A Road Trip & Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

On Saturday I took our other foster boy Patch to meet with a family interested in adopting him. They have birds and we wanted to make sure that he would leave them alone, and not consider them a snack. I am happy to report that despite a peck on the nose, Patch pretty much ignored the birds. But the family is meeting a second time with another family as well, so we'll see where it goes. The trip to their home took about two hours and meant a trip down the Capital Beltway, which I hate to drive on!! I don't know what's worse, the 10 lanes of traffic, or having to pay the tolls which total $5.30, and that's just one way--It's highway robbery!!!

But at the end of the drive making it all worth while is something that I grew up on and has been a favorite of mine my entire life, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts!

If you say the two words "Krispy Kreme" to the next person you see, they'll respond one of two ways. You might get a blank and puzzled stare, or they'll smile and start telling you a story about when they last had one of the south's divine foods: the fresh hot glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Founded in 1937 by Vernon Rudolph in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the company was just a regional delight with the glazed goodness not reaching beyond the Mason Dixon line. But times have changed. Krispy Kremes appeared in New York in 1995 and now you can pick up a dozen or two just about anywhere.

However, buying them in a store is not the same. If you are lucky enough to be near a shop that makes them, the air around a Krispy Kreme parking lot, beckons you to come inside. And when you do, the fragrance of hot dough-meets-sugar envelopes you in warmth and then guides you over to the room-length windows to watch the wonderful Krispy Kreme doughnut-making machine at work.
Doughy circles journey up a bicycle-chain like series of platform chambers where they gradually grow and puff to become full-sized doughnut rings. Then suddenly they dive into hot oil and their transformation from dough to Krispy Kremes speedily takes place.

Like swimmers in a backyard pool, they ease down their lanes of hot oil then quickly flip over to brown their undersides. They trundle up a conveyor and finally parade through a grand sugar-glazing waterfall. For me, the taste is beyond compare to any other; a doughnut so airy and light that a mere finger-touch leaves a dent. And no matter how many times a person has eaten a Krispy Kreme doughnut they'll have that same joyful response when biting into a fresh hot one, something along the lines of "WOW, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE!!" However you say it, it all translates to the same wonderful, magical, scrumptious thing: "I love Krispy Kreme!!"

I bought just two of them because like "The Chub Brothers" I am working on shedding a few pounds. I thought I could eat just one and bring the other one home for Carl. And just like when I agreed to take "The Chub Brothers" I just couldn't say no to just one; however this time he didn't notice.