April Louisiana Road Trip.....Day 9....A Boring Day of Driving

Tuesday morning, after I took a quick dip in the pool and we had our free breakfast, we hit the road heading north.

First a word about breakfast.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express here in Fairhope Alabama.  It was the most expensive room we took on this trip but the breakfast was superb.

Ok, not Eggs Benedict superb but for a continental "included with the room cost" Breakfast it was great!  Lots of options, everything was either hot or cold(depending on what it was suppose to be)and the cinnamon rolls......let me just wax poetic for a bit about their cinnamon rolls.
O.M.G.

I tried desperately to figure out how to fit a tray of these into my purse but to no avail....sigh
These were the best cinnamon rolls I've ever tasted in my 55 years on this planet.
Not too sweet, not too dry and a butt load of cinnamon.  I am drooling just thinking about them.

So we hit the road, but not before stopping in at the Rite-Aid in Fairhope because I had +Ups and coupons expiring that day so I forced Hubs to go there. ;-)

The applesauce was free after +Ups and the dish soap was .50¢ a bottle after rain check and coupons.

Then we hit the highway until we came to Spanish Fort about 11 miles away. lol
Saw a World Market and had to check it out.

More "Slap Ya Mama" products......

And it was difficult but I resisted buying this Chocolate Bacon Caramel Corn.....

And this location had the Downton Abbey teas but at $11.99 a small tin, I left them on the shelf....

The bulk of the day was spent driving through Alabama.  I never realized how long that state was.

Up past Bay Minette and then onto I-65 and up to Montgomery and then onward to Birmingham, then east on I-59 to Chattanooga TN.

Yet another Casino we passed in Alabama that I didn't stop at.
Ssssh, don't tell Sonya Ann.....

We did stop at this touristy trap along the interstate however.

Priester's has been selling pecans since 1935, like the sign says.
We hit the free tasting samples and I bought some bags of pecan pieces for cheap....they'll be great in pies or pecan sandies.
The whole nuts were outrageously priced so I passed on those.

I did see these awesome decorative measuring scoops with chickens on them and thought of you Linda. 
But at $40(plus tax)they stayed in the store. lolz

Not much scenery along this looooong stretch of interstate driving, except for a Hyundai plant.

The most exciting thing along this route was this sign for Selma.  Yes, this is boring when a highway sign is the most exciting thing to look at and post about.
We didn't go to Selma this trip.


I may have dozed off in the car for awhile....I blame it on cinnamon rolls. ;-)
We ate so much breakfast(and with all those free pecan samples at Priester's)we didn't even stop for lunch anywhere.

We got into Chattanooga around 8 and it was after dark.  It took all day to drive from the bottom to the top of Alabama and then into Tennessee.

We found a motel room right off the interstate and by the time we unloaded our bags and settled into the room it was 9pm.
Seeing as most of the food options near the motel for dinner were fast food, we ended up at Waffle House which was one of the few places nearby that was still open and not burgers.  At that hour a little light "breakfast for dinner" hit the spot.
Then back to the room for some shut eye.

I do hate long driving days but now it was behind us and we could do some fun stuff on Day 10 and 11 before getting home on Day 12....or so I thought.

Sluggy

 

April Louisiana Road Trip...Day 8

Monday, Day 8 of our Road Trip, we left Shreveport and headed back east on the interstate.

The original plan had been to go South through Alexandria, then through Baton Rouge to the Southern half of Louisiana, where we were going to make 2 stops--first at the Abita Brew Pub in Abita Springs, LA and second over the river into Mississippi at the Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company in Kiln, MS.

But as luck would have it, both are closed on Mondays and we happened to be going that way on Monday.
Sigh.

So with part of our plan for the day thwarted, we left a little later in the morning and headed back east on I-20.

Before we left the area though, we stopped so I could get a "Roadside America" style photo-op....

                          
Me and the World's Largest Cowboy

This place was right behind our hotel so why not?


Before you knew it....ok, about an hour and a half after getting on the road, we were back in Mississippi.
I love how this sign is located right underneath a grand old Magnolia tree.  If there is one thing I miss about living in Virginia, it's Magnolia trees....

 

We crossed the Mississippi River again at Vicksburg.....

The Mississippi Welcome Center at Vicksburg is a bitch to park at, but out back of the building they have a right nice veranda overlooking the river....

