2016 Road Trip.....May 16 & 17th, Last Day in LA and Driving to AL

I don't remember what we did on Monday, May 16th, on our last full day in Louisiana.  Probably a trip to the insurance agent to cut a check for house insurance, hanging out in the motel pool and a little shopping.
Speaking of shopping, the Daughter and I hit the Hancock Fabrics near her house.  Last Spring/Summer Hancock stores were having going out of business sales.

The trip to the Hancock Fabrics near her/own house turns out was the last time I spent money at that chain.  This loyalty card got pitched when I got home to PA. sigh.

Here are a few goodies I picked up there because at 50% off or more, what fabric-aholic could resist?!?

 A bunch of rayon prints, my favs.

More rayon and the green one is a cotton print.

Some novelty prints, Dr. Who in cotton and flannel and a craft beer print.

 We also hit the liquor store.  I got some cheap watermelon vodka and more of my frozen paper umbrella drink  packets.

I also spied a nice sale on Laphroaig 18 year Scotch for Hubs.  At the price it was at, I should have had Hubs buy a case of it!

I also hit Walmart and loaded up on Blue Plate mayo and sandwich spread.  This lot didn't last very long.......

On the morning we left Shreveport, we stopped in at Daughter's work as we headed out of town for home.

Daughter was a manager at a Jimmy John's sub shop in Bossier City.
She wasn't there when we arrived because she had to run to Sam's Club to pick up some supplies that they were out of........

After she and one of her workers got everything in the building they set to work getting ready for the lunch crowd........

Even with us there, Daughter is all business when she is working and we had to visit while she barked out orders and prepped for the lunch rush(even though it was barely 10 am).

I liked these signs they had in the eating areas.

We said our goodbyes and headed out East on I-20.

We made a pit stop(for both the car and us)before we crossed over into Mississippi at a truck stop in Tallulah LA.
While waiting for Hubs to finish in the men's room I wandered around the convenience store and found some Southern eats......

As the sign says, "Hot Boiled Peanuts", regular or spicy.....

And jackpot! a jar of pickled eggs too. lol

The guy working the register saw my flash go off and when I wandered up to the front he started asking me, in very obviously stilted English, a bunch of questions about what I was doing.  Could be that he thought I was a health inspector or INS spy or something.  Who knows?
He looked a bit calmer when he understood that I was a blogger and just take photos of interesting things for my blog and nobody from the state was going to shut his store down or cart him off for deportation.
Geez!

We rode straight through MS and next stopped in Tuscaloosa Alabama to gas up and then stretch our legs at a store.
No we didn't go into this store........

We headed to World Market in that same shopping center.

Ok, here is a great mosaic table on clearance this WM had on their front sidewalk....get it now because it's "The LAST ONE!".

Or is it?  LOLOLZ
Only in Alabama?......maybe.......

This shopping center also had a fancy Burger/Craft Beer joint.......
Lots of fancyfied stores in Tuscaloosa.

Between our trip to WM in Shreveport and this Tuscaloosa stop we picked up some necessities at a good price.  Those bags of coffee were awesome buys on clearance(not ground so they kept fresh longer)and I LOVE that hibiscus syrup added to my iced tea in the Summer as it's so refreshing.

Another hour+ back on the road and we made it to Birmingham and our hotel at the start of rush hour.
The Quality Inn we stayed at was not bad pricewise(considering it was in B'ham)plus they had a small pool and a nice breakfast spread.

The only not so great thing was that our room and window was on the back of the building and appeared as if the woods by our room was used as a hang-out drinking spot.  If you can't see it there are beer cans and glass liquor bottles in this photo I took.  I guess the motel management wanted us to feel at home.  *snort*

After settling in and taking a quick swim I called a fellow blogger who lives in the area to see if she was free to meet up and maybe have a little dinner with us.

About half an hour later up drives Anne in the Kitchen of New Happenings At The Table Blog in her van.
Quick hugs and hellos happened and I think I said something ever-so witty like, "Anne! You're not in the Kitchen!". lolz
After she finished rolling her eyes at me(and thinking but not saying, "Bless her heart", at me)Anne whisked us off to this place............

Well not their catering truck(which I took a photo of as we were leaving) but the Full Moon Bar-B-Que restaurant. It's a local chain that does BBQ and other southern specialties.
Their motto is "Best Little Pork House in Alabama".  Now how could you NOT like a place like that? hehehe

Anne got a plate of 5 non-meat items.....

