Perhaps it was the quality of the food or the extensive menu, or perhaps it
was the random water feature/charity donation box/slot machine that seemed
to be ever present?
Certainly after a few visits Denny’s offered familiarity. We nearly always
chose the same meal - the $4.99 breakfast deals. For Emma the 'Meat
Lovers' - sausage, egg, ham, bacon, and hash browns, and pancakes. For
me, egg, biscuits, chicken fried steak and pancakes. Chicken fried steak
probably deserves an explanation; I certainly did not know what it was at first.
I knew upon cutting into it that it was not chicken, or at least I hoped not, and
this was confirmed by the taste. I guessed at beef, but we had to wait until we
had a waitress with the time and friendly attitude to ask what it was. It turned
out that it was a thin piece of steak that had been pounded, coated and fried
the way that chicken is. Obvious really! We also had re-fillable coffee,
essential to get us through the day's drive. The only problem with the food
was the obsession with serving the pancakes with a huge ball of butter on top,
no matter how often we asked them not to. This was a problem because US
butter is salted, and does not mix well with sweet pancakes and maple syrup,
at least to our palates, so we just scooped it off. The American palate must
enjoy the mix of sweet and salt, they also put maple syrup on their bacon.
Once we were sustained by Denny’s we were normally full until teatime. The
rest of the day was generally filled with solid driving, save for a few 'comfort'
stops. As well as having straight roads to travel on, we often found ourselves
driving through fairly featureless, or a least mono-feature filled landscapes,
and boredom was definitely a possibility. Had we succumbed to this we may