Month: September 2017

All Roads Lead To Memphis

All Roads Lead To Memphis

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Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks eating in …I mean…exploring the Memphis area!

The day we ate at Central BBQ a huge storm blew through Memphis. When we got there, it wasn’t storming yet and there were quite a few people at the outside dining area enjoying some live music. We opted to eat inside and boy howdy…I’m sooo glad we did! We’d just gotten our food when the heavens opened up and tried to blow everything outside away with rain and wind!

We all got different things to try at Central BBQ. I got a smoked chicken sandwich and I have to say…it was probably one of the best I’ve had. I’m particular about my BBQ sauce. I like my sauce to have a nice smoky, savory flavor with a hint of sweetness. Central BBQs sauce was just that for me. None of us found anything to really complain about…other than the tons of other people in our way. It was super busy even with the storm!

The other BBQ place we tried was Corky’s. Jerl couldn’t say enough good things about these ribs. He especially loved the area toward the middle where the wet and dry kind of mixed together. The only bad thing I have to say about Corky’s is that their sides are really small. You can see them and the ribs in the picture above. I feel like for the price…there should be some more food on that plate.

We’d just come from falling in love with the Nashville Hot Chicken so we gave Gus’s Fried Chicken a whirl. Guys, it was so stinkin’ good!! And! It was completely different than the Hot Chicken we got in Nashville. The crust was different, the spice was different…but it was still nice and juicy and full of flavor! You might remember at PepperFire you could choose your level of spice…you have the choice of no spice, all the way up to melt yo’ face off spice. At Gus’s there’s only one level and it’s not bad. You could tell there was spice, but it was more flavor than heat.

Gibson’s Tastee Donuts is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We went twice in the two weeks we were in Memphis and there was a line both times. Now, I’m not sure if it was because I hadn’t had a donut in so long or if Gibson’s makes their donuts with crack…I don’t know…but these were some of the best I’ve had.

 The last foodie place is called Dyer’s. This burger place has been open for over a century serving up deep fried burgers and fries! These burgers aren’t gourmet…these are greasy diner burgers and they’re pretty darn good! During my foodie research, I learned about Dyer’s fried pb&j dessert…and…we, of course, had to try one, right? It felt oh, so wrong to eat…but oh my gosh…it was really tasty!

Are you beginning to think all we did for two weeks was eat? LOL! We kind of did…but we did so some other stuff too, I promise!! Ha!

We took a stroll down Beale Street which is a melting pot of jazz, blues, rock n’ roll, and gospel. The street is lined with clubs, shops, and foodies.

A. Schwab is a general store that has been in business on Beale St since 1876 and is the only original business remaining on Beale St today. Most items in A. Schwab are your typical general store type things. The custom made Hoo Doo kits are something I hadn’t seen before, though. There was a whole section full of hoo doo items to make your own custom charms and potions. It was kind of fun looking through all of the items but, it’s not something I would ever buy. On one side of the store was an old fashioned soda counter that is still in operation. A. Schwab is a neat store to spend some time in while getting out of the heat.

There were several of these guitars sprinkled throughout Beale St. This one was our favorite. Nicholas posed for me so you could see how big the guitar is!

We went to check out Graceland. If you don’t know who lived there…I’m not sure I can be your friend anymore. We didn’t want to fork over $50 a piece for each of us to take a tour of it, so this was as close to the home of Elvis as we got. Total bummer.

We made it to the Memphis Zoo! It was fantastic! The Memphis Zoo is solidly in our top five…it’s battling it out with the Houston Zoo for our number one spot. Nicholas is doing a Zoo Review so I’ll let him fill you in on all of the zoo details in a post next week, but I do want to share this Lego sculpture with you! How cool is that?!? And the panda exhibit was a really cool one.

The RV park we stayed at was right on the banks of the Mississippi River so we got to spend two weeks watching the barges go up and down the river! We loved taking walks by the river several times a day. Some parks are easy to get some walking in and some parks are almost impossible to get any kind of mileage in. While the river was pretty to look at during the day, I think I prefer it right at sunset when the colors in the sky were reflected off the water.