While I was there a local high school senior was having his class photo done with the river as a backdrop.

Once we got to Jackson we veered off the interstate and went Southeast down to Hattiesburg.  About halfway from Jackson to Hattiesburg we stopped for lunch in the little town of Magee.

Now tell me......how was I about to resist a sign with a catfish on it?!

You just never know what you're going to stumble into once you leave the interstate and chain-type restaurants.

These "trees" with faux flowers greeted us in the lobby.

And here is a shot of the dinning hall after the lunch rush was over.....

This was a Fried Catfish and American buffet type place with a "Down Home Country" feel.
Notice our iced tea came in tin measuring cups.....

Fried Catfish, fried Okra, Hush Puppies(those are fried too), Mustard Greens(not fried)and some Mac and Cheese to round out my cholesterol Feast....and I am not even going to show you the dessert I ate. lolz

And I got brave and took a pickled okra off the salad bar.
I grew up in the South eating southern foods but I have never until that day tasted a pickled okra.
Of all the ways you can prepare/eat okra, pickling one had never occurred to me.

I took one bite and discovered that pickled okra is nasty!  Pickled slimy furry vegetables are not my thang evidently....

Incidentally, this was the second time I saw pickled okra on a salad bar on this trip.  The country kitchen place across from our motel in Louisiana where we ate a few times also had them.

And lunch was not the end of the interesting things we saw in Magee at the Catfish House.....

They were offering for sale these books at the front desk/check-out counter.

Now if you actually go read up on this book it sounds interesting and might be a good read.
But the title?.....it sure made my head snap around when I passed it and had to go back for a photo. lolz

And that wasn't the end of interesting sights at Berry's.
Check out the 10 Commandments in front of the restaurant......

I guess I've been living up North too long now because I was surprised by this...but I shouldn't have been. lolz

After a quick stop in Hattiesburg to pick up a surprise for someone, we soon crossed another state line into Alabama and hit traffic in downtown Mobile.

 

After we got through the tunnel....what a mess!......we have some scenic driving right next to Mobile Bay....

Another half hour or so and we were arrived at our destination for the evening-- Fairhope, Alabama.
We found a nice Holiday Inn Express for the night, unloaded the car and before I knew it I was talking to Lorraine from We are: clamco and arranging to meet her family for dinner at this place in town.....

Chicken buffet rules posted by the front door.

 We went inside to wait and before you know it, in walked the Clamco clan: Megan, Lorraine and Chris.
Hugs happened and we just started talking like we'd been old friends forever.

While waiting for our chicken, Lorraine and I got our picture took and of course I hammed it up because yah, that's what I do......

And I told Lorraine that I absolutely loved her......because she is an awesome person.....but also because she is shorter than me!!
And I never meet anybody who is shorter than me.  ;-)

After gorging on chicken, biscuits, slaw and fries, the Clamcos invited us back to their Clamco Cottage for coffee, tea and dessert.
Hubs, Lorraine and I took a walk down on the Fairhope pier first.  I didn't think to take any pictures of the waterfront but then again, it was dark by then.

Chris also showed us his convention display and wares which he had set up in the garage.  He's got a great set-up and I knew he'd do well at his Mobicon show in May.

And even better, Chris made me a present.......one of the Steampunk items he makes to sell.....

It's a cool tube light on a base.  Press the button and the tube lights up in a changing array of colors.
Thanks Chris!

Check out more of Chris's creations at Black Flame Creations.

Here is the clamco couple again.
They are both such nice folks and made us feel very welcomed.

The only negative thing I can say is that we didn't get to meet sooner back when they lived here in PA not 20 minutes away from us!
All those years we lived so close and wasted that opportunity.....*sad face*

The evening passed all too quickly and we headed back to the motel for some shut eye.
It was a lovely end to our day.

Sluggy

April Louisiana Road Trip.....Day 6 & 7.....a Quick One

Saturday of our trip to Louisiana started off with a trip to the grocery store, since we were supplying breakfast for Daughter, her BF and ourselves at BF's parent's house.

               I don't think we are in PA anymore.....

Once inside the grocery store I saw many freestanding shelving units like this.....

Filled with Louisiana sauces and mixes and crawfish boil concoctions and hot pickles and peppers, etc.
"Slap Yo Mama" brand seems to be a popular one down here....lolz

Daughter fixed breakfast and then Hubs, Daughter, her BF and I were off to see that new foreclosure listing with Realtor #1.

