and I’ve replaced that with Blue Bell)). I was not thrilled with the amaretto brownie, but that’s because I really don’t like the taste of amaretto, however it was the only chocolate option on the desert list. But if you put enough ice cream on the brownie before eating it, it kills the amaretto taste, and you just get the two best taste: homemade vanilla ice cream and chocolate.

Back at the campsite, we sat around fat and happy. We started a small fire in the ring to complete our last night of “real” camping. If we stop tomorrow night, it will be more of a place to sleep, not camp. This is the second time we’ve been to Cloudland Canyon, and I hope it’s not our last. This is a great park and a great place to be. I took one last walk around the camping loop after dusk, and the fireflies light the sides of the road like beacons, and it is just a peaceful, easy feeling (hmmm. That sounds familiar for some reason :-)). The only negative thing about this park is that it is so far from home, and that you pretty much have to drive through Atlanta on I-75 to get here. I think we may try running down US-27 and then over to Tifton tomorrow to see if that drive is any better.

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May 14, 2008 by steve.

Well, after the last meal at Mama Nems’, it was time for a letdown. Lady CurbCrusher and I usually head out for dinner on Wednesday night when Little CurbCrusher heads to the children’s program at church. We had spotted a new wing place on the northwest corner of Conway and Hoffner on the east side of Orlando, in the old location of Conway Bar-B-Q.

So a wing place, this should be easy. We go in and order 20 wings, mild and some curly fries. Since this is a wing place, you’d expect to be eating in about 10 minutes. Well, 25 minutes later the waitress delivers 20 wings absolutely soaked in sauce. One bite and Lady CurbCrusher is tearing up. She doesn’t care for real spicy food. These are not mild wings, not super hot, but mild wings shouldn’t have a bite to them. In addition, they are very hard, like the spent too long in the fryer. The same is true of the curly fries. The waitress came back over and asked how things were, so we told her. She offered to replace half the wings with ones without sauce for Lady CurbCrusher. Another 25 minutes, and Lady CurbCrusher was delivered ten wings that could be used to pound nails. They aren’t spicy, but they seemed to have spent the entire 25 minutes in the fryer.

All in all we were disappointed. The food didn’t taste good, and service was very slow.

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May 14, 2008 by steve.

Well, not much going on lately, the CurbCrushers monthly camping trip for May is at the end of the month. But in preparation for the summer season, I took the motorhome over to Golby Motor Corporation for some regular maintenance. They do great work, and I made plans to have lunch with a friend on the West side of Orlando.

Lunch was a great meal. We at at Mama Nems’ , a soul food restaurant. This was a fantastic meal. There are the standard items you would expect to find, fried chicken, pork chops, and meat loaf. You get three sides with the main course, and I almost wish you could just order a meal of sides. The sides include fried corn, collards, cheese grits, red beans and rice, fried sweet potatoes, fried green tomatoes, and more. I enjoyed the fried chicken, cheese grits, collards and red beans & rice. Top it off with sweet tea and you’ve got an almost perfect meal.

If you find yourself on the west side of Orlando (near Universal Studios) this is definitely a place to stop and eat.

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April 8, 2008 by steve.

