On our way to Arizona, we stopped for lunch in Tularosa New Mexico where the recent  snow was a distant memory. The elevation was too low for snow. In the American southwest elevation is everything.

We stopped at the Rustic Inn for lunch because the billboards made it look good. It looked good, but that was about where good parked. This was another restaurant that was severely understaffed. Like nurses the staff were grossly overworked.

The staff though was not surly, but it was handicapped by missing items. Most items on the menu were not available. Most tables had not been cleaned. My wooden chair was extremely wobbly. Hardly surprising when I notice one leg was about 1 inch shorter than the rest. This was more than wobbly. It was downright unstable. The napkins were dirty. Would you rather have no napkin or a dirty napkin? The elderly patron sitting at the next table looked at us with benign resignation. A shrug told the whole story. The waitress came to warn us to order as soon as possible as a large family came in and soon no one else would get any food. It could only serve one family at a time. The food when it arrived more or less on time was tolerable. Our standards were held in suspension today.

The American southeast  seems to be in serious decline. The restaurants here tell the stroy of that decline.

A shrug was our response too.