Today is National Fast Food Day.
Fast food places are everywhere: cities, suburbs and small towns, airports, shopping malls, military bases, and, every so often, bodies of water.
Like the floating fast flood place known as the “McBarge.”
Officially the ship is known as the Friendship 500, and it made its debut as a McDonald’s restaurant in 1986.
It was part of Expo ‘86, essentially a World’s Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The theme of the expo was showcasing the technology and architecture of the future.
So the $12 million ship had special conveyor belts to bring food out to the dining areas and a little craft that could clean up any Quarter Pounder wrappers that ended up in the water instead of wastebaskets.
For the six months of Expo ‘86, the so-called McBarge was a hit.
Thousands, maybe millions of people ate there.
But then the expo ended and so did the food, folks and fun on board the Friendship 500.
It just sort of sat there.
There was a deal to turn the ship into a mobile ocean museum, but it didn’t work out.
Neither did the proposals to turn it into a pub, or a seafood place.
It has been moved a couple times, and it did appear in one of the Blade movies, as well as a documentary about its strange journey.
But some of the people who ate fast food on board back in 1986 have are still fascinated with the McBarge.
And, as grown-ups, they’re dreaming up what it could be.
So the McBarge may not be serving any food, but the Friendship 500 certainly still has some friends.
Plenty of fast food places have drive-thru lanes.
But a McDonald’s in Germany has a paddle-through lane.
People in canoes and kayaks can get their fast food on the river, so they call it the McBoat.
The Creepiest McDonald’s In The World (LethbridgeNewsNow)
The World’s Only Float-Through McDonald’s (Laughing Squid)
Backing our show on Patreon is as quick and easy as getting a burger in the drive-thru lane
Photo by Taz – originally posted to Flickr as McBarge, CC BY 2.0, via Wikicommons