Ok. I did promise to talk about the Lady and Sons Restaurant. Perhaps one of the reasons (among others) I will never be elected President, is that I would not have a White House Chef, I’d have a White House Cook. My first choice would probably be Paula Deen, or at least someone from her restaurant in Savannah.
For those who have not seen Paula on the Food Network or elsewhere, her cooking style is what is commonly referred to as “Home Cooking.” And it is done very well. The restaurant is located on Congress Street in Savannah, and there are two ways to get in. If you have more than 10 people (which we did with the Girl Scout Troop and parents), you can call and make a reservation. If you have less than 10 people, you need to line up and get a reservation in person at the restaurant. Lady CurbCrusher and I had done this on a previous trip, lining up around 7:30AM to get seats later in the afternoon for a late lunch, early dinner.
Once you show up at your appointed time, you’ll be shown to a seat one of the three floors in the restaurant. Your choices at this point are to either order from the menu, or go to the buffet. I’ve been twice and not even looked at the menu, I’ve headed for the buffet. Regardless of your choice, you’ll find hoecakes and cornbread delivered to your table, and a drink choice. But is there really any choice other than sweet tea in this environment?
The plate above is the result of the first visit to the buffet. Clockwise from the top, lima beans, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, pot roast, and collard greens. Let me say that it was all good. Especially the pot roast. It pretty much melted in your mouth. I didn’t take a picture of the second buffet trip, but I added some mashed potatoes, more pot roast and more collards to the plate.
The basic fact is that you can’t get a better meal anywhere. The food all taste great and you get to eat your fill (actually more than your fill). While I’m sure the Michelin Guide and the Zagat Survey either ignore or mark down Paula’s place because of it’s lack of “sophistication,” the truth is that you don’t fancy “plating” of food and black tie waiters and wine to have a five star food experience. You just need some friendly waitstaff and really good home cooking.

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March 19, 2008 by steve.

Ok, CurbCursher said he’d mention food when is made sense. And it makes sense here. As noted above, I was in San Diego, CA for a night and a day (oops, then it turned into another night). Just as you get onto Shelter Island is a restaurant, the Red Sails Inn Restaurant. I like this place, and list it as one of my favorite places to eat. I’m sure the food critics probably describe this place as a local “Red Lobster,” but it has character, nice folks working there, and it serves good food for fair prices.

The menu is a typical sea food place. There is shrimp, scallops and fish. Since I ended up there two nights in a row I had a broiled Mahi Mahi the first night, and fried shrimp the second night. Both dishes were well prepared, and tasted good. The only complaint I had was the garlic mashed potatoes I had as a side dish on the first night. There weren’t very garlicy. I avoided this mistake on the second night and had the baked potato instead.

As with pretty much anything on Shelter Island, the location is great. If the weather is nice, you can sit outside and enjoy a great view of the marina. If not, you can stay inside and enjoy a great view of the marina. The place has been around since 1957, and seems to have a following with some of the sailors from the marinas nearby. On every trip I think I’ve overheard at least one conversation going on in the bar about sailing techniques and methods. Some of these get quite animated, with the participants trying to show boat, sail, wind, and landmarks with their hands and arms.

All in all a great place to relax, have some seafood and enjoy the view.

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October 5, 2007 by steve.

The Kansas City airport is the place sometime in the past 10 years that Mr. CurbCrusher found himself during the month of January. The day started out blustery cold, then got colder. Sitting in a conference room facing a lake, Mr. CurbCrusher watched the lake go from a liquid state to a solid state over a period of about 6 hours. Since it also happed to be Mr. CurbCrusher’s birthday, his boss had promised him a steak. Well needless to say with weather freezing the lakes, there was only hotel food that night, no steak.
So Earlier this week, Mr. CurbCrusher finds himself in Kansas City for a conference. On Tuesday night, he found his way to The Majestic Steakhouse located at 931 Broadway, about four blocks from the convention center.
The setting is a downstairs, basement like, environment with raw brick walls. There is a piano player and jazz singer, who would probably sound good if the room was bigger. But with a seat right in front of the speakers, it just makes conversation impossible, and is a bit noisy.
Mr. CurbCrusher enjoyed the 8oz Fillet, with a twice baked potato. The meat was cooked and seasoned nicely, and the potato was about average. In my mind that about describes the meal, it was about average. Nothing to rave about, but nothing to turn your nose up at either. Considering that the alternatives were hotel food or a sports bar across the street, it was about as good as it was going to get.

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September 13, 2007 by steve.

Well the CurbCrushers intended to eat most all their meals at the campsite. But after arriving at the Cloudland Canyon State Park, Mrs. CurbCrusher noticed an add for a place named the Canyon Grill that was located close to the park. CurbCrusher got a little worried about going out to dinner when the family stopped by the Ranger Station to return a book and asked about the place. “Oh its a 4 star restaurant. People come from all over to eat there.” Now this can be good or bad. When people talk about fancy eating places, CurbCrusher immediately assumes that your talking about dressing up nice, getting food that looks real pretty, but there just isn’t much of it. Seeing as how we were in our camping clothes, jeans t-shirts and sneakers, I figured we might soon find ourselves back at the RV fixing dinner.

