As I pulled in to the truck stop, one thing became abundantly clear to me: this wasn't the T/A I was thinking of. I think the one I was thinking of is located on I-20. This one is located on I-85. Whoops! Well, no quiche for me, then. Another thing became abundantly clear to me at this location as well: the parking sucks! There are 3 rows. First row of angled spots are just fine if you can pull through from behind, otherwise you're doing a blind-side 45 with not much room in front of you. The back row of straight spots are easy to back in to if you don't have anyone opposite you in the 2nd row. It is, however, that 2nd row of spots directly behind the angled first row that is the problem child. You see, whoever designed this didn't allow enough room between the 2nd and 3rd rows of spots. There is not enough room to get out (or in) if you're surrounded on all sides by parked trucks. There just isn't. One could park at a 45 degree angle on the 2nd row which would be easier for them to get out but the 3rd row would still have difficulty. Luckily in my case when I woke up in the morning, it was clear all around me.
But let's move on to the restaurant, shall we? Oh, by the way, this T/A does not have fast food. It's just a Country Pride restaurant for food options (or hot dogs off the rollers if you're in a hurry or you haven't had heartburn in awhile)
My original visit was last night where I tried the pickled onion burger (yuck) and wrote about it just prior to this entry. My return visit was a noon visit for lunch. While the place wasn't exactly hopping with activity, there certainly was activity in the restaurant and their names were Tonya and Kayla: two spunky blonde waitresses with adorable Georgia accents. These two girls made my visit. Just listening to them go back and forth with each other and giving a little sass to their regulars was enough to keep me entertained the entire time I was there. Now keep in mind, I love a sassy truck stop waitress. Love. It! These girls were no exception. It helped that the cook was adding fuel to their banter and hearing their exchanges gave me the impression that people here seem to enjoy working at this restaurant, or at least enjoy the people they work with. More places should be like this.
But let's get to the food. No vidalia onion quiche here, but they did offer chicken and dumplings. For $7.99 you get a heaping helping with a side of bread and the soup/salad bar. Cheaper than anything else I was going to order from the menu, so why not? I only have 2 complaints about the chicken and dumplings, first the big complaint: found 2 bones. One was part of a chicken leg and was easily picked out. The second one was much smaller and I didn't find it until I was chewing and that could have created problems had I not noticed it. Second complaint was that the dumplings were really small. At first I wasn't even sure there were dumplings, until I saw these little while globs of something and after tasting realized those were dumplings. I guess I'm used to seeing larger dumplings, or in the case of Mount Airy, enormous Titanic-sinking dumplings.
On the soup and salad bar were the usual salad fixings but they also had hominy. Ever tried it? It has no taste. Even after I dipped it in ranch dressing, there still was no taste to them. It's like they're ranch resistant or something. How are these able to still be horrible even with ranch?! That's an abomination! They did have 2 very appealing soups and despite the weather being in the high 80s, I didn't pass them up. Well I passed one up because I only had room for one. First choice was broccoli and cheese with huge pieces of broccoli. Bite size? Not in this soup! Bring a knife to cut these cheese covered trees down! The other choice was macaroni and cheese soup, with a cheese base, ground beef and elbow noodles. I had high hopes for this soup and was hoping it would be delicious and magnificent. It ended up being mediocre which was a little sad. I wanted it to be amazing but the base was a bit watery and it lacked flavor. Truly heartbreaking. Maybe I should have tried the other one. :(
But of course the whole mediocre lunch was more bearable thanks to Ms. Kayla and Ms. Tonya. Trust me, stop here for the service because these two girls were adorable. They take care of customers and they have fun while doing it. You don't see that as often as you should.
So let's reviews:
-Parking: could be an issue depending how busy they are. Now mind you I pulled in shortly after midnight and had no problem finding a parking spot I could easily get in to...on a week night!
-Chicken and dumplings: watch out for bones
-Soups: if the first one was lackluster, try the second one and hope for the best
-Pickled onion burger (see previous entry) if you don't like pickled onions before, you still won't like them after eating this.
-Service: the best! Kayla and Tonya are two gems..wait this is Georgia. they're two peaches. :)
This Travel Centers of America is located in Commerce GA. That would be I-85, exit 149. It's on the south side of the highway on US-441. If you look it up on google maps and click on the satellite view, you'll see exactly what I mean about the 2nd and 3rd rows of parking.
The travel store looks like it was recently remodeled, also. Not sure what the showers look like, the rest of the truck stop still has that "old T/A" look and feel to it.
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