Road Trip 2010 Restaurants We Loved

We went on a 2+ week vacation in the motor home with the two youngest teenagers and travelled through 8 states. One goal we had was not to eat out very often... and when we did we tried to make it something really good or cheap and easy. I believe we ate out 4 times which is a lot less than we would have eaten out if we had been at home.

Once was Denny's because it was easy to find and cheap and we knew what we wanted... as a special treat we decided we would get a piece of pie afterwards. There were four of us and per piece was $3.75 and a whole pie was $9 needless to say we got the whole pie and to go. We went and did some sightseeing and then came back to the motorhome for the night.. settled in and cut some pie.. well tried... it was frozen solid.... I had not thought about that... and then even though it was good... Denny's pie is NOT special... it is just a frozen pie that you can buy at walmart for half the price... Lesson learned. We did cut it into 8 pieces and had dessert for two different nights :)

The second place we will be visiting again is MacKenzie River Pizza Company (which has a great website. This is in Montana... and they have one in Idaho too. We had the lodgepoles to start with. "Fresh baked natural grain or sourdough sticks brushed with olive oil, garlic and melted cheese. Served with marinara." OMG so good... and the marinara is Really good. Then the pizza came... We ordered 2 small thin crust of the StockMans, "Steak strips, pepperoni, bacon, Italian sausage, jack & cheddar."

I will have no problem getting in my jeep and heading to Montana just for the pizza... but they also have a lot of other wonderful things on their menu that I want to try... oh and there was another item on that menu that we did try... and I would go just for this item too. Mack Lovin' "Chocolate chip cookies served piping hot with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. A must share delight" They are right..this works really well as a shared item.

My only regret is that I only had my cell phone camera and these photos are not near good enough to show how wonderful the food was. The service was incrediable too... friendly and fun. The place has the feeling of a huge mountain lodge... your pretty sure there is a river right outside. It is the kind of place that is very nice.. but very relaxed and comfortable... you can go in while traveling with the kids ... or for a nice dinner with friends. The price was good too... I had expected it to be a lot more from the looks of the place. I am thinking I might need to spend a week in Montana just so I can eat here every night and try some different things :)

We did end up stopping at one more place....in Cle Elum, Washington. We had been here before for icecream and had planned on stopping in town for milk shakes but traffic on the interstate was so stopped up that we decided to have dinner. We stopped at the Homestead which is right off the freeway.. does not seem to have a website but linked you up with a review page.. seems people LOVE it or hate it. It is known for it's bbq sauce... and we did not order anything that had to do with BBQ but we did try the sauce on some fries and it was good.. great taste.. a bit thinner than I like. We did have some great shakes... and the fish and chips were wonderful. Cost a bit more than we like to spend.. but all in all it was a good place. No special trips for it.. but if going through and wanting a bite to eat.. would stop again :)

Once we ate at burger king... just quick burgers because it was so easy to find. Neither of those were bad experiances... they were what we expected.. cheap and easy and food we know and love :) Some comfort type food is always nice on vacation and I did enjoy the breaks.

Two of the meals we had were above and beyond and they are places we WILL be going back to... helps we want to go back to the areas for other things.. but... even if we did not... I would go back for the food.

The first was the BBQ in Silverton, Thee Pitts Again I do want to say that their website sort of stinks. It does not appear to have been updated in a long time.. since we ate the store that the site says is "coming soon" I would suggest they get the site updated.. and that they ad some photos of the food. If you scroll down ( on the right hand side ) to "featured on tv" you will be able to watch a video from when they were featured on Diners, Drive'ins and Dives, on the food network. This place has won many awards and I can understand why. They have awesome food and a fun place and they are friendly with good service and a clean restraunt. The fried twinkie with icecream was as good as the BBQ sandwhichs and the beans and the potatoe salad too. If you like your sauce a little spicy... be sure to ask at the counter as they keep the spicy sauce back there so no one accidently ads it :)