Because when I’m on a circumnavigation I am constantly racing against the clock, it is very difficult to actually schedule time to meet with anybody. Any time I can shave a few minutes here or there, the better! However, since this trip would be taking me into the Huntsville metro area, where our friends Vincent and Helen live, I wanted to make certain that we could break some bread together. Finding the right place would be a little challenging. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part seven”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part six
I was running a little ahead of schedule as I made my way out of Florence, having enjoyed myself a great deal. Good thing, too, because I had an idea that I might enjoy a little leg-stretching and would need the minutes. My next destination was Dub’s Burgers in the town of Athens, and I found that there was a classic dairy bar just a tenth of a mile’s walk away. I figured that a quick counter meal at Dub’s and a walk to Kreme Delite and back wouldn’t take forty minutes, and then I could get on to my next destination and walk around the parking lot a few times before meeting with friends. This would not work out quite right. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part six”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part five
Coming into Alabama on US-72, there are four large towns which are referred to as either the Quad Cities or The Shoals: Florence, Tuscumbia, Sheffield, and Muscle Shoals. As I entered Tuscumbia, I noticed that the Alabama Music Hall of Fame – it’s still open to the public, unlike Georgia’s – counts Buffalo Rock among its sponsors. I reminded myself to find a grocery store and bring home a twelve-pack, and promptly forgot. I remembered when I got home and recounted the trip to my family, slapped myself in the head, stood up and said “I’ll be back in three and a half hours…” Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part five”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part four
Well, I can’t say that I was not warned. Let’s just put that on the table.
So, some years back, as my interest in regionally specific cooking began to grow, I read John T. Edge’s excellent and breezy Hamburger & Fries, a cute little book that talked about green chile burgers in New Mexico and steamed burgers in Connecticut and pimento cheeseburgers in South Carolina – those I know darn well – and something called slugburgers in upper northeast Mississippi. Now, New Mexico and Connecticut are pretty far outside our realistic travel radius, but Mississippi sounded doable. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part four”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part three
After I enjoyed the really good pork at Chuck Wagon in Fayetteville, I continued west on US-64 for the next few hours. I crossed I-65 and made it into the town of Lawrenceburg, where the actor and politician Fred Thompson was born. There’s a big and faded sign with Thompson’s photo on it as you come into town. Local ne’er-do-wells have defaced it, giving him an impressive 19th Century head of hair, a swirling and thick mustache and beard somewhere between “Confederate general” and “grizzled prospector.” Give the vandals points for originality; kids in my hometown would have been satisfied with some sunglasses. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part three”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part two
I’ve driven between Chattanooga and Nashville dozens of times climbing up and down the mountain through Monteagle, but until this trip, I had not gone down the southwest side, following US-41A. In the spring of 2012, we used US-41 down the north slope to Manchester, but this was all new to me. Taking US-41A west-southwest to Winchester will take you first past the campus of the oddly-named Sewanee: The University of the South before dipping down the mountain’s western side through a beautiful and gentle series of curves and twists. The highway then rolls through the town of Cowan before finding Winchester and winding north again. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part two”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part one
Our circumnavigation series – this will be the third – have slowly evolved over the last eighteen months, and it occurs to me that while I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about these, I have not really communicated to our readers what the purpose and objective to them might be. I mean, what the heck is this all about? Why do I leave my wife and kids for two days to go out and absolutely overeat in strange and out-of-the-way places? Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part one”
Marie, Let's Eat! 