We love to travel, and we’ve had the opportunity to make several long road trips over the years. However, we’ve lived in the West and Midwest and spent all of our lives there except for the four years we lived in Chicago. Plenty of people would say that Chicago is in the Midwest. A couple of trips have taken us to the East Coast, but we haven’t fully explored the East or visited much of the South.

One of the blessings of children is that they travel beyond their parents' territory. We’ve been able to visit England and Japan because our daughter has lived in those countries. When our son attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina, I joked that I was glad he was getting the culture of the North after having spent much of his teenage years in South Dakota. His venture there, however, did give us some experience with a new part of the country. We drove from South Dakota to North Carolina twice. The first trip was with a pickup, moving household items for him, and towing his car. The second was for his wedding in North Carolina. In addition, we made a bit of a drive across the south when we rented a car and visited him and his wife in North Carolina after a church meeting in Atlanta. And now, our daughter and her family live in South Carolina. We’ve made several trips to visit them, including a fantastic cross-country trip with our camper from Washington to South Carolina and back.

One of the stories we’ve told about our introduction to Southern culture was about our first stop at a Waffle House Diner. We hadn’t encountered the eating places before the first time we drove to North Carolina. There are over 2,000 locations across the south, though the chain claims to have restaurants in the midwest because they see Missouri and Arkansas as part of the midwest, while we think of those states as southern. It is all a matter of perspective. On our road trip, we saw many similar restaurants in size and design. Waffle House locations are open 24 hours a day and serve breakfast items whenever someone wants them.

On our first visit, Susan tried to order a Pecan Waffle, one of the top-selling items on the menu. Because of the difference in our accents, the waitress had a hard time understanding what she wanted, and when she finally understood, she said, “O honey, you want a Pee-can waffle!” At least, that is the way it sounded to us. We’ve laughed about the experience ever since. I don’t remember what I ordered, but we stopped for breakfast, so I probably ordered eggs, toast, and sausage. I might have also ordered one of their bowls of cheese grits with eggs and meat. I’ve since come to think of Waffle House as a good place to taste southern grits. Grits are not on our regular menu at home, but when we travel, we like to experience different foods as part of the experience.

Waffle House claims it is the world’s largest seller of waffles, ham, pork chops, grits, and T-bone steaks. I have no evidence to dispute that claim. They also claim that they sell 2% of all eggs consumed in the US. It is that last claim that has gotten them in the news recently as they announced that they were adding a surcharge of 50 cents per egg to all orders due to the high price of eggs. Avian flu has created an egg shortage and increased the cost of eggs nationwide. It seems as if the shortage is going to continue for a while. While we don’t appreciate the high prices, we haven’t cut back on our consumption. The high cost of eggs should benefit local farm stands this spring when the chickens return to greater egg production as the weather warms up. By then, the pullets at our son’s farm should be up to full production, and we’ll be getting free eggs once again.

There is a lot of other trivia about Waffle House. The dinners have jukeboxes with units at each table where diners can select tunes. The chain has its own record label, Waffle Records, that doesn’t produce consumer records. The songs available on the jukeboxes in the diners sport the Waffle Records label and focus on themes about waffles, restaurants, fast food, and the like. If you want the whole Waffle House experience, head to one of their locations, order a waffle and a bowl of cheese grits, and while you are waiting, select “Waffle Doo-Wop” on the jukebox.

I don’t know about franchises or how restaurant locations are chosen, but there is a diner in Surrey, British Columbia, just across the border from where we live that is called Waffle House. It doesn’t have the iconic yellow sign with black letters like the chain restaurants we visited in the south. And it isn’t painted yellow and red like the diners with which we are familiar. I haven’t yet visited it. The iconic diner in Canada is Tim Hortons. We have visited several of their locations. I did look up the Canadian Waffle House menu online, and it isn’t a place to go for southern comfort food unless your idea of southern is south Canada. You won’t find breakfast poutine or Turkish eggs at a Waffle House in South Carolina. The Canadian menu also features chicken and waffles, which I associate with a soul food cafe but would not expect at a US Waffle House. I’d probably go for the poutine. You can’t go wrong with french fries, gravy, and cheese curds.

As far as I know, the Canadian waffle house isn’t applying the 50-cent surcharge for each egg served. They’re probably feeling the pinch, however. I don’t think the supply of eggs is any better on their side of the border. I do know that raw eggs are prohibited. Once, when we were waiting for a ferry with our camper, the customs folks told us we could either surrender our eggs or cook them before the ferry arrived. Cooked eggs don’t carry the same prohibition.

For now, the plan is to eat breakfast at home. Though I admit, I’m tempted to drive up there for some poutine one of these days.