OK. This has nothing to do with bicycle racing. Except, bicyclists eat a ton. I went and ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel Sunday. It is an amazing place. I haven’t been to one in a long, long time. I think I’d just forgotten what they are all about.

If you’ve never been to a Cracker Barrel, it’s a chain restaurant that serves American “home cooked food”. The ambiance is that of a country store. Stuff everywhere. It has a big porch with rocking chairs for sale. There was a porch sale going on when I was there. Something like a garage sale I guess. The lobby has a strange collection of stuff. Old advertising signs, farm equipment, early kitchen appliances, tools, toys, etc. Plus they sell country store type food- Beef jerky, pickels, hard candy, etc. It might be one of the only places you can buy horehounds.

Breakfast is served all day. In my opinion, a mandate. I could eat breakfast 3 meals a day. I do sometimes. And this isn’t the typical bike racing breakfast. It is biscuits and gravy, grits, fried whatever. And a good selection of pancakes. I hadn’t indulged in a breakfast like this since I can remember. I ordered the Oldtimers breakfast. Two eggs, grits, hashbrown casserole, thick bacon, biscuits, gravy. It is pure fat. But, if you’re gonna consume pure fat, it is almost impossible to find a better way to do it. I have a conscience about eating right, but after I left that at the door, I can’t remember recently enjoying a breakfast more.

So, I guess to tie this into riding somehow-next time you go out and kill yourself on the bike, feel free to reward yourself and go to Cracker Barrel and eat like the rest of the 300,000,000 Americans do.

Game at every table. Best I could do was leaving 2.