I think this may be my final post dissecting and debriefing about my family’s recently-completed cross-country trek (I’ll be moving on to myriad other insights about the open road). So I’m in the mood for a last meal.

Yes, it’s time for me to reflect on the best culinary experiences of our summer RV journey – lunches and dinners that stayed with us for days (in a good way) and proved to be unexpected treats.

Let’s get one thing straight: We don’t hit every eclectic eatery on our journeys. Some we pass by wistfully. I recall a restaurant along Highway 1 in Maine – Nana’s Kitchen. “Where memories are made,” said the marquee, “and everyone is spoiled.” I would have liked to have eaten there.

And not every meal in a random restaurant is a gastronomical wonder. That’s why we love to travel by RV – you don’t have to hemorrhage money at three restaurants each day. Because sometimes – too often, in fact – you walk away muttering to yourself that a homemade (house-on-wheels-made) sandwich would have been a better idea.

I’m thinking, for instance, of the time we first arrived in Maine in late June, visions of seafood delicacies dancing in our heads. We pulled into a campground outside of Bangor, and the friendly woman who checked us in pointed to a restaurant 50 yards away and handed us a 10 percent off coupon. “All homemade,” she gushed. “Scallops and clams…”

We were sold. We strolled from our campsite to the restaurant and promptly had one of the worst meals of our lives. Luke was handed a plate that included a completely uncooked scallop, pink as a newborn baby. The young waitress merely shrugged and said, “Yeah, that’s weird.” Amy’s haddock soup tasted like milk and fish. We asked about vegetable side options, and the young waitress said the choices were coleslaw, squash or peas & carrots. The rest of the conversation went like this:

“What kind of squash is it?”
“Oh, did I say squash? I meant pickled beets.”
“Oh, that’s great. I love pickled beets.”
“Wait, actually it’s waxed beans.”
“Oh.”

So not every meal is perfect. But we had five on this last RV trip that were darn close.

EAT ‘N MEET GRILL (SARANAC LAKE, NY)

It’s essentially a hole-in-the-wall takeout joint in a charming town deep in the Adirondacks. Not necessarily the place where you expect to find exotic culinary offerings. But consider the following from the eclectic menu:

*Humble pie with chicken livers, duck gizzards, apples and raisins
*Pork rillets and duck foie gras torchon with rhubarb butter
*Jamaican jerk pork with plantain dumplings
*Portuguese sardines dusted in masa flour
*Southern fried frog legs
*Potato and onion perogies

And how about a black raspberry jam crepe for dessert.

LEUNIG’S BISTRO & CAFÉ (BURLINGTON, VT)

“The Panache of Paris,” says the tagline on the restaurant’s website, “and the value of Vermont.” Located along Burlington’s adorable Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian walkway in the heart of the city, it really is sort of a New England version of a Parisian café. The place offers live jazz every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. We merely came across it while seeking out lunch. But it was a medley of tasty offerings.

I splurged and opted for the oyster trio (I’m a BIG fan of oysters). This one offered six fried oysters with sweet chili aioli, 4 oysters Rockefeller with fennel, shallots, tomatoes, baby spinach and cream sauce topped with bread crumbs, and four raw oysters with champagne mignonette. So good… Amy enjoyed a salad nicoise. Luke loved his duck tacos. Even Jesse, who usually opts for a hamburger from a kids’ menu, thoroughly enjoyed his grilled flatbread with sautéed mushrooms, white truffle, artichoke hearts, baby spinach, roasted tomatoes and ricotta.

UPTOWN KITCHEN (GRANGER, IN)

Okay, I’m not entirely objective about this one. The restaurant is owned by a guy I know from summer camp three decades ago. But this was a great lunch – in Granger (on the outskirts of South Bend) or anywhere else, for that matter. “Eat well. Be happy.” That’s what the menu says. And we did and, and we were.

Amy ordered the 303 salad, which includes seared steak, roasted red potatoes, snap peas and edamame. Luke had the crab omelet with spinach and cream cheese. I wolfed down a sundried tomato, pesto and goat cheese quiche. The menu offered everything from chicken sausage hash to roasted garlic tofu to lemon ricotta pancakes. Not to mention a smoothie called The Elvis (banana, peanut butter, milk and honey). There’s also a mouth-watering dinner menu at Uptown Kitchen – liver pate, whitefish picatta, molasses seared venison… Eat well. Be happy.