And the kids fell head over heels for it.
We did go to the property that Hubs and I had picked out, out of all the ones we had seen so far afterwards, but Daughter had made up her mind and the new foreclosure was to be "the one" to buy.

So we got all the information about how to submit the offer and Daughter made plans to go to the real estate office on Monday to "do the deed".

Then we four went off to the brewery in Shreveport......

Great Raft Brewing
They opened last October and it's the first brewery in Shreveport since Prohibition.

They named their brewery for a natural phenomenon, a huge logjam or "raft" that occurred in Louisiana on the Red and Atchafalaya Rivers.

 By the 1830's it extended 160 miles and impeded travel, business as well as settlement west of the city that became known as Shreveport.

Henry Mille Shreve, a steamboat builder and river boat captain, made it his job to start clearing the raft and by 1838 the Red River was navigable in large part due to his efforts.  The town of Shreveport was named after him in thanks.

See?  I bet you didn't know you'd actually learn something reading this blog! 8-)

 Daughter and Hubs having a pint.  I had a small glass of the "Reasonably Corrupt".

 

Daughter and her BF

 

 

If you are ever in the Shreveport area stop by this place on a Weekend for a glass, a free tour, or a growler fill.

After some adult beverages it was time for a late lunch.  Daughter took us to a Shreveport landmark--Strawn's Eat Shop.
They've been around since 1944 and are known far and wide for their "ice box pies".

Of course, I neglected to get a picture of a pie...lolz.....but I did take a shot of my lunch.....

 A Spinach, Feta Cheese and fresh Strawberry Salad.
Mmmmmmm!

 Here's Hubs double cheeseburger and "fries".  Looks more like large hash brownie-type potatoes to me.

And a shot of Daughter stuffing her face.  Oh, she'll love me for posting this one....lolz

Of course I had pie too.  I had to settle for a piece of Butterscotch with real homemade whipped cream since they were out of  the Strawberry, which they are known for.  It was mighty good even if it wasn't Strawberry.


On Sunday we all assembled at the BF's parent's house and the Daughter cooked Easter dinner with a little assistance from her mom, me.  ;-)

She invited some people from her work who otherwise would have been alone that day and it was a jolly good time.
After the work friends left we sat down and went over financial stuff and how this buying the house deal was going to work.
Ah numbers and personal finances.....I was in my element. lolz

We got back to the motel late into the evening and packed up.
Monday morning we were heading back home to Pennsylvania, by way of Alabama first.

Sluggy
 

April Louisiana Road Trip....Day Three

I awoke on Day 3 of the trip way early.  Even before Hubs was up.
The room seemed cold......we had checked the Weather Channel the night before and it said it would get chiller today.

And they weren't lying!
So I hopped(ok, at my age I don't really hop, it's more like a creaking dragged myself)out of bed and peeked out the curtain.

And this is what I saw......

 

Let's take a closer look at that......

WTF?!?

It's mid April about 10 miles from the Alabama border in Tennessee and it's FREAKING SNOWING!!!

Are you kidding me?!?


(The dashboard clock says 9:59am but we passed into the Central Time Zone and didn't change the time so it was really 8:59am)

We nixed the "free breakfast" (which consisted of toast, bananas and OJ)and headed across the parking lot to here instead.....

We had a real sweet waitress Amanda.

We got to chatting, as I am want to do....hey, it's a trait I picked up from my mom!  She's the mom to 3 kids(and not even in her late 20's).  She and her finace are raising them as best they can, both working at Waffle House on opposite shifts.
She's been planning her wedding so we traded ideas and ways to do this on the cheap between bites of breakfast and refills of Hub's coffee mug, since they don't have much spare money each month after supporting their little family.

When we left I wrote her a little note and left her one of those mystery diner generous tips you hear about on Yahoo inside of it and hightailed it outta there.....

Hopefully this will help them in some small way have a great day.
I saw her face from the car as she opened it before we drove off.
It made me smile to think I helped make her shift a little better.
I use to be a waitress.
Those are some hardworking ladies I tell ya!

Well we didn't get far before we stopped again......exactly across the street to the liquor store. lolz

It was only about 10 am......who says it's too early to buy liquor?! ;-)

And Hubs got his picture took with his friend Jack......

I love that Jack is standing on a safe.
If you know anything about the man, you'll find this quite funny.

