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Take the Rest Stop Less Traveled
Highway rest-area chains offer sustenance but not much character—which local eateries have in spades. Visit Roadfood.com for restaurants along freeways and back roads across the country. The 12-hour drive from Baltimore to Bar Harbor, Maine, for instance, will be a lot more tolerable if you know to stop off at De Lorenzo Tomato Pies in Trenton, New Jersey, for a sausage and garlic tomato pie. Traveling from Michigan to Yellowstone? You'll want to want to hit Runza in Lincoln, Nebraska, for one of its signature hot bread pockets filled with ground meat, cabbage and onions.