Dinner at Denny's

By the time we made it down Route 89 into the town of Jackson we could go no further without a meal. Once again Denny's came to the rescue, or so we thought. Looking over Denny's vast array of cuisine I decided on the hearty turkey dinner, complete with all the trimmings. Hoping for a Thanksgiving style feast I was instead served one of the worst meals I have ever eaten. This ranked right up there with the time I got food poisoning from the pizza place by my apartment. The turkey tasted as it had been processed in some big factory, pressed into a can, then microwaved by some teenager not skilled in the finer culinary arts. The side of stuffing was bone dry, similar to poured concrete. Lumpy mashed potatoes and gravy made the meal complete. Yet I was so tired and hungry I forced the meal down.

When I looked over at Mike he was suffering through a similar experience with his grilled chicken dinner. As he put it, “it's got the consistency of a hot dog.” Smothering it in honey mustard wasn't helping.

We didn't fair any better with the service. Denny was certainly dragging the bottom of the barrel these days. Somehow we ended up with three servers, but the main person was a young woman who's mind seemed to wander in and out of reality each time she stopped by to check up on us. The long waits were filled with two other employees who brought us refills. Mike concluded that the scarcity of our waitress was due to her taking hits on a bong located in the kitchen. Our chef was no doubt hitting it too.

By the time we finished our meal and shared stories of what we thought we were eating I broke out into a fit of hysterical laughter. Any word from Mike was the funniest thing I ever heard. Howling like a jackal, it was a while before I could regain my composure and head for the exit.

At this point, already more than 12 hours into the drive, neither of us was in any shape to drive the remaining two or three hours to Yosemite, so we checked into the neighboring Best Western.

Before the drive the next morning we returned to Denny's for breakfast. I played it safe with pancakes and fruit. How badly can someone screw up fresh fruit? It actually turned out to be a good meal, but we swore no more dinners at Denny's.