First Post ... and First Adventure

I'm taking a class and they've asked us to start a blog. Let's just say committing to a topic for a blog has been intimidating. I can’t say that I’ve had writer’s block – more of a case of writer’s indecision.  In the end, I keep coming back to “diners”.  

With so many great websites and blogs out there already, I wasn’t sure I could do "diners" justice. But I’m not competing with Gutman or Garbin ... or any of the other diner gurus that have tracked and in some cases created diner history.

This is all about me … my experiences and my favorites.

I began searching out diners in the early 90s. It wasn’t until Columbus Day weekend, almost exactly 20 years ago, when diners became “destinations”.

Some friends and I decided to go to New Hampshire on a whim.  (Translation – no hotel reservations.) While I was a little concerned, my friends weren’t.


The Midway Diner, Rutland, VT, October 1990

The day was spent driving to VT and hiking and stopped for dinner at the Midway Diner in Rutland for supper. We ended up spending most of the night hanging out in a booth, listening to the juke box….  Sounds like a fun plan, and it was fun … but I’m not sure how many of you caught the “no reservations” comment. 

We spent hours in a diner because we had no place else to go! Closest hotels were in Albany, NY or Maine.  We finally left (were asked to leave .. it was so long ago, really does it matter?!)

Off we go, back into the car to drive to who knows where. I think we opted for Maine and were headed east. Eventually we pulled into some rest area and slept in the car for a few hours. Not comfortable, but makes for a great story. I do remember the shortest person had the entire back seat to themselves.

Before sunrise, after washing up in a bubbler, we took off again. If you turned me around blindfolded, I couldn’t have been less aware of where we were.  At some point we crossed the Vermont border into New Hampshire.

To this day, I swear we saw some sort of creature – a deer or bear ... something cross the road in front of us just before this diner appeared, as if a vision, right int front of us. Our luck had changed because not only did we find Jay’s Sweetheart Diner*, the neon was on … it was open!

And so my Diner Adventures began.

*Jay's is now the Sunny Day Diner on Rt. 3 in Lincoln, NH. Built by the Master Co. in the mid-1950s.