MANGIAMO’S (GRAND RAPIDS, MI)

Once again, I’m a bit biased because I had the pleasure of sharing this meal with my cousin, my uncle and his new wife. But the atmosphere went beyond the company. The magnificent building in which it resides is an 18,000-square-foot mansion dating back to the earliest days of Grand Rapids, built by a silver-miner-turned-lumber-baron in 1873. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mangiamo is Italian for “Let’s eat!” And we ate well. A whole artichoke baked in tallegio cheese and rosemary. Baked Sicilian swordfish with fingerling potatoes. Seafood linguine. Cheese ravioli. Even the kids’ menu went beyond the usual – you know what I mean: How many times have you been forced to choose between chicken fingers, a burger and mac & cheese? This one offered options like wood grilled salmon and peanut butter and jelly sushi. 

We skipped the mouth-watering dessert options – everything from chocolate amaretto cheesecake to pistachio, chocolate and fruit canolis. Instead, we hopped on over to East Grand Rapids and a longtime ice cream icon – Jersey Junction. It was about a buck seventy-five for a big ol’ scoop. The line went out the door on a pleasant Sunday evening. Who doesn’t want cheap mint chocolate chip and priceless tradition?

FIREFLY CAFÉ (TRAVERSE CITY, MI)

It was nice that we had an outdoor table next to a languid river on a pleasant evening. It was kind of neat that the Traverse City Film Festival was launching, and there was music throughout the city, and we could hear a bagpipe wailing in the distance. But the best thing was this: It was Tuesday night. And Tuesday nights are half-off sushi nights at Firefly café.

This was no ordinary sushi. We tried the Fusion (pineapple, cucumber, pickled ginger and pickled carrot), the Empire (blue crab, tempura, asparagus and sweet soy reduction), and the Spider (tempura soft shell crab, cucumber and garlic aioli). But hands down, the most delectable roll was called El Gordo: six-ounce pan-seared tuna stuffed with bleu cheese, jalapeno cream cheese and red bell peppers. My mouth is watering as I write this…

I’ll end this lengthy account (longer than some of our meals) by offering a list of the most interesting restaurant names that we encountered. We didn’t eat at any of these, but we smiled as we passed by:

  Awful Awful Shoppe (Greenville, RI)
  Joe’s Package Store and Deli (Brimfield, MA)
  Dog Eat Dog World (Waldoboro, ME)
  Town Fryer (Constantine, MI)
  Mary’s Pop-In Pizzeria (Wiscasset, ME)
  Uncle Kranky’s Café (Jewett City, CT)
  Fat Daddy’s Place (Ligonier, PA)
  Wiffletree Restaurant (Butler, OH)
  Okey Dokey’s Family Restaurant (Floyd, NY)
  D’s Doghouse Tavern (Hancock, VT)
  Tail o’ the Pup (Saranac Lake, NY)
  Shepard’s Pie (Quechee, VT)
  Dishin’ It Out (Canaan, NH)
  Rooster’s Roadhouse (Bethel, ME)
  Smokin’ Good BBQ (Bethel, ME)
  Happy Hog Café (Traverse City, MI)
  Wasp’s Snack Bar & Diner (Woodstock, VT)

Best name for a bagel shop:

  Hole in the Wall Bagels (Rockland, ME)
  Finagle a Bagel (Wayland, MA)

Most literary restaurant name:

  Shakespeare’s Table (Carroll, NH)
  Hemingway’s Restaurant (Killington, VT)

Of course, our best taste experience may have come here:

As we passed through Connecticut last June, Interstate 91 through Hartford offered a relatively uneventful drive past the city. But I was certainly intrigued by the names of the road. The first sign that we glimpsed, as we headed south from the city center, told us we were cruising along the “Governor’s Foot Guard Memorial Highway.” I have no idea what that means. Can anyone out there clue me in?

Then, just a few miles south, we were suddenly informed that it was now the Christopher Columbus Highway. I would describe that as a road-tripper’s non-sequitur.

A much more appropriate transition occurs in Kentucky. As you drive north on I-65 into Louisville, you find yourself on the Abraham Lincoln Expressway. As you reach the city limits, the interstate gets a different name – the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Expressway. I love that.