And after dropping another $100 on TN whiskey(yikes!)we went outside found another new friend.....

A mechanical giant Tennessee Walking Horse.
(Notice I am wearing a fleece coat!  At least it was no longer snowing, it was just sleeting....geez!)




After that we hit the road south to Tullahoma Tennessee....

 and from there down some backwoods country roads to here.....

The George Dickel Whiskey Distillery
While Jack Daniels is the mass produced TN Whiskey maker, Dickel is the handcrafted in small batches TN Whiskey maker.

Their motto is...."If you know Jack, you don't know Dickel."

It's a very bucolic setting....still looks much as it did back in 1870 when George began making his fine whiskey.


This was Hubs main excursion on this trip...even though it was 30 something degrees and snowing out and I wasn't a very happy camper at this point.....so I went with it!

We arrived just as a distillery tour was beginning so we had an hour+ long wait for the next tour....which made me even less of a happy camper. 8-(
We waited for the next tour because the noon-ish tour was an "Extended Tour" meaning it wasn't free like the usual tours but it included a Whiskey Tasting.

So we paid our fee, got a fancy bracelet(Ooooo! jewelry!!).....

 

And we made ourselves comfortable in the back room....nice little waiting room, isn't it?

There were plaques and memorabilia all around the lodge....

A reproduction old car with their logo on it....

It was cold as hell outside and still flurrying here so we needed that fireplace!

They had a short film about George and the history of the distillery running on a loop in the waiting room.  I believe by the time the hour was up I had memorized all the highlights of the company and could recite them verbatim. lol

I got bored and wandering into the ladies room and boy oh boy, this bathroom is a doozy!



Here are some still shots with better lighting....

The sink in a whiskey barrel, complete with whiskey bottle hand soap.

 The loo with overhead water supply and a cooper coil tubing.  The chain that you yank to flush has a miniature oak barrel pull.

After what seemed like forever, the tour finally started.

We began outside at this statue of old George himself....I could have sworn he was shivering too!

Then we took the footbridge over the Cascade Hollow Creek that runs from the spring that is the source of the water used in Dickel Whiskey to the distillery across the street....

We took that little side door with the white sign over in on the right into the distillery.
Sorry, no photos allowed inside the building.

When the tour was over we went into this little building called the "Tasting House".
No photos allowed in that either but I snuck this one.  8-)

Inside this building is the only place in this county in Tennessee where alcohol can be consumed publically. The George Dickel Distillery is located in a totally dry county in Tennessee so they got a special exemption in order to hold tasting tours.

The Dickel gift shop has a special little room in it too, where they have to sell their whiskey by the bottle, since package sales of liquor or also not allowed in this county.
Not surprising since the state of Tennessee passed a Prohibition law 10 years before the 18th Amendment was passed in 1920.
Likewise, Tennessee state laws prohibiting the manufacture of spirits remained in place until 1937, 4 years after the repeal of the 18th Amendment.

These Dickel folks are a little "weird" about this whole drinking whiskey thing.
While we were touring the distillery, the "Whiskey Elves"(yes, I am using the tour guides own words here), went into the locked Tasting House and set up our place settings and samples of whiskeys for us. 
The tour guide had to unlock the door to the house for us and we were all told not to trade settings or offer our samples to anyone else to drink if we didn't want them.  If anyone didn't obey, they'd be escorted off the property.

I found it unusual too that the tour guide sat down with us and got to drink whiskey too!
Wow, that's the job I want....walk around and talk about whiskey distilling and drink whiskey.....and get paid to do that.
Sign me up! lolz

Of course Hubs and I both finished our samples and I smuggled  out the fancy expensive barware we used......

Tennessee liquor laws are about as archaic as Pennsylvania's in some ways. lol

After the tour and tasting I staggered back to the Dickel General Store(which is now the gift shop and waiting room).....

We stopped so I could get a picture of Hubs by the creek....

 

 

Then it was back into the gift shop so Hubs could get him some bottles of his favorite whiskey and I could get a photo of the old post office inside the store....

Though it no longer operates as such it was the only distillery with it's very own official US Post Office.

And then we were off to grab a quick bite to eat on the road and off to our next destination, Lynchburg, TN.

No we weren't there to now do the Jack Daniels tour(too crowded and long lines)but to check out some shops in downtown Lynchburg.
Lynchburg is but a speck on the map.
I believe the entire downtown is 2 blocks long.

