Ever been to South of the Border? Ever been to Iowa 80? When I went to South of the Border as a kid I ate a BBQ sandwich there and got food poisoning. The rest rooms were horrible. The service and attitude of their employees worse. They sell garbage for tourist who don’t any better. I don’t know how such as place stays in business.
I’m on my way to Nebraska for a Monday delivery. I had two drops in the Chicago area. With the snow and bad directions, it was a rough day. I didn’t feel like driving much after the 2nd drop, so I stopped at the “world’s largest truck stop” aka Iowa 80. I haven’t been out this way in a long time. I’m either too far South or more North from I80.
Big mistake. Iowa 80 is the “new” South of the Border. The buffet was awful. The store is filled with over priced merchandise that truck drivers no longer need. 1/2 of what they used to carry has disappeared. Not that it ever mattered. The whole place reminds me of a Greyhound station in Birmingham.
Specifically, the celery on the salad bar was inedible. The tomatoes were sour and the onions were old, rubbery and tasteless. The salad itself was soggy and tasted very strange. The fried fish – I’m not sure what it was – was very fishy tasting. I spit it out. The fried chicken terribly greasy. All the vegetables were over cooked. The meatloaf horrible. Smelled like dog food. The pea soup terrible. Everything should have been thrown out and replaced with fresh properly cooked food. I’m still thirsty hors after trying to eat because so much salt was used by the cook. I should have gone to Wendy’s in the food court, but even that didn’t look appealing.
At least T/A, which is responsible for Iowa 80, could put all the overpriced crap they sell on sale. Nobody is walking out of the store with a purchase. Not even from the food store. I can buy most of the stuff at Wal-Mart for less than 1/2 the price. For goodness sakes, chop 1/3rd to 1/2 off those laptops stands. They’re just sitting their collecting dust. And, I don’t appreciate being solicited by some salesman going in and our of the building.
This is the last time I’m stopping here. I didn’t like it much in the past, and now, hard to believe, it’s gotten worse. I’m moving across the street to the Pilot just to get out of the Iowa 80 parking lot, away from looking at the building and the thought of that horrible food.
The photo credit for SOB is: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2211
The photo credit for Iowa 80 is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_80
