I left Leo & Susie’s ahead of schedule, and I’ll tell you folks, it is a good thing that I did because Birmingham’s rush hour turned out to be every bit as bad as I’d heard. I won’t complain about Atlanta’s again for at least three weeks. Complicating things up front, there’s about a two-mile stretch between not-quite-finished I-22 and I-65 that hasn’t been completed yet, and eastbound traffic exits onto a road called Coalburg, and absolutely everybody takes that down to 41st Avenue and cuts over. These roads were not meant for this volume of traffic. It’s like driving across trenches. Then you get on the I-59/I-20 connector and it’s every man for himself. For the rest of my life, I’m going to do my level best to avoid Birmingham Fridays between four and six. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part nine”
Tag: north alabama
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part seven
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 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”
Two Dairy Bars in Northeast Bama
While dairy bars are not unknown in Georgia – we’ve visted, for example, Dari Spot near Gainesville and Jiffy Freeze in Canton – the actual name “dairy bar” is very uncommon. The only place in the state that I’ve found that uses that name is a joint called Cree-Mee down near Unadilla. In Alabama, the term is more widely used. Just so we’re on the same page, I’m talking about little places that specialize in no-frills fast food and soft serve ice cream, effectively the same sort of food that you could typically expect to find at a Dairy Queen, but independent, local and, usually, very old. Continue reading “Two Dairy Bars in Northeast Bama”
Big Marv’s BBQ, Scottsboro AL (CLOSED)
I feel that I must again express my disappointment that rural Alabama is so poorly covered by those of us who blog about food. I see that we have quite a nice audience, even if the transition to WordPress and our own domain means that our stats have taken the stumble that I heard would happen, and I’d like to think that many of our readers are adding restaurants that we have featured to their personal wishlists. Having said that, however, nothing would be better for either small communities or the independent restaurants there than blanket coverage from lots of bloggers, particularly when the restaurants that need championing are ones that serve up a product as good as the pulled pork at Big Marv’s. I applaud the restaurant for using social media to communicate with its fans, but I’m disheartened that Google searches don’t suggest that anybody else is using social media to talk about the restaurant. This needs to change. Continue reading “Big Marv’s BBQ, Scottsboro AL (CLOSED)”
Bowen’s Dairy Bar, Henagar AL
Real life had interfered with our plans in a calamitously disagreeable way back in December and January, and while we kept on trucking and did not let it inconvenience us too much, it did mean the cancellation of two out-of-town trips that we had planned. One of these was going to incorporate a visit to what is possibly the last surviving Kay’s Kastles, a once-thriving ice cream chain that now only seems to exist in the town of Soddy-Daisy, a little north of Chattanooga. Perhaps we’ll make it back sometime. I mentioned this to my mother, who never, ever objected to stopping for a treat at a Kay’s Kastles in Rome on the way back from visits to Fort Payne, and she said that she had half a mind to take a side trip to this Kay’s the next time the road takes her to Chattanooga. She says that she really loved Kay’s grape milkshakes. Continue reading “Bowen’s Dairy Bar, Henagar AL”
Circumnavigating Alabama – Postscript
After finishing our quick visit to Huntsville, I had hoped to visit a couple more barbecue places in northeast Alabama, and so I used Google Maps to chart our way home. Then, unlike our “whatever happens” drive to Nashville the previous afternoon, I looked around Urbanspoon and hammered down two more places to try. This served as a “postscript,” if you like, for my “circumnavigation” of that state two weeks prior, hitting a few more places that I couldn’t have found at that time. Continue reading “Circumnavigating Alabama – Postscript”
Marie, Let's Eat! 