In case you wondered if Grumpy Glutton mysteriously, and without warning, turned into a boring food policy blog: NO! However, being stuck in Chainland provides little inspiration for posts about restaurants. Few are good. And, while I'm certainly not averse to ripping a bad restaurant (or amplifying the most minute fault of a great one), most in the area are chains and what's the point of grumping about a chain? We already know they suck!

Fortunately, all of this is about to change 'cuz the Grump is taking a roadtrip!!! I'm driving from Florida to San Francisco.

At this point, the rational person would say, why not fly? I'm not rational. I've been a fearful flyer for years and my b-school buddy dying in the Buffalo crash has really gotten into my head. So, I'm gonna forgo five hours of panic in favor of five days of driving and make those days as much fun as possible.

But, I need your help with the fun part! In particular, I need suggestions on things to do, sights to see and, especially great places to eat along the way. I'm especially, especially interested in eating regional cooking and am excited about the potential of driving through the heart of the barbeque belt.

I have two basic choices of routes, the very southerly I-10ish route and the somewhat more northerly I-40ish route.

The main attraction of the I-10ish route is that it runs through Louisiana (some good cookin' there) and near the three Ls of Texas barbeque, Lexington, Lockhart and Luling. If the Tablehopper reads this, I suspect that she'll give a thumbs up to this route.

OTOH, the I-40 route, which would also allow me to detour to Historic Route 66 along part of the way, passes through Atlanta (good food town), Memphis (although Slate claims that Memphis barbeque is overrated) and Arkansas (if Johnson's is any indication, there's some dern fine 'que in Arkansas). It also has the advantage of missing most of Texas. Outside of the Alamo, Austin, brisket and Shiner Bock, I'm not a fan of the Lone Star State.

So, peeps, help the Grump out! Which way should I go and what should I do/see/eat along the way? Let me know in the comments section or e-mail grumpy [at] grumpyglutton [dot] com. I'll blog about the trip. I promise!