As I have done every morning I’m in Carson City, I skip the hotel breakfast and drive downtown to eat at The Caracker Box. This is my sixth visit in eight years, and it will be my last. Since last year, they must have new owners because the ambience is just not the same. No greeting when you walk in the door; the waitress didn’t remove the extra setup and the extra menu and then left mine on top of the other one.
The food was similar, but not the same. The toast came cold, and their “World Class Spuds” that come with every meal have been demoted to City Class; they lacked the usual crispiness, and some of the chopped tomatoes, peppers, and onions were not chopped small enough.
The real disappointment was the OJ: The menu says “squeezed-to-order” juices, but I watched her pull a pitcher from a fridge and pour it in my glass. When I went up to pay, the waitress never made eye contact with me as I came up to the register where she was standing with money in hand. They only take cash, so I put my check and cash on the counter and walked out. But not before pocketing several of the dollar bills so that her tip ended up around 8% instead of my planned 20%.
My usual route up US-395 takes about 5 hours to get to Klamath Falls, and unlike the last few trip segments where I picked a slightly different route and added an hour or so, this time I took a 5-hour detour. Not by choice, but there is a large and fast-growing fire northwest of Reno, and 395 was closed not far out of town. I have a longwinded explanation of why it took 10 hours, but I’ve written my quota of words for today, sorry.