QT – Quick Trip or Quality (potty) Time?

And just like that Stevey D is back in.  I told you guys I would find him.  He heard the tens of readers beckoning to him in his moments of zen.  They said “if you write it, they may read it”.  Actually, I think he was worried if he didn’t post something soon, I was going to sell the blog to Ivanka Trump and ice him out of his millions.  Welcome back prodigal son!

Now on with our review!  We here at the QT blog have spent more time than most people analyzing the amazing food offerings of the QT.  By saying that, I mean we spent any amount of time, which is more than you have spent.  That is OK, that is why we are here!  Today, I am going to break from our typical review and bring you a review of another part of the QT, but equally as important.

When you are on a road trip what brings you to stop?

1. Gas, without gas your road trip ends.  Certainly a valid reason to stop.
2. Food, we all get hungry and as we have shown over the last 9 months or whatever, I am too lazy to look it up, we have brought you our thoughts and musings on the food.
3. Facilities, OK I get it not everyone wants to talk about it, but let’s be honest, bathrooms are incredibly important on your road trip.

OK Here is the situation, I was in Atlanta for work and was returning back to God’s Country, AKA North Carolina.  While I had been hungry, and I was going to need gas soon, it was the demand for facilities that ultimately prompted the timing of the stop.  I told myself, just get out of Atlanta proper and then solve the situation.

I hit up the QT in Jefferson, GA on I-85.  Upon walking into the QT I noticed the layout was different than that of the typical QT.  Rollers and fountain drinks to the left and coolers with drinks to the right.  The cashiers were in the middle, a hallway behind them, with a sign that said restrooms.

I navigated around the cashier, I was able to fight the innate desire to review the rollers, and made my way to the WC (that is water closet for you uneducated and unwordly types).  To my surprise, this QT was also a trucker stop  They had a trucker lounge, women and men’s restrooms.  I was pleasantly surprised at the overall cleanliness of the bathroom and the quality of the build.  No dirty linoleum here, all nice tile.  Stalls were clean, the floor was spotless, the urinals well kept.  I saw no standing water or paper.  As public restrooms go, this is really, really nice.  Allow me to share:

I mean look they even have the “it’s be cleaned recently sign” on the floor!  Now, I do not feel the need to go into detail on my personal experience at the restroom.  I will share though that the doors on the stalls lock securely, they have a hook for jackets or what not on the door and the flush was strong.

The sink area delivered a quality experience as well.  The water was warm and motion activated.  It came on immediately.  The drying mechanism was an automated paper towel dispenser that was quick to respond and full of paper.  The trash facility was to the left of the paper dispenser.  The overall design of the bathroom was perfect.

As road trip bathrooms go, this one comes in at the top of the list.  Seems wrong to rate a restroom in chomps, because ew.  I am going to go with flushes.  I rate this bathroom 5 out of 5 flushes.  Now I recognize that 1 – this is only one QT restroom.  I promise to you, the readers, that I will see if this is a representation of other QTs.  2 – This was only a men’s restroom.  I recognize that each gender/sex (NC has really confused me on what words to use here) may treat their facilities different.  Pending NC law I promise to either review both rooms myself or enlist assistance and perhaps a guest reviewer for the restroom of the opposite gender, I mean sex, I mean equipment, I mean – ugh forget it, you know what I mean.

You may be thinking “wow, I can’t believe they went there”.  Well yes we did.  You may now be thinking “I miss Rob’s food reviews”.  Don’t worry keep reading.  And now you are thinking “How does he know what I am thinking?”.  The Force man – it’s The Force.  Haven’t you even seen Star Wars?   Geez

Onto the food review!  Now out of the restroom, car filled with gas and ready to roll, I required just one more thing.  FOOD!

TO THE ROLLERS MY GOOD MAN!  It is kind of depressing as I have had almost all the items on the rollers.  I did realize though, I had not had the steak and cheese taquito!  I grab one of those, an orange icey and just for fun – two chocolate doughnuts.

