Truckers' fare is a pretty fair deal for families, too

Buckhorn Restaurant
In the Travelcenters of America Travel Port
108 Ocean Road, Greenland, N.H.
Telephone: 603-436-3636
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Major credit cards accepted.
Handicapped accessible
Alcohol is not served

This being summer and all, we figure your family, like ours, has taken to the open road looking for affordable gas and affordable food. So we decided to follow the apocryphal advice that if you want to go where the good, inexpensive food is, go where the truckers go.

That's how we ended up at the Buckhorn Restaurant at the Travelcenters of America, a truck stop in Greenland, N.H.

While big diesels idled in the parking lot, trucker upon trucker took to the lunch counter and tables of this 24/7 eatery with showers in the back, a huge selection of air fresheners in the attached store, and little coin-fed televisions at each booth.

We arrived shortly after 4, when the all-you-can-eat dinner buffet ($10.49) had just switched over from the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet ($8.49), which had changed from the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet ($8.29). You get the picture.

There was a lot going on at the buffet for the hungry traveler: shepherds' pie, barbecue ribs, cheese potatoes, stuffed fish, spaghetti with "real sauce," roasted turkey and stuffing.

There's also a salad, soup, and dessert bar attached.

We opted to order off the menu in the Travelcenters of America "newspaper."

We thought about one of the skillet breakfasts (breakfast is available all day) like the Mountain City Skillet ($8.49), basically an open-faced omelet with layers of hash browns, mushrooms, onions, green pepper, sliced steak, and shredded cheese, or an off-the-grill sirloin dinner ($11.99) with soup and salad, vegetable or potato, and garlic toast.

Instead our eyes were drawn to the comfort foods portion of the menu. One of us quickly settled on the boneless pork chop dinner ($12.99) and the other chicken Parmesan and spaghetti ($9.99).

We were amazed when our very friendly server told us the price not only included the salad and soup bar, but the dessert bar as well.

We piled our plates high with pickled beets, three-bean salad, and fresh fruit. We also indulged in cups of hearty homemade minestrone.

Then our meals arrived. And let's just put it this way. These babies could keep you going on the open highway from New Hampshire to D.C.

One of us was presented with three juicy, boneless grilled pork chops with sautéed onions and an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes with brown gravy and two pieces of thick garlic Texas toast.

OK, so the potatoes were instant. In a way, we would have been disappointed if they weren't. But this was a really hearty, delicious meal, something you might have at Sunday dinner at grandma's house.

The same could be said for the chicken parm. This was a thick, juicy hunk of breaded, boneless chicken breast with melted cheese served on a bed of spaghetti with a pretty delicious homemade tomato sauce and the garlic toast. Honestly, it was as good as we've had in many a nice Italian restaurant.

Needless to say, we were so full we could barely move, let alone pile into the station wagon and hit the open road. Still, we wanted to sample the dessert offered at the salad bar, it being part of the meal and all.

We could have skipped it. It was a kind of cloying strawberry shortcake with Cool Whip and what tasted like strawberry jelly. But we were told that the pies and the other a la carte desserts are very good.

Buckhorn is not the Ritz, but in our opinion it lends the right amount of credence to the "eat-where-the-truckers-eat" legend. And who couldn't use an extra air freshener for their car?

TOM LONG