I got a plate with 'Cue, Collards and Fried Green Tomatoes(of course).
While still in line ordering I saw they had grilled pimento cheese sandwiches on the menu, after I had already ordered a plate of 'cue.  Without a second thought I also ordered a sammich! lolz
Hey, we didn't have lunch that day so I didn't feel like a big ol' greedy slug, but maybe I should have. '-)

After a couple of hours of getting to know one another and chowing down, Anne had to take us back to the motel.
I had Hubs snap a few photos of us together for the proof that we really did meet Anne and this was the best of them where one or the other of us wasn't closing our eyes or had a big goofy look on their face(you decide who did which).........

It was so nice to finally meet Anne and she is such a sweetheart and full of that good ol' Southern hospitality and charm.

And I found out that she has VA ancestors too so once I actually do the work we may also be related. lolz

I would heartily recommend if you are ever in Birmingham to try out Full Moon Bar-B-Que.  Not only was the food good but even though it was well after the dinner rush the staff was mighty friendly.

It was back to the motel and we waved as Anne drove toward home.  We went to bed that night with 'cue in our bellies and the satisfaction of having met another online friend.

Sluggy

The Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.....Day Seven

Subtitled......"Liquor, Indians but no Guns"

We hit the road early on Day Seven, leaving Nashville TN in the rear view mirror.

 

We passed this truck on the interstate later that morning and Hubs wished we had a hose so we could have tapped into that load!

 

 

We made a pit stop here, about half way to our first adventure of the day......

And later on, we made another pit stop here......Bootlegger's Liquor Store....which turned out to be an adventure in itself.

 

That liquor store was right next door to a motel....and it was an AWESOME one.  I think I have found our new "go to" motel when we are in this part of the world again.

While we were in Tennessee, Hubs "discovered" a love for whiskey.  He has had bourbon before but he was able to get his hands on TN whiskey, which is different and not widely sold outside of the state. 
All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon.  Here's a Maker's Mark Bourbon info graphic HERE that explains it more fully.
Tennessee whiskey(spelled with an e)is a different animal from what most people call whisky.  It is made in smaller batches and not much available outside of the state.
At Bootlegger's Hubs discovered his special purpose in life......to be a drinker of DICKEL, George Dickel Whiskey.


They are the unknown cousin of Jack Daniel's.  Their motto is, "If you know Jack, you don't know Dickel."
Hubs stocked himself up on a bottle of each variety of George's elixir.
I also bought a bottle of something you can't get other places.....a bottle of this.....

Collier and McKeel White Dog.
Basically, white dog is the closest you can get to drinking moonshine(aka corn likker)without knowing some hillbilly making and running "shine" out of some back holler.  It's moonshine that revenoor taxes have been paid on.

White Dog is the nickname for any corn mash whiskey BEFORE it has been aged into what most people call whiskey or whisky.  It's "young whiskey" and can be quite "rough".

But enough of our whiskey lesson for today, let's move on, shall we?

More shots from the road as we got further east......

 

 

And if anyone had any doubts, KUDZU is alive and doing quite well, thank you!, in eastern Tennessee.....

Can't see the trees for the vines.....

And somewhere near Knoxville, we finally arrived at our adventure for the day......the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.....

You can go read about Sequoyah HERE.

  The Museum is owned and run by the Cherokee Nation(Eastern Band).

It contains Cherokee artifacts, artwork(like this carved walking stick), films and dioramas on the lands and peoples of this area through the ages and also the history of the "Principal People" as the Cherokee call themselves, along with the history of Sequoyah himself and his great Cherokee Syllabary.

Many people call Sequoyah's invention an alphabet but it isn't.  Instead of 26 characters, there are 85 and each character isn't a letter, but a symbol representing each sound of the Cherokee language.

It takes longer to memorize 85 symbols/sounds than our English 26 letter alphabet, but once mastered, the learner can begin to read and write immediately, unlike an English alphabet learner, who must then learn how to put the letters/sounds together to make words.
It's an ingenious device if you think about it!  Sequoyah worked fulltime on this Syllabary for a year.  His neighbors thought he had gone mad as he neglected his garden and his wife thought it was witchcraft and burned some of his work.