In fact, I came across a bunch of interesting highway names during my RV expedition this summer. Here follows my Top 12:

1. Jackie Mayer Miss America Highway (Hwy 2 into Sandusky, OH)

2. Governor’s Foot Guard Memorial Highway (I-91 in Hartford, CT)

3. Underground Railroad Memorial Highway (Hwy 131 in Michigan)

4. Senator Ralph Quattrociocchi Memorial Highway (I-490E toward Rochester, NY)

5. Purple Heart Trail (Hwy 4 in New Hampshire)

6. Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial Highway (I-395 in Connecticut)

7. Ragged Mountain Highway (Hwy 104 through New Hampshire)

8. Victory Highway (Hwy 102 through Rhode Island)

9. Yankee Expressway (I-84 through Hartford, CT)

10.  Christopher Columbus Highway (I-91 in Hartford, CT)

11.  Benjamin Franklin Highway (Hwy 422 in western Pennsylvania)

12.  Presidential Highway (Hwy 2 from New Hampshire to Maine)

Even better were the names of the less-traveled roadways, those boulevards and lanes and drives and dirt roads that are fed by the above-mentioned highways.  In fact, I can come up with my 25 favorite road names from our trip through 18 states this summer:

1. Flutie Pass (Natick, MA)

2. Cat Mousam Road (Kennebunk, ME)

3. Notta Road (Carthage, ME)

4. Lois Lane (Katonah, NY)

5. Boulevard of the Allies (Pittsburgh, NY)

6. What a Vu Way (Jay, NY)

7. Bellsqueeze Road (Clinton, ME)

8. Ampersand Avenue (Saranac Lake, NY)

9. Muhammad Ali Boulevard (Louisville, KY)

10.  Man O’ War Boulevard (Lexington, KY)

11.  Poverty Lane (Lebanon, NH)

12.  Robinhood Drive (Hermon, ME)

13.  Tee-O-Wanna Road (near Old Forge, NY)

14.  Cozy Retreat Road (Schellsburg, PA)

15.  Rushing Wind Lane (Lexington, KY)

16.  Tippecanoe Street (Wolf Lake, IN)

17.  Train Wreck Point Road (near Inlet, NY)

18.  Crooks Road (Green Bay, WI)

19.  Crooked Road (Bar Harbor, ME)

20.  Purgatory Road (Sutton, MA)

21.  Chagrin Boulevard (Beachwood, OH)

22.  Hot Metal Street (Pittsburgh, PA)

23.  Happytown Road (E. Orland, ME)

24.  XY Avenue (Moore Park, MI)

25.  Lombardi Avenue (Green Bay, WI)

This past summer, our RV excursion took us along myriad small town Main Streets and rural highways brimming with establishments attempting to lure passersby. Here follows a list of my favorite names of various types of businesses:

Toy store: The Tiny Acorn (Waterbury, VT)

Gift shop: Maine-ly Maine (Ellsworth, ME)

Wood-themed gift shop: Once A Tree (Camden, ME)

Handcrafted furniture store: Good With Wood (Pellston, MI)

Imported furniture store: Far Fetched (E. Hanover, NJ)

Landscape designer: Garden of Eagen (New Castle, PA)

Theater: Headless Sullivan Theater (Geneva, NY)

Tavern:
1.      Johnny Bravo’s Tavern (Rome, NY)
2.      Two-Bit Tavern (south of Butler, PA)

Bowling alley: Bowl Winkles (Lake Placid, NY)

Motel: Stumble Inn (White Lake, NY)

Cheese shop: Yancey’s Fancy (near Batavia, NY)

Ice cream shop: Sunny Daes Ice Cream (Fairfield, CT)

Beer and wine supply store: My Old Kentucky Home Brew (Louisville, KY)

Hair salon:
1. Bee’s Hive of Beauty (New Rochelle, NY)
2. Head Turners Hair Salon (Thomaston, ME)
3. Back to Your Roots Hair Salon (Boonsboro, MD)

Manicurist: Gossip Nail Studios (N. Providence, RI)

Laundromat: Bear in a Tub (Inlet, NY)

Daycare: Piggyback Rides & Slippery Slides (Bristol, NH)

Car wash: Carcuzzi (Saranac Lake, NY)

Farm: Pooh Corner Farm (near Bethel, ME)

Shopping Center: The Old Bag Factory (Goshen, IN)

State park: Sleeping Giant State Park (CT)

Book store:
1. Present Tense (in Batavia, NY)
2. Bearly Used Books (Enfield, NH)
3. The Alphabet Garden (Cheshire, CT)
 
Fly shop: Tie By Night (South Hero, VT)

Bait store: Happy Hooker (Carroll Township, OH)