These pretties were in our park. I really enjoyed walking by them everyday! Y’all know I’m a sucker for the pretties.

That’s it, Guys! We had a blast exploring and eating our way through Memphis!! The boys have already made plans to visit…and eat there again!!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Pizza Roundup 5Points

Pizza Roundup 5Points

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To my fellow pizza lovers, I bring to you a post from Nashville, TN.

In Nashville there is a good pizza place named 5Points, now this place has pizza by the slice (New York style) that is bigger than my head! Cut from a 20 inch pizza!

They also have delicious strombolies

and pizza, of course!

They have some pretty darn good garlic knots, not as good as Potsi though.

The décor is nice and the service is good, I didn’t need the bathroom so I couldn’t tell ya if it’s clean.

With all that I think that 5Points deserves 5stars.

See y’all next time on…

Pizza Street!!

That was a big slice a pizza!

Nashville

Nashville

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Hey Guys!! Welcome to the land of boots, Tennessee Hot Chicken, and country music!

We were a little worried about the park we stayed in during our stay in the Nashville area. When you look at it on the Googles you can see that it has railroad tracks on one side and highways on two sides (it’s shaped like a triangle). In my mind I had us lying awake all night listening to the sound of trains or traffic. We ended up by one of the highways which was a blessing. The train tracks were busy. We didn’t really notice the train noise where we were, but the spots right beside the tracks…I’m guessing they didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. It was a busy park and we were all crammed in. I managed to snap the picture above while we were in between neighbors.

We made it to our 41st State Capitol Building in our 42nd state! Bonus points to anyone who can tell me why the numbers don’t match up!

The Tennessee SCB was small, didn’t have a dome, and was dark. It was hard to get good pictures of anything. The bottom floor was painted in dark browns and the lighting was dim. You can see it in the right picture above. I know I’m shooting toward a bright door…but seriously guys, this is what it was like walking through it. I love this spiral staircase in the library in the left picture!

Tennessee is only the second SCB out of 41 that had a wonderful balcony we could actually go out on! I love it when we find something different in a SCB!

Nashville has several great murals! We only sought out two of them and there was a line at both to get photos. What a great idea to have an interactive murals! Nicholas volunteered to be my assistant for both murals. He’s a pretty good photo buddy.

We stopped by the Grand Ole Opry one afternoon to check it out. We didn’t get to do a tour or stay for a show, but we did get to look at the building and hit the gift shop! I went to the Grand Ole Opry about thirty years ago with my parents. I can’t believe how much the area has changed! It was during that first visit that I had my first Goo Goo Cluster. We had to get a few Goo Goo Clusters while we were in the gift shop…purely for nostalgia… *wink, wink*

Nashville is known as the “Athens of the South” so they decided to build a replica of the Parthenon for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Inside the Nashville Parthenon stands a 41’10” tall Athena. To give you a little size perspective, Nike who is standing in Athena’s right hand and is 6’4″. We got there right when the building was opening and were lucky enough to get some shots in before the mass of people made it up to the statue.

I love the tile work on the outside! The building underwent a major renovation in 1920 and reopened to the public in 1931.

We, of course, found some foodies! Nashville is a big foodie town. Our first foodie find was at a place called The Pharmacy Burger Parlor. We waited an hour to get into this place…but check out that burger! This Stroganoff Burger is solidly in my top five burgers. The mushroom stroganoff béchamel sauce was ah-mazing!! My eyes might have just rolled to the back of my head when I first tasted it.

We would never have found Pepperfire Hot Chicken if our waiter at The Pharmacy hadn’t suggested it. I didn’t even know that Tennessee Hot Chicken was a thing…but let me tell you…we know now and we are fans! So, what you’re looking at in the right picture above is a deep fried grilled cheese sandwich with two Pepperfire chicken strips on top of it. Guys…we loved this place so much we ate here twice in one week. Alex and Nicholas both loved the chicken and waffles meal known as the AppleFire (in the left picture). Now, don’t worry, if you’re not into spice, Pepperfire offers a Southern style aka no heat option. There are seven different levels of heat. I got the mild and it was plenty spicy. We were told to go down a level from what you can usually handle. I think that was sound advice. I can handle some heat and my mild was just right.

