WEEKLY COMMUNITY DISCUSSION: Sure, why not... let's rank road trip snacks
I'll lead with my Deeply Midwestern Top Five
Hey pals
First off, Shana Tova to all the Jewish members of this community. A New Year? I agree! We could use one of those.
Also: Apparently Substack is encouraging those of us who facilitate discussions to move more of them to the “chat” feature in the app. My gut is to resist that move, because though I understand the desire to have fewer emails in inboxes (truly! I get it!), I know that there are folks here who are deliberately trying to avoid social media-esque spaces and the Substack app very much leans more towards the latter. I don’t feel THAT strongly about it, though, so I’m open to y’alls feedback. If you have a thought, sound off in comments.
BUT LET’S GET TO THE POINT: This was not my original choice for a discussion today, but a good friend/member of this community made a very funny comment on my Tuesday essay (which was, admittedly, not a light one!) that after all that naked sentiment I owe you all a Midwestern road trip snack ranking. And you know what? I AM EASILY PERSUADABLE, so here we go.
As you all likely know, I take a lot of pride in my skills in the art of Midwestern Road Trippery. This past year, I did a lot of book tour-related driving and that’s on top of the many miles my family puts on our trusty Prius V for grandparent visitation reasons. Am I one of the world’s foremost experts on this topic? Let’s say yes.
NUMBER FIVE: Dot’s Pretzels
I hear that these aren’t made in North Dakota any more. A real bummer. Also, my wife doesn’t like that they don’t have a plain salt varietal. But as a fan of MORE SEASONING and also STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY, these are good pretzels. And I’m still proud that they at least emerged from the Dakotas, which speaks a lot to that region’s parity of national cultural exports but whatever. You’re welcome, world, for these prairie-born pretzels and also for, um, Josh Duhamel?
NUMBER FOUR:“A coffee” from those instant cappuccino machines that most gas stations have (every Kwik Trip has one, that I can tell you for a fact, and the picture above is from Speedway, which brands their machines as “Speedy Premium,” a very bold statement).