We checked out the Moon Pie General Store......

The Moon Pie, subject of Southern lore, was invented in Chattanooga Tennessee but they also have a store down here in Lynchburg.
And guess what they sell in there?

Yep, Moon Pies in many sizes, by the box or single....in a special carton with an RC Cola even. lol

They also sell Moon Pie souvenirs.....

Here I am posing under the Moon Pie logo wearing a tie-dyed Moon Pie t-shirt we bought our daughter.  (She loves tie-dye.)
I also got a couple of shirts for myself.

An "Eat Mo' Pie" shirt....

 

And a Mardi Gras themed Moon Pie shirt complete with a mask and beads....in purple of course!.....

And of course I bought a box of this.....

It's a brand new flavor, salted caramel, that was just released the week before we got there.
Of course, my eBay radar went off, seeing as I could have probably bought a few cases of that flavor and put them on eBay for insane prices, but I held down the urge.
See?  I am getting better! lol


They also have lots of fun stuff and novelties to sell....

Some hot sauce especially for Sonya Ann.....

Some breath freshener for Jane.....

And a pill box for me.....

 

 

Next door they had this sign out front......

Moonshine Whiskey Fudge?

Why, YES please......

Hubs & I each picked out different types.  Now I can't remember what they were....not that it matters, right? lolz

I also bought this somewhere around here......

Sweet Tea Moonshine.

And we walked by this little café but didn't have time to stop in and eat some 'cue.....

We had to get back on the road so we made our dinner date.
When we stopped for gas, I got something to tied me over until then.....

Pretty soon after that, we were passing into Alabama......

And outside of Huntsville, home of the US Space & Rocket Center, we passed this rest area......I wonder when the launch date is?

And about dinner time we rolled into Cullman Alabama.
Which was a good thing because we were suppose to meet up with Linda for dinner.

Ok, that's not Linda but if you read her blog, you should recognize her babies, Thelma and Patsy Kline.
When we drove up Thelma was out in front of the house looking for us so I knew I was in the right place straight away.

After some greeting hugs and putting the girls to bed for the night, we whisked Linda away down the road to Johnny's Barbecue.

Even though this is the first time Linda & I have met, we had talked online for years....about 7 years going back to our days on The Compact group.

And we got to know each other even more intimately at the restaurant.
Ya see, we both had to go very badly, so we hopped over to the ladies room asap.
And here is what greeted us when we opened the door.....

2 seats no waiting.
Except there were no doors, just a divider wall(plus there was a urinal on the wall?!? lol)

I don't think either of us could have held it and gone out and waited for the other one to finish so we just sat down and did our business, laughing the whole time about it.

Hey, we are both women of a certain age.
Stuff like this doesn't phase us after what we've been through in life, ya know?  ;-)

And of course for your viewing pleasure I took a picture of the bathroom décor.....

So we got back to the table and finally ordered dinner  and commenced to gab.
The waitress brought this with our drinks......

A plate of white bread to go with our barbecue.
They also have this on the table....

a roll of paper towels instead of napkins.
Oh, you KNEW it was going to be good 'cue.....

We got to laughing and talking so much that I plum forgot to take a picture of the food! lolz

But you can see we ate it all from this photo that Hubs took of Linda and me.
Note that most of the white bread is still on the table.....

Linda also presented me with a whole bag of goodies....Alabama goodies no less.
I got some photos once we got into the hotel in Louisiana....

Snack foods made in Alabama...Golden Flake brand, BAMA Mayonnaise and some Jam homemade by Linda....

 She didn't forget Hubs either as the bag had 3 bottles/cans of Alabama microbrews--Monkeynaut, Truck Stop Honey and Good People Pale Ale.  Hubs especially liked the Truck Stop Honey(of course he did....lol).

And half a dozen of her famous Beauregard sweet potatoes.

Linda said this one looked like a slug....lolz.....I though more of a walrus with the whisker.....

And the girls also contributed to the bag of goodies.....

.....with 8 fresh eggs.

This all was so unexpected and such a nice surprise.
Thanks Linda!

And thanks for having dinner with us and finally letting me meet you.

We left Cullman behind and drove further South into Alabama before stopping for the night in Tuscaloosa.

What a jam packed day.  I slept like a log that night.

Next up, Day Four and we finally make it to Louisiana.

Sluggy