A Journey of a Thousand Miles - The Food

One of the fun things about traveling on a motorcycle as opposed to a camper, trailer or motor home is that you are forced to eat meals "out" somewhere.  It doesn't always mean that you go to a restaurant which often happens but many serendipitous things happen regarding food.  The restaurants you go to are also varied, especially in Alaska where we have many communities without a single "chain" restaurant present.  Exploring some of those homey places that miss the message about marketing to the masses is kind of fun - for two reasons.  Sometimes you discover a great place, good food, friendly owners and sometimes it's a disaster which makes for good story telling later.  We end up eating at a lot of places we might avoid when we are at home but when they are the only game in town, you man up and sit at the table.

On the road on a bike just makes eating a lot of fun.  I am six feet, six inches tall.  When I ride, I usually wear the typical riding chaps and leather riding jacket.  I look pretty intimidating I am sure to a lot of people when I stride up to their front door.  But what it does is prompt a lot of conversations.  Since you can't help but notice me, lots of people want to know where you are from and where you are going.  They want to tell you about their bike and where they have been.  Usually it makes the wait for your food pretty short filling up the time with conversation with strangers.

The other thing is meeting up with friends in distant communities.  Whenever Christian people want to visit, food is usually involved.  Since we generally don't go out drinking and dancing, food is the next best thing to do.  On this particular trip, we had contacted a couple of friends at the far end of our trip to see if we could....go get a bite to eat or something.  Well, the word was out and other people we know heard and wanted to see us and others heard as well and before you know it, we had a genuine potluck going.  Someone offered to host as a place to meet and bingo, soon you have chicken on the grill and Mexican dip and the latest fresh fruit to arrive at the grocery store.  Awesome.  

There are the necessary meals that offer good meeting times, breakfast is especially good for this.  Since you may want to avoid the morning chill, it is a good excuse to linger over an omelet and visit with friends.  Our first morning out on the road found us in Wasilla for breakfast.  Our friends had some of their best friends who live in that community.  We agreed on a place to eat which was a ways out of town but had lots of seating for a group like us.  It ended up being a great place because they offered an all-you-can-eat brunch which in my understanding means you get to eat bacon like it is going out of style.  Wow, all of that salty, fatty goodness goes great with conversation with friends.  

The biker rally is also a good example of getting lots of good food on the road.  The motorcycle-food connection isn't really talked about much, but there is a definite connection.  It is easy to call up a friend who lives 100 miles away and say, "hey, how about we meet in the middle at that restaurant?"  An hour later both bike riders arrive at the same place and there is soon food in front of you.  

Since you are eating at different place than you do when you are home, you get to do some adventure eating, ordering things you have never ordered before.  I don't know about you, but when I find something I particularly like at a local restaurant, it is very difficult to not order it.  You want to avoid disappointment when it comes to paying for food.  So, when you are poring over the menu at a greasy spoon in that distant town, you can throw caution to the wind and get something you hope will be satisfying.  Just a note here:  If you ever are driving through Tok, Alaska, eat at Fast Eddy's.  Great food.  Order the "deep fried mushrooms" for an appetizer.  A platter big enough to feed a dozen people will arrive heaped with golden morsels of goodness.

Food really is part of the adventure.  I admit, I love food, it is my vice.  But we all got to eat and at least when you are riding your bike putting many miles underneath you, you can't be standing at the refrigerator door reaching in for a "snack".  So when you are riding you are visualizing your next meal and how good it is going to taste and who you will be visiting with.  I think I will take a ride tonight.