My Friend, The Dude

So, as I mentioned in my introduction, I recently stopped at a Roy Rogers to eat on my way home from Drexel. It was at the the Peter J Camile rest area off the PA turnpike. All I wanted was some of those delicious mashed potatoes and two pieces of chicken. Normally you walk in, pick those things up, pay, and you're done. But not this time.

I walk in, use the restroom, and head to the restaurant area. There are three containers of mashed potatoes which we immediately put on our tray...and there's no chicken. I stand there patiently (kind of) and wait for someone to help me. There are two guys that look to be around 16-18, and they're hard at work discussing how fast their braincells disappear, so I figure I'll give them a few seconds to finish up. Except they don't seem to care, and I know that they see me. My mom heads over and I loudly inform her that I'm waiting for food, if anybody decides to help me. I guess someone in charge around there heard me, because a man told the guys to help me out. This is where it gets good.

A somewhat tall guy with no hair and bad teeth looks at me. And doesn't move. And just looks at me. Finally he leans toward the counter and says "Hi." All my troubles were washed away right there...he was clearly going to make my fast food dining experience pleasurable. I tell him I want some chicken, and he informs me that it needs to be made. Thank you, captain obvious. But it's what came next that really inspired me. "My friend, the dude...in the back. He's making some right now." I died a little inside. He has a friend?! A friend that's a dude, nonetheless! It'll be about fifteen minutes.

Three minutes later, he leans over and says "Are you waiting for chicken?" No, I was actually waiting for you, baby. Wtf? He then proceeds to update us about every five minutes on how long the chicken will take. I'm pretty sure he was trying to impress me with his math skills. It's too bad it actually took about ten minutes longer than he said it would. He must have noticed how annoyed I was while I waited, because after a while he decided to express how sorry he was about the wait. I believe it went something like this: "Duuude, I feel so BAD man, you guys actually stayed and waited for the food. You've been standing here ROCKIN' OUT this whole time." Yeah, that was too good to ignore, so I responded with "Yeah man, we're just rockin' out, having a good time." I don't think it phased him at all. A couple minutes later he comes up, arms in that whole TOUCHDOOOOWN position and exlaims that the chicken is ON THE TRAY. Five minutes later, we get our food, and he seems about as proud as the Steelers did the day before when they won their 6th Super Bowl.

On the bright side, the chicken was hot and still delicious. I barely ate any cause I ate my potatoes way too fast and was ready for a nap before I even sat down, but I finished it later that night during another long car ride, and it was still tasty even cold.

Thank you, Roy Rogers,for the wonderful experience.