Big Dipper, Owensboro KY

For about the only time on this trip, we were ahead of schedule, so after we left Ole South, we took a minute to drive across the beautiful Glover Cary Bridge from Owensboro into Indiana. It’s such a curious drive, going city, river, absolutely nothing. I wonder why there’s no development at all across the river. Anyway, on the way back across, we saw that J.R. Miller Boulevard is actually raised up above the small downtown area, home to a pretty busy retail area, a couple of museums, and a downright astonishing playground in Smothers Park. Continue reading “Big Dipper, Owensboro KY” →

Ole South Bar-B-Q, Owensboro KY

We have not done a good job with reporting on barbecued mutton. Marie and I made one quickie trip to Owensboro, which claims that it is the “barbecue capital of the world” to raised eyebrows everywhere else, in 2010 and had a single meal of mutton, and then I motored through on a circumnavigation this past summer and had one more serving. I figured that we could probably do a better job than that. Continue reading “Ole South Bar-B-Q, Owensboro KY” →

Moonlite Bar-B-Que Inn, Owensboro KY

Five years ago, we visited the city of Owensboro for the first time, and tried smoked mutton at Old Hickory, one of the city’s two best-known, and big, barbecue joints. I remember really enjoying it, although the years, and all the barbecue that I’ve eaten since, have dulled the specifics of my memory. As we expanded our experience of different techniques and preparation styles, I thought more about how Old Hickory served their chopped mutton drowned in the “dip,” a thin and black Worcestershire-heavy brew, and wondered whether, the next time I found myself in Owensboro, I could try the meat dry, or whether cooking in the sauce was standard for western Kentucky, as it is – in very, very different sauces, of course – across middle Georgia. Continue reading “Moonlite Bar-B-Que Inn, Owensboro KY” →

Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Owensboro, KY

Of course, the problem with doing road trips and eating at new places the way that we enjoy is that we need to balance our traveling between the diametrically opposed points of my foolishly impulsive nature on one peak and common sense on the other. When I first read about barbecued mutton, a common dish in the northwestern Kentucky town of Owensboro, I was halfway out the door. Stark reality soon took hold, and it just made more sense to wait patiently, until I could find some genuine reason to actually be in Ownensboro. Continue reading “Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, Owensboro, KY” →