The Deep South

Day #2 Miles: 496

Day #2 States: 4 (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi)

Mileage Total: 1034 miles

I've never been to this area of the country before. Been to a snippet of Florida, but never the south. And never the deep south. Everything I know about this area I learned from Music History and American History textbooks and television (The Food Network and True Blood). I knew not to expect racist vampires flinging fried catfish at one another while banging, and I, so far, have no reason to believe the contrary.

Today's drive was pretty dull. The roads were totally clear and the weather was nearly perfect. The route was not challenging and the drive was pretty flat. 

So let's rattle through the highlights!

Did not sleep well. I had one of those nights where a million and two things continued to race through my head and only eventually did the gentle hum of the adjacent freeway lull me to slumber. Started the day off finishing the drive through Tennessee. 

Outside of a few large fireworks stores (props to Ben for letting me know to keep an eye out!) there wasn't much. 

Some of the other roadside signs were pretty entertaining. Like the billboards for the aquarium that featured charming portraits of parrots, because zoology makes sense. I was also a big fan of the public service announcements that reminded me every 10 miles that '27% of Tennessee fatalities involved alcohol'... which can mean a number of things... including that far too many people in TN have obviously been beaten to death, totally sober, with whiskey bottles. I am sure that on a clear, sunny day in the rolling hills that this state is absolutely stunning, but today's grey skies and fog banks lead me to believe it's a dreary series of strip malls. And then shortly before leaving, I crossed the Tennessee river!

The Georgia border really snuck up on me, and I was only in Georgia for about 20 minutes. No major changes. And so, I started writing a series of short songs about road travel. Here's a favorite verse:

Broken down shack beside the highway

Yes, there's a broken down shack beside the highway

It was once a house of crack until they realized smack is whack

and now there's a broken down shack beside the highway

The only major observation about Georgia is that Waffle House spreads like herpes. They're goddamn everywhere!! How many waffles do you people need? Do you drink maple syrup and have crap factory-sausage orgies? I saw a street that had two Waffle Houses within 1/2 a mile. Georgia, get your shit together.

Alabama was pretty okay. For a state with some pretty twisted history, I actually found it to be the most beautiful to drive through. The state appears to be little more than one city, a few stripmalls, and the occasional sprinkling of trailer park beside the highway. I passed into downtown Birmingham at about 3 o'clock and decided on a pit BBQ pit stop at a small hole-in-the-wall kind of place called Saw's BBQ that ended up being rated 7th in the South for barbecue by Southern Living Magazine. Best decision of the whole trip, for the next two hours even my burps were delicious. 

Passing by downtown Birmingham - UAB!!

This is my sampling of traditional Alabama white barbecue sauce. Alabama white barbecue sauce is a mayo-based sauce with some added spices, seasonings, and liquid for consistency. Not my favorite, but it's a regional specialty I liked trying. I ended up drenching the chicken in the joint's more standard red-colored vinegar sauce. It was delicious. The chicken was roasted for a very long time and was moist and delicious. The mac n' cheese was the best I've had anywhere, and the turnip greens were tender and had none of harsh acidic flavor that poorly braised greens tend to have. All of this, of course, was washed down with some of the South's famous 'sweet tea', which was tasty. I understand the appeal, but in general, drinking sugar ain't my thang. My car became a rolling fart box, but it was totally worth it. 

Some Alabama countryside, pretty right?

 Soon after came Mississippi. 

Nothing much else going on here. There is a town called Chunky, Mississippi. 

And that is all. Currently in Jackson for the night. One of my former professor's parents live in the area, and they offered to cook me dinner, which was shockingly non-awkward. As far as cool 70-year-olds go, they're pretty up there. The husband has a wall of old vinyl and the wife kept telling me I was too skinny (so she's a dirty liar, I'm okay with it). Conversation was mostly about UR, grad school programs, and I got the Mr. to discuss some of his history as a war vet. 

My souvenir from the day was this, a vintage mug specially designing for drinking tea that features pictures of distinguished-looking gentlemen with mustaches from an antique shop next to the BBQ joint in Birmingham. If I don't look like a classy broad drinking out of this one, I'm hopeless!

Done for the night. The adventures continue tomorrow!!