I’m going to Graceland(again)
Posted on | July 6, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve already been to Graceland. My trip to Memphis in college has become a running joke for my friends. After convincing a bunch of friends to get up at 5am to drive to Memphis I ate one meal, at Corky’s, took the Graceland tour, checked into the hotel and promptly became violently ill and couldn’t go out for dinner or eat any additional barbecue. It was a rookie mistake and having eaten just enough barbecue at Germantown Commissary the night before, leesy and I woke up refreshed for our 9am Graceland tour.
I had warned Leesy that Graceland is sort of a letdown. Where Loretta Lynn’s Museum strives for a sort of larger than life drama, Graceland is a pretty small 19th century southern colonial house. It’s not that the inside isn’t occasionally nuts, but even the jungle room could pass for anyone’s awful unrenovated 1970s shag covered living room. There are plenty of gold records and gold jumpsuits but most items are tastefully displayed with very little room left for interpretation. At Graceland Elvis is thin, fun and enormously successful. Fat Elvis does not live at Graceland.
After the tour we headed over to Sun Studios where the tour was given by a young woman wearing a I heart NY tank top. Sun Studio paints itself as the more casual, more rebellious and less obviously successful cousin to Graceland. The entire museum could fit in our apartment and the tour guides make jokes and often make fun of the performers whose pictures line the walls. The best part is that the place feels is less like a shrine and more like a recording studio that I was lucky enough to catch between takes.
I’m writing this from a surprisingly nice Holiday Inn Express in Mount Pleasant Texas. Leesy has driven more than 1000 miles since we started this trip on Friday. We’ll be arriving for a few days in Austin tomorrow and I’ll have pictures and updates then.
When life gives you lemons, go listen to Johnny Cash
Posted on | July 6, 2009 | 1 Comment
On a trip like this it’s difficult to keep even bad experiences in my mind for long. Sleeping in a differnt hotel every night lends itself to a kind of rolling amensia. Waking up in Nashville after a rainy independence day it was hard remember that we had an axe to grind with the music city.
The Country Music Hall of Fame And Museum was really a much better museum experience than I was expecting. Most of the space was dedicated to the birth and popularity of country music through the nineteen sixties with appropriate amounts of space dedicated to Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams. Thankfully, guests are spared learning too much about the Judds or Garth Brooks. Most exhibitions are well considered, well written and there’s plenty of video and audio content that doesn’t require any special audio tour nonsense.
After the museum, refreshed and packing a brand new guitar shaped fly swatter we headed down to Hatch Show Print, the legendary letterpress studio that has been priting country music concert posters for decades. I knew the studio was usually open to the public but would be closed on a Sunday. The studio manager must have noticed leesy fogging up the glass and came to let us inside. The rules were simple, he was printing, there was not going to be a history lesson or a tour. We could look around, take pictures and stay as long as we wanted. After the intial awkwardness faded we felt right at home. We talked about New York, Nashville and why anyone would go to Arkansas while he set up his print. At the end of our visit we all shook hands, Leesy gave him his card and we left. We walked back to the hotel with shit eating grins on our faces. Whatever remained of our Nashville related rage had just been obliterated by the outsretched hand of one of America’s foremost letterpress printers. It was as though the universe had thought it over and decided to do something nice after the trials of the previous day.
So what do you do to top that? You go the Loretta Lynn Museum. Like some kind of redneck Graceland, the museum packs in more gift shops, ramshackle “authentic” buildings, giant indian sculptures, and country trash crap into a single location than I would have thought possible. It’s tough to describe other than to say that there’s a gift shop with Loretta Lynn embroidered throw pillows. All the exhibitions, including a section that features nothing but dresses worn by OTHER famous women, have barely legible hand written descriptions by Loretta herself. If I remember one part of this trip until I die, it will be this one. Even if you think that A Coal Miner’s Daughter is probably a strip club in West Virginia this place is worth a visit.
And what would a day of Country Music kitsch be without a barbecue dinner? As we drove towards memphis I started calling barbecue restaurants. Fortunately after a few duds someone answered the phone at Germantown Commisary one of the places at the top of my must try bbq list. I was giddy as I punched the new address into our GPS. I rarely saw it on “best of” Memphis lists but had read enough on the Internets to know that there was some great barbecue happening here. It was amazing. The cups in the restaurant say it all: “So Good You’ll Slap Yo Mama.” Leesy said it was the best barbecue that she’s had on this trip. I had to agree that my pork sandwich(chopped) was one of the best I’ve had in my life.
And so we headed to our hotel satisfied both with barbecue and with the order that had apparently been restored to our trip.
