Ruby Tuesdays*

There are certain aspects of travelling that are the opposite of fun.  First off, you're stuck in a car for an extended period of time.  This generally doesn't bother me too much, but everyone needs to stretch now and then.  You also have to worry about stopping to pee to much.  With Mark on high blood pressure medication, this happens all too frequently.  Perhaps the worst part of long car rides is that you usually wreck your sleep cycle.  You either leave incredibly early or too late.  Either way, you end up driving during the night.  This, in turn, gives me an urpy*** tummy.  This particular problem is compounded by the fact that you're mostly eating fast food, in an attempt to reach your destination as quickly as possible.  Since I refuse to eat and drive at the same time, we either swap drivers when it is time to eat, or we eat at the restaurant.  Your normal sit down restaurant takes way too long, while eating in a fast food joint off of the interstate can be scary.  We've found a nice compromise with Ruby Tuesday.

As we were making our way to Florida for our weekend at Universal, the trip was largely uneventful, save the attempted vehicular manslaughter I was involved in.****  When we grew hungry, we started looking for somewhere to eat.  Since we don't have one at home, our first choice is Panda Express, if we happen to find one.  This night, however, we were looking for a Ruby Tuesday.

I know you're wondering why we would choose a Ruby Tuesday; let me tell you all the reasons:

1. Salad Bar - They are one of the last establishments that still has a salad bar and is not a buffet.  This means we can immediately begin eating!  Doing this is just as quick as eating at McDonalds.
2. No wait - We have never had to wait to be seated at a Ruby Tuesday, save one time.  They just don't usually have waits.
3. Meal Combos - There is a section on the menu offering combos.  You can get a bowl of broccoli cheese soup and the salad bar for a decent price, not much more than an upsized combo at the fast food joint across the street.  Usually, by the time we've finished our first or second trip to the salad bar, anything else we've ordered is arriving.  Be it sliders or soup, it comes out pretty quick.
4. Healthier - Now, I'm not saying my salad is particularly healthy, but it isn't deep fried.  Most anything I'm getting at Burger King and the like is dripping with grease.  When we choose Ruby Tuesday for a quick bite, my food tends to be a lot less revolting for my already urpy tummy.
5. Pasta Salad - There is some type of pasta salad on the salad bar that is just plain amazing.  Trust me on this, or go try it for yourself.  You'll like it.

Of course, there are some down-sides to stopping at Ruby Tuesday for a meal while travelling.  If you get a slow server, they can delay your speedy exodus.  Additionally, you may find yourself dawdling, as it's nice to be out of the car.  If you're my husband, the salad will probably make you have to "browse the internet".  Of course, he always has to do that anyway.

Next time you're driving somewhere long distance, give Ruby Tuesday a shot.  It's not as fast as fast food, but you'll feel better afterwards.  We didn't regret it, even though we didn't reach our destination until 2 or 3 am.  Mind you, this was after we both worked all day.  Ruby Tuesday was that good.

*For Friday, May 11th - We were travelling, so it made it hard to get a post up.**

**You can snicker because I talked about something being hard to get up.  Go ahead, I'm okay with it.

***For all intents and purposes, this is a word.  If you have a problem with it, you have obviously never watched Freakazoid.  I'm sad because this means we can no longer be friends.

****It was a bird.  He flew right at me and hit the windshield.  I cried hysterically for about twenty minutes afterward, all while refusing to pull over and let Mark drive.  I like to pretend the bird was okay, that he was just participating in extreme car surfing.  Mark prefers to think that the bird was trying to suicide bomb us.  Either way, birds should not fly at cars.