First the taquito, like our other taquitos, very good.  I was a little disappointed it wasn’t spicier than it was though.  Solid distribution of steak and cheese though.  4.12 chomps our of 5.  Second the icey!  I have had the cheerwine icey, but I went with the orange.  It was a bit like a liquid ice creamsicle.  Very good as well.  I give it 4.6 chomps out of 5.  Finally two chocolate doughnuts.  I had never had a QT doughnut and I consider myself an expert in doughnuts.  Not in fancy fruit yuppie doughnuts, but good solid chocolate, glazed, sprinkled type doughnuts.  The QT doughnuts were far better than I expected.   Considering it was about 2:30 and they had been in the cabinet since the morning makes it all that much more impressive.  I would purchase them again in a heart-attack, I mean beat.  Solid cake type doughnut, crunching on the outside with chocolate icing.  4.72 chomps out of 5.  While very good let me be very clear here.  A hot KK Doughnut is still the top dog and it ain’t close.  Don’t give me that dunkin crap.  Yes, they have some good doughnuts, but the hot glazed doughnut is literally Ambrosia.  Like seriously – you don’t think Jesus and God like to kick back and chow down on some hot doughnuts right off the line from a KK?  If you think differently, I will fight you, in an unfair fight, where I get weapons and you don’t.

So to wrap up this long entry, which let’s be honest is probably too long, the food was great, the gas got me to where I needed to be and the bathrooms were far nicer than I expected.

I will leave you all with this news nugget:

We here at the QT Blog do officially declare that we are not now, nor have we ever been involved with or influenced by the Russians.  The Russians do not tell us what to review, they have not hacked us and while we may be guilty of wishing QT awesomeness upon the Russian people we have never entered official state or QT negotiations for the placement of QTs in Mother Russia.  Regardless of what you have read on some fake news sites we here at the QT Blog and all our Comrades are 100% American.  

Date Night

Testing. 1. 2. 3. Check. Check.  Is this thing on?!

Fellow QT Aficionados!  Greetings!  It’s been a loooooooooong time.  I’m glad to be back at the professional blog.

Tonight was a special night.  As any parent will admit, no matter how adorable your kids are, there are times when you need a dinner with your spouse that doesn’t include sharing your food, multiple trips to the bathroom, boogers, or other delightful interruptions.  That was tonight.  Elizabeth and I hit up a local Asian restaurant.  Dinner was great, the conversation was better, but the night took a distinctive turn for the better when Elizabeth asked if we could go to the QT for ice cream.  Twist my arm, why don’t you?!  Date night at the QT, what could be better?!

We strolled into store #XXXX (the store number has been removed to protect a certain QT chef) on this chilly winter evening and were greeted by a jolly young man behind the checkout counter.  Elizabeth, being an amateur, broke off to the QT Kitchen.  She was distracted by the ice cream and touch screen menus.  I’ll speak with my wing (wo)man about proper QT protocol at a later time.  I, being a professional QT journalist, made my way to the rollers.  Like a window shopper in the Nordstrom shoe department, I had no intention of buying anything from the rollers – Asian food and roller grill fare could be a volatile combo, but I browsed because that’s what you’re supposed to do.  I then took a slow stroll around the store to the coffee area and made my selection.  Colombian Excelso coffee.  The label states that it’s 100% Arabica coffee from the mountains of Colombia.  I didn’t know there were mountains in Columbia, SC, but they sure do produce some mighty fine coffee.

SC Coffee

I finally found Elizabeth getting ice cream advice from a wonderful QT chef whose name I can’t mention.  Elizabeth ordered a small cup of vanilla ice cream with chocolate flavoring and Oreos.  What else would one order when it’s 42 degrees outside?  At any rate, our chef/dessert consultant whispered to Elizabeth that she would upgrade her to a medium cup because the small just wasn’t big enough, but asked us not to mention her gesture of kindness to her manager.  Her secret was safe with us.  We strolled to the front to pay for our order so we could take the receipt back to the Kitchen to prove we’re not thieves and retrieve our ice cream.

NEWS FLASH!  QT doesn’t make you take your receipt back to the Kitchen to get your item anymore!  Our Chef chortled at me and told me I was “so 2016.”  Clearly I need to spend more time at the QT to stay up to date with procedure.  Shame on me.

To cut a long story short, the coffee was delicious – 4.5 out of 5 sips.  I’m told the ice cream was a 5.75 out of 5 chomps.  And Elizabeth and I had a lovely drive back to the ranch.  QT for Valentine’s Day?  Perhaps…

Elizabeth and I on a date at the QT.  She forced me to blur her face as she said she wasn’t prepared for a photo shoot.  I think she’s lovely.  Don’t you?