I found some pretties! The ones above were in the RV park we stayed in. There was an entire row of these beauties ranging in color from purple to this light pink.

We really enjoyed our time in Nashville, TN. The city reminded us a little of Austin, TX. They both have that laid-back, foodie, hip vibe. We don’t usually care for the state capitol city, but I have no doubt we’ll revisit Nashville!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Bourbon And More Part Two

Bourbon And More Part Two

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Hey Guys!! Are you ready for Part Two? While we spent a good portion of our time exploring distilleries, that’s not all we did while we were in Kentucky! I know that’s what you were thinking! ;-P

We stayed at a small RV park right outside of Bardstown, KY. It was just close enough to everything to be convenient and just far enough away from everything that we didn’t feel like we were in town.

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. The place where he was born is now a National Park. About where the cabin he was born in sat, is now a memorial. Inside the memorial you can see a cabin that is of the same time period taken from the area, but it’s not the actual cabin Lincoln was born in. We learned about Lincoln’s early years before he moved to Illinois while we were there doing the Junior Rangering. It was a nice little park and we went on a beautiful day!

We also made it to Mammoth Cave National Park where the boys got some more Junior Rangering done!

Sooo…I don’t know if you know this…but caves are really dark. I know, I know…it was a shock to us too. Ha! Just kidding. I took loads of pictures in the hopes that at least a few would come out. I tried, Guys! I really did. We signed up for a cave tour before we went. We wanted to do more than one, but apparently, cave tours are super popular and we waited too long. Bummer. Our tour group was huge…close to 100 people. We weren’t really expecting that. Somehow we ended up at the back of the group and every time we got to the next Ranger stop, the Ranger had already finished up talking. We caught the tail end of her spiel a couple of times, but not enough to really tell you about. This was the first time we’ve had that happen…and honestly…we didn’t like it. At all. We are a family of total nerds…one of the best things about the tours for us is the learning… The NPS really needs to have smaller cave tour groups.

At one point during the tour the Ranger turned off all the lights and talked to us by lantern light so we could see what the miners were really dealing with. It was DARK!

One of the best parts of the tour was the Fat Man’s Misery! Nicholas had no problems with this super narrow section of the cave. And Guys, it was really narrow.

Right after the Fat Man’s Misery is the Tall Man’s Misery where even I (at my 5’1″ …with the right shoes on…height) had to bend over. It’s hard to see, but the guy in the picture was the guy right behind me during the tour. He had to have been close to 6’4″ and had a really difficult time with both the Misery sections. He was nice enough to pause and let me snap his picture. This cave tour is not for someone who struggles with claustrophobia.

We’d only been in one other cave and then a lava tube when we did this cave tour so we didn’t really know what to expect with Mammoth Cave. We would like to go back sometime and do some of the other tours that we missed out on. Maybe if we go during the off season the tour groups will be smaller?

Bardstown is a pretty small town, but we did find a couple of foodies. In the left picture above is a Southern Burger with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes. Now, you might remember I had something similar to this in Charleston, SC and it was pretty darn amazing! I had high hopes for this Southern Burger…it was decent. It would have been a lot better if the pimento cheese wasn’t so sweet. Honestly, it left me wanting to go back to SC and get the other burger. If you look at the mess of stuff in the right picture…you’ll see what is called a Kentucky Hot Brown! And it’s pretty darn good!! It’s hard to tell from the picture above, but it’s an open-faced sandwich with ham, turkey, and bacon. If you get the chance to try one, take it!! You won’t regret it!

Are you ready for some pretties?! I took quite a few pictures of pretties, but I’ll just share a few with you!

I love the colors of the one in the bottom right picture!!

That’s it for our Kentucky adventures!!

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017