The Canyon Grill is only open from five to nine at night Wednesday through Sunday. It is also located only about a mile from the park entrance, so we got there about fifteen minutes before they opened. Mrs. CurbCrusher decided to walk in and see if they had a menu. When she returned to the car, she said there wasn’t a “set” menu as they fixed items that were available fresh, and there was no kids menu. The lady she had talked to did say that they had a chicken strips kind of appetizer that would probably appeal to kids. Well, we had fifteen minutes to kill, and in CurbCrusher’s mind this place was looking worse and worse. All the clues, “fancy restaurant”, “no kids menu”, “fresh items only”, pointed to a hoity toity unfun place to eat. We drove toward Chattanooga and enjoyed the scenery and decided we’d give it a try.

The CurbCrusher family arrived back at the Canyon Grill about five minutes after five, and were immediately seated. So at least were dressed decently enough to get in the door. The menu was a pleasant surprise. Some seafood, and a selection of beef, pork and poultry along with a couple of pasta dishes. The person seating us and the wait staff were very friendly. I started to think this might not be to bad afterall.

Little CurbCrusher ordered the chicken strip appetizer, Mrs. CurbCrusher ordered a pan seared pork dish with black beans and a backed sweet potato as sides, and I ordered the grilled chicken breast with lima beans and baked sweet potato as sides. Then they brought the bread. The bread was warm from the oven, and very light, with a heavenly taste. This was looking much better. While we were waiting for our food another half-dozen diners were seated, and it became clear that we were dressed just about right. Some folks were dressed up a little more and others a little less.

The meal arrived and all doubt about coming to eat at the Canyon Grill was removed. The chicken strips were breaded and fried, but the breading was light and flavor of the chicken was preserved and it was excellent. The pork was fixed with some kind of sauce, but it melted in your mouth when you chewed it. The chicken was moist and tasty. The vegetables were so good, that I’m not sure they were really vegetables. If I could have, I’d have seconds and thirds of the lima beans. Little CurbCrusher loved the baked sweet potato, between Mrs. CurbCrusher and myself giving her parts of our sweet potatoes, I think she may have eaten a whole one.

All in all it was a wonderful meal. Little CurbCrusher and Mrs. CurbCrusher did not finish their meals, and we took a go-box back to the RV with us. We had the left overs for lunch and dinner the next day while driving back to Orlando. From the maps and advertising, the Canyon Grill is about eighteen miles from Chattanooga, so if you find yourself in Chattanooga on Wednesday through Sunday nights, find your way out there for a great meal.

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July 10, 2007 by steve.

Great Restaurant!! Fantastic Food.

I love this place. The CurbCrusher family first went here about five years ago when we were in Asheville to visit the Biltmore. We stayed out near the airport where Airport Road and I-26 meet. When we asked where the closest place to eat was, the desk clerk gave us directions to the Mills River Restaurant. Since then I’ve had a couple of occasions to travel to Asheville on business. Since I stay near the airport, it is convenient to drive the 4 miles down to eat.

This is home style cooking, and hospitality. Just about every time I’ve eaten there, there’s been one or more regular customers that are carrying on with the entire staff. Tonight it was an older man. They were training three or four new service staff. All the veteran staff were bringing their trainees by and introducing them to “Mr. Henry” and talking to him about how his week had been going.

I enjoyed the Country Fried Steak with Sausage Gravy. Served with mashed potatoes (freshly made, with chunks of the ‘taters in them) and gravy, and the salad bar. Top it off with an excellent sweet tea and this was a five star meal. Like any good down home cooking place, they have chocolate layer cake, so of course I finished off the meal with desert. The entire meal was $12.32, plus a tip. A great value.
Mills Creek Restaurant is located at the corner of NC 191 and NC 280, 4201 Haywood Road. Horse Shoe, NC 28742.

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