Are Mom and Pop dying?
However, I may need to rethink the trip. The big 950 has one huge advantage, it holds 12 gallons of fuel and unlike me, it can make the trip on the highway without stopping for fuel. The 185 gets better fuel mileage but only holds 1.8 gallons. I’ve searched high and low for a used oversized tank on various sites with no luck. You’re probably thinking that is no big deal, just stop more, take a break, grab a snack… I would love to, but rural Mom and Pop filling stations, stores motels and restaurants are dying, quickly fading away. Looks like I will need to carry extra fuel and fill up at every opportunity.
One of the goals on my way home was to only eat at Mom-and-Pop
diners and fuel up at their filling stations.
After hours of riding, I did find a Terry’s Cafe in Jonesville NC to
stop and have a nice home cooked breakfast.
I wanted to stop in the late afternoon for a good meal before soldiering
on to Ohio. I never seen another diner
or a non-chain filling station all the way to Charleston. What was out there was closed, boarded up or vacant.
After fighting traffic in Charleston and losing time, I
opted to stop at a Sheetz with a seating area.
I typically like their food; it beats most of the fast food placed and I
didn’t want Burger Death. But my luck
continued, they don’t serve the chicken sandwiches we have up north, just the ones
that sit under a heat lamp all day. The
clerk offered to make me a fresh sandwich and then informed me they were out of
all the sides. No problem, I’d just buy
a bag of chips and turned around to see both of the soda machines and the slush
machine were broke, all they had was iced tea.
I finished my food and headed home wondering what our future holds.
I wish I could remember when the last time it was when I sat down in a chain restaurant, I always opt for the greasy spoons. Luckily, they are still thriving in the urban jungle, but for how long? Based on the amount of disrepair, some of the places I passed can be blamed on the interstate. When you take away the flow of travelers through your town, you lose the revenue needed to keep your businesses afloat. Covid killed off many that were surviving along with people not wanting to work killing off a few more because Mom can't get help.
Will Mom and Pop make a comeback? Will big corporations continue luring
everyone into their establishments with advertisements of how cool you will be
if you dine there? Have you ever thought
about how long you waited in line to sit in a noisy crowd just to wait on food
because the waitress has too many tables to keep up with?
I woman I met on my travels told me; She and her father stop at the diners full of pickup trucks, they have the best food. We eat at those places and have never really had a bad experience, we try our best not to feed the greed of corporate CEO’s. Every day should be shop small, not just the Monday
after Thanksgiving.
