drive-thru of DOOM

it wasn't actually the drive-thru that was deadly; that was moving smoothly. but "in-store ordering corral line of doom" just doesn't sound catchy, you know?

so this morning i was still pretty tired out from yesterday (read: still tired from the whole honkin' month of july) and i got up and went to church at the congregational church here in gorham.

after church i came back to the motel and had a little nap and then went out in bike clothes thinking that i might find some geocaches by bike and then drove down hogan road (get your own map) looking for some kind of connection with the rail trail but even as the road became more and more remote and in one place crossed the rail trail on the back of the river, i was unable to find anything that looked like a regular and public access to the rail trail.

so i never did ride, but i got to drive an awesome back road and i got to see and incredible view of which i have beautiful pictures. i'd share them with you, but i still can't upload.

so it was late in the day and i was tired. i went back to my room, changed clothes and then went out to get some dinner. i like the BK A1 steakhouse burger (not an endorsement but more of a confession), but i do not want that gigantic meat patty that comes on the XT. since this is a special order that sometimes baffles the counter help, i always go inside.

it was not the special order that caused the clustertangle. the woman at the counter, while very pleasant, just kept taking orders but did nothing to actually put the food in bags and get it out to people. i watched the drive-thru customers come and go and the line pile up inside.

still she took orders.

at BK they have this cool little computer screen on which orders show up and are filled as the people in the kitchen make the food. and it has a spiffy clock counter on which you can see how long each customer has been waiting.

the average wait time this evening was fifteen minutes and then some. the kitchen crew was fully competent; they kept the food rolling out of the kitchen and stuff was just piling up. the drive-thru orders kept going out and the drive thru guy respectfully suggested (absolute truth) that the counter lady stop taking orders and start filling bags and she would not or could not tear herself away from it until there was nobody left in her line.

it wasn't like she had an attitude problem; she simply seemed unable to cope. she really seemed to want to make things work, but even when she stopped taking orders she was unable to start pushing them out until she had wiped down some trays and put in fresh liners while people who had been waiting fifteen minutes for sandwiches that were already made watched and boiled over quietly.

i do not think she's going to last very long at the BK in gorham.