After it's development, Sequoyah spent 12 years promoting his invention among his people.  Once Sequoyah won over various bands of his Cherokee peoples, and the nation embraced his writing system as it's own, it put the myth about the uneducated, godless savage to an end once and for all.  Knowledge is power and it helped to put the Principal People on equal footing with all those European and English people who were slowly taking over their lands....at least for a little while.

There are also displays in he Museum about the interaction of the "white man" with the native peoples and once you get into the 1800's the history gets quite depressing.....all that "You help me, then I stab you in the back(sometimes literally), and I push you off your land and take over".....and we all know how "things" turned out for the Native Americans.

Sequoyah was a very interesting, multifaceted man and he treasured the great honors bestowed upon him for his Syllabary invention.  He is said to have worn a silver medal awarded to him by the Cherokee Nation always, even after his death.

He was instrumental in the 1st bi-lingual newspaper in the US, the "Cherokee Phoenix", which began publishing in 1828 until 1834.

Sequoyah was a successful blacksmith too.  Here is a recreation of his shop on the Museum grounds.....

And a typical Meeting Place(without the covering over it).  It's not quite as large as they believe these actually were back in the day.  These structures were communal gathering and marketplaces for Cherokee band members and could hold about a 100 people.  (They served the purpose of our churches, theatres, community centers and shopping malls of today.)

Hubs with the Cherokee Basketwork design Bear....

After we bid adieu to Sequoyah, we had to find some place for lunch as it was already after 3pm.
We stopped at this place in Vonore that we had passed on the way to the Museum.......

 

You know it's a good BBQ joint when they have a roll of paper towels on the table! 

There was a nice view out the back windows but THIS is the view I wanted to see........

I got brisket, pork, coleslaw and pintos.  I used my grilled toast & coleslaw to make a barbecued pulled pork sammie.

After getting "cue happy" we hit the road again.
We had, what turned out to be a 5 hour drive up I-81 from Knoxville, TN to Wytheville, VA.
We hit rush hour somewhere, stopped at another liquor store before leaving TN and a potty break somewhere in there too.
It was dark once we got to Wytheville and tried to exit the Interstate to our motel for the night.
I said "tried" to exit the Interstate because this exit was temporarily closed in both directions going south or north.
VA DOT was going some highway repairs that evening and had closed the exits we needed to get off of until morning.
So we drove up to the next exit, straight up into the mountains about 10 miles....into the middle of nowhere.  No civilization, no lights and spotty cell phone reception.
Hubs parked off the exit and tried to call the motel to get directions to get there without using the interstate.

In between the dead spots, standing outside the car with your right arm up in the air and holding the phone in your left hand, while balancing on your left leg, the motel clerk actually told Hubs that she didn't know how to give him directions from anywhere but from the Interstate to that particular exit.

Really?!?
Another low point and milestone in civilization has been reached.
People can longer function without GPSs.
No one can has a sense of direction and can navigate in their heads.
Note to motel owners--Do not hire idiots who can't read a map or have no clue about the area in which they live!
You KNOW this moron lives in this town or nearby if they have a JOB there, and you KNOW they have to DRIVE ON THE ROADS to get to said job, but they have no CLUE about the names of the roads and how said roads hook up into each other?!
Really!!???

So we found a road heading south....which was the general direction we needed to be heading.....and we drove, and drove, and drove some more down a long windy, foggy(in the mountains at night, remember?)2 lane country road with no signs or markings except for a.....

 

Or a....

Ever so often.
We finally saw a light, the sign for a convenience store, so we pulled in, got some directions from the clerk....FINALLY!, someone who actually KNEW the names of the roads and where they led!!
Praise the Lord!

We found the motel shortly thereafter and rolled in about 9:30 at night.
We were both hungry but not starving since lunch had been so late.
And it's a good thing since the little town here rolls up the sidewalks at night evidently, as everything was closed except that convenience store we found.

Luckily, I still had a bag of food Sonya Ann had sent us off with on Friday....summer sausage slices, cheese, celery and cherry tomatoes.  I think there were crackers too.

So here's my dinner.....

Ok, I had some cheese too.
And I washed it down with this.....

Cinerator Cinnamon Whiskey.
Same guys as Evan Williams.....you hear that JAY?! ;-)

I fell(literally, I got dizzy after 2 shots of this stuff!)into bed to sleep the evening away.
Thus ends Day 7 of the Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.

Next time, Day 8..... wherein we eat local, dig some more roots, go back in time, up a mountain, and hit another of my "pleasure centers".

Sluggy