Month: April 2018

Gig posters and hungry kids at Big Bad Wolf near Nashville, TN

Cool tour bus for Hall of The Elders, from Atlanta, who are headed for the Van’s Warped Tour.

July 8, 2017

Our last day! Pretty much a big blast across Tennessee. We woke up and had a quick breakfast, then packed the car and were on our way. The trees got taller, the air more humid, and we passed through Nashville around lunch. We couldn’t agree on where to stop for lunch (Lynne and I voted for the downtown farmer’s market that our good friend Melissa suggested), so we we headed east of town and found a great bbq place called “Big Bad Wolf”  on Yelp. I didn’t actually vote for this place because of the BBQ, but more for the amazing gig posters they have on the walls that I saw in the Yelp photos. Turns out this BBQ was delicious and the staff was really friendly. Their sign was being fixed so it was a little hard to find, but it was worth it. Delicious brisket sandwich, and kids enjoyed their mac-n-cheese, and hamburgers. I took several photos of the screen printed posters, and talked to the employees… turns out they cater quite a bit to the Ryman Auditorium and several other venues in Nashville, so they get autographed posters all the time. The owner supposedly has amassed quite a collection at home.

We were back on the road and continued our long journey home, finally arriving at 1am. It was indeed a slog, but it was nice to be home. I really wanted to camp this night, but thinking about the setup/tear down times I think we made the better decision by coming home.

We stopped for our last tank of gas somewhere near Greensboro, and saw a schoolbus painted with Pikachu and with the words @halloftheelders on it, which I assumed was probably a band of some sort. Desmond loved the look of the van so he hopped out to take a look. I was indeed correct, Hall Of The Elders is a band, and are headed to New Jersey for the Van’s Warped Tour.

That’s about it! We’ll hopefully wrap up our favorite memories in the next week or two.

Keychain the kids got me: “Daddy, you’re hashtag one Dad!”

Keychain the kids got me.

Chicken Vindaloo at Kountry Xpress in Mulberry, AR

Kountry Xpress in Mulberry, AR. Unassuming truck stop, but golly what great Indian cuisine.

Our meal at Kountry Xpress in Mulberry, AR. Lynne had the Paneer Korma and we split the onion naan.

July 7, 2017

We woke up in Amarillo a bit early, packed up, and went to the Big Texan Steak Ranch for breakfast. We’d been here several times before; the first time way back in the 90s with our Uncle Clyde and Aunt Sybil, and we’ve always found an excuse to come back every time we pass through Amarillo. It’s a maze of Western kitsch and we love every inch of it. Sadly we weren’t around in the evening, or we would have ordered steaks. We had a good time and took a bunch of photos, then headed out East to see how far we could get.

We had decided, as a group, that we’d vote on how we’d spend our last few days of the trip. Granted, we’ve been gone for 2-1/2 weeks, so the kids were grumbling and kinda fed up with all the driving. Lynne and I wanted to go camping for our last night on the road, in the Great Smokies. But reading the crowd and judging how we felt, we all decided to press on and get back to Chapel Hill. It was a wise decision in the end, but it was quite a haul.

Our trip took us from the high plains of the panhandle, with wind power and large cattle ranches, through the slow hills of Oklahoma where the trees started to get larger and the air more humid.

By the time we go to Fort Smith, Arkansas, we were getting pretty hungry. Lynne did a Yelp search for a good local place to eat, and found something called Kountry Xpress. Turns out, the place is an Indian restaurant, and the ratings on both Yelp and TripAdvisor were outstanding! So, we just had to give it a go. The truck stop itself is pretty uninspiring, just a gas station with the regular truck stop gear and things, but right when you walk in you get the amazing aroma of Indian spices. We were skeptical but ordered Chicken Vindaloo (me) and Paneer Korma (Lynne), and some fried chicken and macaroni and cheese for the kiddos. It took a while to get the food, which was OK with us since we were so tired of being in the car, and when it did come it was truly outstanding. Thank goodness we made the effort, this was the best food we’ve had in quite some time, and rivals any of the Indian restaurants back home.

Onward through the night, we made it to Little Rock and pressed on, finally getting to West Memphis by around 11:30 at night. We pretty much just went right to bed, exhausted.