More Pictures
Posted on | July 6, 2009 | No Comments
pink elephant in bikini - somewhere in tn
best bbq in knoxville - m&m
m&m bbq, knoxville. two thumbs up!
i love touristy crap
the great smokey mountains
Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the hot chicken restaurants in Nashville are all closed for the 4th of July and you wind up eating Ethiopian food in a strip mall.
Posted on | July 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
When we arrived in Nashville last night I had almost forgotten that we spent most of the day driving through the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. That’s some good driving. We wound up stopping at a dozen scenic overlooks. It’s just impossible to drive through these mountains and not be completely taken with the views. The uneven weather meant the final views from Clingman’s Dome was less than spectacular but the crowds on the paved “trail” did give me the chance to observe the great American tradition of slapping children in public on vacation. Lovely.
Of course after you drive through the pristine wilderness, you have to drive through Gatlinburg Tennessee. Which is a little like Niagra Falls, Branson and Las Vegas all smushed together and sprinkled with crystal meth. The town seems to be comprised exclusively of motels, “museums” of the Ripley’s and Guiness varieties, theme restaurants and fudge shops. Apparently, there is a national touristy crap shortage and Gatlinburg is picking up the slack. Come on America, step it up. Gatlinburg can’t possibly keep up it’s current pace of fudge and air-brushed t-shirt production.
But why else would we be driving across America, if not to see the best of the worst this country has to offer. That’s why we had no choice but to visit the world’s only salt and pepper shaker museum. The cynic in me would like to pretend that I hadn’t researched this particular museum months ago and wasn’t thoroughly excited about the prospect of seeing tens of thousands of salt and pepper shakers…but I can’t. As promised on the internet, it was indeed a museum filled with salt and pepper shakers of every imaginable variety and it was awesome.
We headed to Knoxville for lunch. I didn’t go up in the sun sphere but I hear that it is no longer full of wigs. I did however research some barbecue joints in town. Knoxville’s bbq scene doesn’t get the attention of Memphis or North Carolina and finding reviews of local places was a challenge. Leesy and I eventually decided that M&M BBQ and Catering, a tiny take out only joint in the hinterlands of Knoxville, offered the best chance for great barbecue. The pork sandwich was wonderful and the beans were full of fatty porky goodness. It’s worth figuring out which of the three addresses on the website is the right one. I’m not telling, you can call and find out for yourself.
But we should have known we were going to be in trouble when an incredible rain storm nearly forced us off the highway outside of Nashville. Apparently the weather was trying to warn us that all the best hot chicken restaurants in Nashville were closed for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, our hubris and our stomachs forced us to drive to Prince’s Chicken Shack only to discover it closed. I called four other places and got the same result. Closed. Damn you Nashville! I forced half a dozen people to watch a video about your hot chicken and now I’m going home empty handed. Hungry, tired and disoriented from a lack of hot chicken we headed to our hotel downtown where we spent a frantic thirty minutes determing that all the restaurants I had researched before we left were closed. We decided to skip the fireworks and raced to an Ethiopian restaurant that was, of course, only open for another half hour. After driving past it three times, we discovered our destination hidden in a strip mall. As strange as the cirumstances were, the food was wonderful. It was easily some of the best Ethiopian food I’ve ever had. We had the vegetarian platter with seven dishes including an interesting Ethiopian take on collard greens. Full of food and recovering from our hot chicken depression. we spent the remainder of the evening in a nearly empty move theater seeing The Hangover for the second time. As we watched a tiny naked Asian man beat Zach Galifanakas with a tire iron we laughed and wondered what kind of day tomorrow would be.
Tags: asheville > barbecue > dan > ethiopian > Food > gatlinburg > Journal > knoxville > nashville > nc > tn
DAY TWO…
Posted on | July 4, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve always dreamt of driving cross country. i was attracted to the romance. i imagined myself, hair tied back, dirty, blasting music, wearing leather mary Jane’s i had made in michigan and feeling free. i threw those shoes out years ago and gave up on the idea. i guess i realized there is no romance in being smelly.
dan and i (when i say dan and i, i’m really saying dan) planned this barbeque crusade across the south. why? we’re not sure. so here we are, two days in. North Carolina was great. the people were friendly and everyone drives the speed limit (perplexing). i must admit, i’m not a fan of western north carolina style barbeque. it was lost on me.
Today we woke up in Asheville, i had the best tofu scramble of my life and was ready to go. we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway through The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Absolutely beautiful! we stopped in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at the salt and pepper museum. amazing museum, 20,000 s&p shakers, scary town. it was a cross between Niagara Falls and my worst redneck nightmare (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Next stop M&M Barbeque Knoxville. two thumbs up for the pulled pork. stopped to pose with a giant pink elephant in a bikini and we were off to Nashville.
