Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

What begins as a road trip through America soon becomes a journey of discovery into themselves and into the heart of the next-door neighbour they thought they knew. ForWayne Grady, the thrill of landscape and history is tempered by memories of racism and his own family roots.Merilyn Simonds, her ear tuned for the offbeat, finds curious echoes of the ex-pat promised land she grew up with. Together they travel against the tide of American history, following in the literary tire tracks of John Steinbeck, William Least Heat Moon, and Francis Trollope.

Grady andSimonds experience the splendors of the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, and the bayou’s of Louisiana and the Outer Banks and contemplate the impact of geography on culture and of culture on landscape. They observe America from the outside, yet feel strangely at home.

Part travelogue, part exploration, part mid-winter love story told with wit and acuity by one of Canada’s most engaging literary couplesBreakfast at the Exit Cafe is a journey into the reality behind the cultural myth that is America.

What begins as a road trip through America soon becomes a journey of discovery into themselves and into the heart of the next-door neighbour they thought they knew. ForWayne Grady, the thrill of landscape and history is tempered by memories of racism and his own family roots.Merilyn Simonds, her ear tuned for the offbeat, finds curious echoes of the ex-pat promised land she grew up with. Together they travel against the tide of American history, following in the literary tire tracks of John Steinbeck, William Least Heat Moon, and Francis Trollope.

Grady andSimonds experience the splendors of the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, and the bayou’s of Louisiana and the Outer Banks and contemplate the impact of geography on culture and of culture on landscape. They observe America from the outside, yet feel strangely at home.

Part travelogue, part exploration, part mid-winter love story told with wit and acuity by one of Canada’s most engaging literary couplesBreakfast at the Exit Cafe is a journey into the reality behind the cultural myth that is America.

Preface 1
1 / Megalopolis, usa 3
2 / Astoria 28
3 / Highway 101 50
4 / Eureka! California 68
5 / Route 66 85
6 / Grand Canyon, Arizona 105
7 / The Marriage Road 130
8 / Escalante, Utah 153
9 / El Camino Real 177
10 / Jefferson, Texas 207
11 / Selmalabama 233
12 / Athens, Georgia 260
13 / The Outer Banks 282
14 / The Exit Cafe 307
Acknowledgements 317