Replying to Ham is Better than Pizza- A short story

"It's like that logic that says breadcrumbs are better than steak."
"What?" I asked.
"You see breadcrumbs are better than nothing right? Well nothing is better than a good steak therefor breadcrumbs are better than steak."

It was the third and last day of biking up in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont with my buddy (Grady) before we parted ways to college. Despite we having to head out at a certain time, and we not knowing what time it was seeing Grady leaving his cell phone back at the car, we decided to stop at a nice little beach that ran along a clear river anyways to eat lunch and rest. As we opened up our lunch which consisted of a few granola bars, the three older guys that also occupied the same stretch of land struck up conversation with us. In a one in a very large numbered chance, it turns out the oldest of the three lives a few houses down from Grady and writes for the Concord Monitor- a local news paper.
Among the many topics mentioned in the old man's rants was that of a guy who thought by some unreasonable reasoning and decided that breadcrumbs are better than steak. After a short explanation of why, we all just shrugged it off with light laughter and headed on our separate ways after a few more minutes of socializing.
After another hour or so of biking, we headed back to the van and started the long trek back home via 90 percent boring highway. Drifting deeper and deeper into a trance fixated on just the road ahead and nothing else, I began to think about what that man told us and how that much truth that reasoning makes, and how just the day before it applied to us as well.

The second day of biking started at 10 AM at the top of Burke Mountain where we descended and made our way out a few miles until we reached some housing project and an old cross country ski trail. We trudged our way through the muddy, un-ride able trail that wasn't on the bike trail map when we finally reached a dead end dirt road. From there it was an easy 3 mile road ride back to the center of town where we met up with Grady's dad who came up to visit and ride with us. After a short lunch we headed out to make our way to a section of trails on the other side of the Northeast Kingdom hitting all the side trails we could along the way. Grady's dad bailed out early to go ride on his own while we just kept on moving until we reached these three trails we wanted to film. Anyone who has ever had experience filming trails out in the middle of no man's land, knows how much energy goes into making things work. The only downside to these trails is their location which is at one of the lowest points in the Northeast Kingdom. This means the only way out is a lot of climbing. We, in the end, had to experience the quad burning climb a few times before our thirst for single track and filming was quenched. Heading back to the town center by the trails was only capable by more climbing. The sun appeared to be nearing the mountain ridges that surrounded us so we checked the time- it was just after 6:00 PM. Eight hours of biking took it's toll on our bodies as there was no energy left to do the required climbing back to town. The only thing that kept us moving was the thought of hot pizza, meat lovers filled with every topping you can think of that a vegetarian would bitch about. The thought of biting into the juicy meat toppings and into the cheese/spicy sauce combination kept our legs moving and our cranks spinning. Pizza consumed our minds leaving all previous plans of hitting any side trail to disappear into non-existence. We bailed out on a road and coasted back into town as happy as an orphan child about to finally meet his real parents. The smell filled our lungs with happiness as we entered in the old style market store.
"Hi, um can we have a large pizza with-"
"Oh I'm sorry, we just stopped serving pizza a few minutes ago because we're about to close in a few."
Our world shattered. Our eyes began to swell up, and anger began to take over.
"What? We where just out there for eight hours man! We can barely walk. Come on now."
"Sorry I don't know what to tell you."
To tired to uphold the anger, disappointment and sorrow quickly substituted.
"There is two slices left over there, granted they where cooked a while-"
It didn't matter. When he said there was two slices left, we headed over and grabbed them like bank robber at a diamond store. It tasted so good, the meaty toppings, the luke warm pizza... nothing was better.
We walked back to the counter and ordered a foot long sub. each. Grady ordered a meaty concoction while I settled down with a good old fashioned ham, lettuce and cheese.
We took our meals outside so the store could close up and as we sat down enjoying our meals in silence, Grady looked over and said to me, "It's better than nothing." I nodded and we went back to focusing ourselves on the great taste of our food.