Last night we drove out to the suburbs to go to Fuddrucker's for some burgers. I'd never been to this suburb before, and the Fuddruckers there looked odd - it was shaped like a castle, with turrets and everything, and the parking lot was bizarre. The whole place was isolated, tucked away all by itself, near (but not in the parking lot of) a mini mall and next to a Union Pacific Railroad office. Until we made it right to the front door, we weren't even sure if the place was open. There were only a couple of employees visible, and most of the tables were vacant. 

But service was friendly, and the place featured the most magical pop machine ever - through a nifty touch screen, you could get all sorts of wonderful concoctions, like vanilla Barq's root bear, raspberry Sprite, cherry vanilla Coke, and peach Mellow Yellow. I had all of these things. Ronni had grape Hi-C. Only one spout, but endless options. 

By the time I got home, the castle-shaped Fuddruckers with the magic pop machine just seemed like one of those places you run into in dreams now and then. ALMOST real, but not REALLY real. Remembering the place is just like remembering a dream, except that it wasn't (if it HAD been a dream, they probably would have sold vintage Star Wars action figures of characters that never existed at unbelievable prices, like they do in most of the other odd places I find in dreams) (back in the early 90s I had a good two week run of finding such places in dreams and acquired such figures as a guy named Bespin Hespin, Grand Moff Tarkin (of whom there was not yet any such figure) and Lando in a "pin the tail on the donkey" outfit). 

I want to go back and try the bison burger with a strawberry mellow yellow. But I have a feeling we'll get there and find that it's a tire center now, and has been for years.