So, the situation as I was leaving Tuscaloosa was this: the sun had gone down, I was completely full, albeit well under budget, I’d met some great people and enjoyed some terrific scenery, but I was on a time crunch, with another 130-plus miles to go before my destination motel, and three more restaurants to visit. I was also pretty sure that I’d be getting sleepy pretty soon, before I had planned to. I had to press on through the darkness of US-43, which runs parallel to the combined routes of I-20 and I-59 in a southwest direction until reaching the town of Eutaw, at which point it drops away straight south. Eutaw is one of those towns where travelers have to pay close attention to the signs, because the road makes some surprising and abrupt left turns. It makes a long and gentle westerly curve into the downtown area and then drops south after that. I’m a pretty seasoned road tripper and it surprised and confused me more than these things usually do, anyway. Continue reading “Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 4”
Category: alabama
Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 3
I’d only been to Tuscaloosa once before, in June of last year, when we went through on our way to Starkville, stopping for a couple of meals on our way back. I’d like to linger a little longer sometime, and actually visit the University of Alabama campus and see its legendary Strip, maybe getting a meal at the renowned Rama Jama’s. This visit didn’t leave me time. Continue reading “Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 3”
Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 2
Shortly after Marie and I started the blog, we took a trip to Tallulah Falls and found our way to a joint called Hawg Wild in Clarkesville. There, I found the first example of white barbecue sauce that I’ve ever seen, went gaga for it and we made tracks for Birmingham as soon as feasible to sample white sauce in its home state. It turns out that even Birmingham is too far south for this very regional delicacy to be common; some of the people that we met during that trip had no idea what we were talking about, but everybody in the avenues and routes around Huntsville and Decatur and some other places are at least familiar with it. Continue reading “Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 2”
Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 1
Back before Christmas, Marie mentioned that she’d be taking the baby for a trip to visit her family in early February, just the two of them. I realized that we could each have road trips. Sadly, the interference of the real world meant that we did this on different weekends, but she got her trip and I got mine, and we are quite satisfied with the results. Continue reading “Circumnavigating Alabama – Part 1”
Corner Que, Smiths Station AL (CLOSED) and Phil’s BBQ, Eufaula AL
In September, Marie and I visited a pair of barbecue restaurants in Phenix City with our friend Ric. When I wrote about those places in October, I noted some striking similarities between them. Our most recent trip to the region has shown more things in common. There’s a regional style here that warrants a little more comment than I have provided previously. Continue reading “Corner Que, Smiths Station AL (CLOSED) and Phil’s BBQ, Eufaula AL”
Mike & Ed’s Bar-B-Que and 13th Street Bar-B-Q, Phenix City AL
Phenix City, Alabama has a storied history of gangsters and organized crime and femmes fatale leading wide-eyed young recruits away from their first paycheck at Fort Benning. Well, that was the Hollywood version, anyway. It’s the town across the river from Columbus, and, honestly, it’s spent the last five or six decades just being the sleepy little smaller town and little more, but once upon a time, it really was a burg full of shysters and thugs, and things really were so bad that the G-Men had to come down in force to do something about crooks swindling the innocent wide-eyed joes who would leave base looking for anything fun to do. But, you know, that was so long ago that they were still called G-Men. The incident later made for a celebrated B-movie called The Phenix City Story, memorabilia of which can still be found in many Columbus antique stores, and a great little comic in one of Paradox Press’s Big Books. Continue reading “Mike & Ed’s Bar-B-Que and 13th Street Bar-B-Q, Phenix City AL”
Joe’s Walk Hard BBQ, Leesburg AL
Longtime readers know that Marie and I – well, admittedly, it is mainly just I – get a kick out of stopping in other states for regionally-available sodas that we cannot get in Atlanta. When we were in Fort Payne, we pulled into a grocery store called Sav-a-Lot, where I hoped – actually, where I expected – to get twelve-packs of Buffalo Rock and Grapico, but they didn’t carry them. They did, however, have strawberry flavored Moon Pies. I gobbled those babies up within four days. Continue reading “Joe’s Walk Hard BBQ, Leesburg AL”
Marie, Let's Eat! 