[at-l] RE: at-l] favorite restaurants on trail.

[gareau at sprint.ca (Marielle and Paul)]

> Is Weasies still going in Waynesboro? Surely that one rates...
> The desert we had when we stopped in the South Mountain Inn in Md! Not to
> mention being seated in the center of the dining room while wearing our
> hiking clothes.


That reminds me of the way we were treated at the Homeplace. Here is an excerpt from our journal.

PA  

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The restaurant is a beautiful large two storey white house set back from the road, surrounded by a manicured lawn.  There was a lovely pond in the adjacent field. We walked up on the large porch and asked the person sitting there if hikers were allowed. The reason I asked is that we had been hiking for 5 hot days and had not washed or changed our clothes. He said there must be other hikers here and pointed to the number of backpacks that were propped up around the base of a large shade tree in the front yard.  We added our packs to the circle and went inside. 


We must have been quite a sight. I was wearing the red nylon shirt that I had worn every day since our start over two months ago. The sweat soaked shirt hung loose on me because of my weight loss and the sleeves were rolled up. I tucked my shirt in my equally sweaty shorts. I had not removed my hiking boots and still had my droopy gaiters going half way up my legs.  


The place was beautiful with shiny hardwood floors and lots of frilly decorations. The entire bottom floor had been converted into a dining area.  There were French doors opening to each room off the main hall and there were dining tables in each of those rooms. The kitchen was through doors in the back in an extension of the house. A gentleman came to greet us and did not react at all to our look and odour. He escorted us to a nice table in a beautiful little room. The other people in the room were well dressed, some in jackets and ties. 


I asked the waitress if there were other hikers in the restaurant. She believed there were and escorted us through a large dining room to another large room where we saw people we knew sitting at a table in the corner. There was SONGBIRD, GRUFF, WOODPACKER, FENRIR, BAADAI, POOPAJACK and FLEISHMAN.  They made room for us at the end of the table. 

The Homeplace restaurant is only open from Thursday to Sunday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.. It is an AYCE but it is not a buffet. The restaurant specialises in home cooked meals. The waitress brings all the food to the table on serving plates and everyone helps themselves. She brought fried chicken, roast beef, beans, coleslaw, green beans, mashed taters, gravy, baked apples, baskets of biscuits and pitchers of lemonade and iced tea.  The others had started before us and this was her second trip to the table. She came back later with thirds of some items. This was finished off with a wonderful strawberry shortcake. And the cost? $9.  

We  answered AT questions from some "regular people" in the restaurant.


We had a wonderful time and the food is fantastic. 


I would recommend the Homeplace to everyone.  They treated hikers no different than the other customers. It was said that they feel that the hikers add something to the atmosphere and that the other customers enjoy meeting and talking to the hikers and asking them questions. We hung around on the front lawn for a while. We certainly looked out of place with the group of people who were entering the restaurant. There seemed to be family gatherings and a number of graduation celebrations with nattily dressed young people. 


Later I went around back to the kitchen where they let me fill up the water bags.

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