I had high hopes for Nashville but Nashville showed no love. We’ve been talking about Hot Chicken for weeks. Prince’s Hot Chicken, to be specific. they were closed. all hot chicken shacks were closed and will be closed tomorrow. oh wait, all restaurants were closed. Here we are, the 4th of July, downtown Nashville, it’s pouring rain, what do we do? we eat Ethiopian and go to the movies. Que Sera, Sera
Tomorrow is another day… country music hall of fame, the Loretta Lynne Museum and some sort of bbq something.
More Lexington Barbecue
Posted on | July 3, 2009 | No Comments
Interior - Lexington Barbecue
Hush Puppies - Lexington Barbecue
Eating - Lexington Barbecue
Incredible barbecue. I almost forgot to take pictures before I ate it all. I think there has a been a lot of debate about the slaw that they make here because they add some of the barbecue sauce which gives it kind of a brown color. I hate mayonnaise and the kind of white gelatinous mess that passes in most places for slaw in most places so I thought the slaw here was a real treat. It was tangy and flavorful and went really well with the meat. As for the pork, it was fantastic. This has got to be some of the best pork barbecue I’ve ever had. There’s not really a lot of sauce on the meat because it’s not basted during cooking so you’re mostly tasting the flavor of the meat. And that’s the best part because this is some damn good pork. I did add a little sauce to part of my tray but I thought it quickly overwhelmed the natural flavors of the meat.
Also, the hush puppies here are the best I’ve ever had. They’re like little bits of fried heaven. Mmmm…..heaven.
Lexington Barbecue Lunch
Posted on | July 3, 2009 | No Comments
chopped barbeque tray
lexington bbq
(Non) Driving Music
Posted on | July 2, 2009 | No Comments
Dear Internet Hive Mind:
Lists of good driving songs can include songs that are not about operating or riding in a car. I’m in a car. I get it. Don’t be that guy internet. Don’t be that guy.
Things I learned
Posted on | June 30, 2009 | 2 Comments
I don’t know anything about planning a road trip. I don’t even have a drivers license . Until I went away to college I had never even been to any of the states between New York and California. If you were picking someone to help you plan a trip across the country you would be wise NOT to pick the neurotic guy without a driver’s license. And yet, here we are. Having spent the last few weeks and months researching everything from “muffler men” to pie shacks I am prepared to share my insights and predictions.
1. There is no insider information anymore that is not widely available to curious investigators. There are reviews of every restaurant serving hot chicken in Nashville and every hotel in Asheville North Carolina. There are blogs dedicated to rating barbecue in every town from Memphis to El,Paso. There are forums for airing views about every conceivable kind of food in every city in America. There is very little that is able to fly under the radar. If someone is smoking a superior pork shoulder in Western North Carolina, you can be sure that someone else is writing about it on the internets. When I discuss this with friends, they often point out that you can’t really trust all this information posted anonymously on the internet. While I agree that when it comes to the subjects of Obama’s birth certificate and JFK conspiracy theories, the internet is filled with unatributed and anonymous information, the world of food, tourist traps, and hotels is VERY well covered ground. What the internet lacks in trust, it makes up in volume.
2. It’s easy to get carried away planning a trip like this. I could look for roadside attractions and barbecue shacks for a year if I wanted and come upon something new every day. I am trying to avoid doing any more planning until we leave. I already have a huge selection of bookmarks and a ginormous spreadsheet. I’m curious how much of my research actually winds up being useful and how much was really just a waste of time.
3. Rental car companies suck. If you have a Brooklyn, Bronx or Queens license and rent in the New York area you will be hit by hundreds of dollars in fees that apparently assessed because non-Manhattan boroughs are full terrifying monsters. Will these fees will be added when you reserve online? Of course not. You only find about them if you call the number in the fine print at the bottom of your e-mail confirmation.
4. Google StreetView is awesome. Want to check an address in west Texas? Google has you covered. Want to see the difference between driving a local road and the interstate? No problem. Call it a harbinger of our bleak dystopian future if you must, but for the anxious traveler a better tool has not been invented.
5. The following websites have proved invaluable: Roadfood.com, TripAdvisor, RoadsideAmerica.com, Chowhound.com, SouthernFoodways.com, Yelp.com and SeriousEats.com(specifically their excerpts John T. Edge’s Southern Belly). In the future I hope to publish a more complete list of regional blogs that I’ve enjoyed.
Coming soon…
Posted on | June 21, 2009 | No Comments
Coming soon...