i'm stuffed

I thought I'd take all of you in Steve-land on another road trip with me. The good part is that refreshments will provided along the way. After those Arby's posts, I was getting hungry.

I've heard it said that "you are what you eat." Apparently, I'm pretty diverse and marginally good for you, but fun to be around :-)

Get your car keys and your appetite, we're headed out:

We'll start at lunchtime. Anyone who's spent much time in the mid-Atlantic will know that when gallons of milk collide with lots of neon and some excess "z's," you get Sheetz.

I kid. Sheetz is a great place to stop for cheap gas, hot food 24/7, and slightly over-the-top retail merchandising. I had a burger and fries today and this was the picture I took waiting on my food, which was prepared fresh when I ordered.

Their store designer is on acid, but it's very well done and our local Sheetz locations have a large following, including your firendly neighborhood blogger.

Need a snack? After work, I high-tailed it to Greensboro in just enough time to go to the Gold Medal Products showroom to pick up some new popcorn boxes (above) for my commercial popcorn popper.

Yeah, you read that right. I always wanted one (big popcorn lover), and my mom's country club needed one for outdoor events. Plus it was at Sam's Club for a good price. So we got one and I operate it as needed. It's fun as all get-out.

The people at Gold Medal were really nice and they're keen on giving product samples to get you to buy more of their products, like the slushie sample I got that was supposed to provoke me to buy that $2300 slushie machine. I almost did it, not becaue of the sample, but because I want one of those, too.

Oh well, probably more cost effective to go to the 7-Eleven anyway.

Next stop: Costco. Costco is a great place to buy food (and just about everything else) in bulk. As any warehouse club executive will tell you, the best way to get people to take 50 pound cans of artichokes home is to let them sample the for free.

I took the bait. Usually, I can refrain from the sample tables but today it was near dinner time and they had somewhere south of a dozen food stands with everything from potstickers to mussels to Hot Pockets to peaches to Vienna sausages (skipped the last one there. I like free food, but Vienna sausages aren't even good for free).

Luckily, my wallet wasn't as busy as my mouth. I only bought postage stamps, photo paper, a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and a case of Kirkland Signature sodas.

Ready for dessert? We end our food odyssey at Cold Stone Creamery. There's at least a half-dozen chains now that take soft ice cream bases and mix in goodies on a marble slab, but this is my favorite. Today's mixture: cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker crumbs, strawberries, and blueberries. A fine finish to a fine day of food.

Time to head home. There's Pepto Bismol in the glovebox :-)