Cracker Barrel, 8 hours and 500 miles

After wandering around Nashville for 45 minutes to find a place for dinner on Wednesday night and being rejected because "Sorry, singles have to sit at the bar and that will probably be a wait of at least 20 minutes but who knows" I decided to go back to the lovely Oak Bar in The Hermitage Hotel because I was fairly certain it wouldn't be overrun with drunk conventioneers pounding down PBR or premade Margaritas. Not that I dislike drunk conventioneers (premade Margaritas are another story) but by that time I was hungry and thirsty and I knew the bartender at the Oak Room, whom I met earler in the day could at least help with the quenching of my thirst.

There were two people at the bar (which seats ten at ten most) and nary a drunk in sight. My cocktail was one of the best I had ever had and to assuage (fancy word) my hunger I ordered an appetizer of (cliche) fried green tomatoes. It was either that or a hamburger which I had been told was the best burger in Tennessee. But as the bartender said, "You can get a great burger in any state but how often do you get the best fried green tomatoes of your life?"  She was right, of course, they were outstanding, very crisp, hot, four fat sliced tomatoes, cornmeal crisp, perched on top of housemade pimento cheese, the heat of the tomato softening the cheese just enough to make it smooth and slightly creamy.  It was the perfect meal: great food, masterful cocktail, beautiful ambience and two blocks from my apartment. Yay for me!

Yesterday (Thursday) it was time to make tracks towards New Orleans, close to an 8 hour drive, at least 500 miles. I started on the interstate but after two hours of lane changes and jockeying with semi trucks, I rerouted myself and hit the smaller highways which was a good idea until the storm hit. After two hours of hard rain, the standing water on those small roads was much too dangerous so it was back to the interstate where the road drainage is better. Close to four hours later I had had enough and stopped for the night, about 100 miles north of NOLA. 

 My plan for today is to skirt New Orleans and aim for Hwy. 23 which will take me along the Mississippi River as it makes its final journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Originally I had wanted to follow the river south all the way, but now I will see it at its most southern point and follow it northward through Louisiana. 

Cracker Barrel Restaurants: these are all over the South and are great places to stop and pee but every time I enter one I am slightly afraid. The restrooms are accessible without going into the eating area but one must navigate the merchandise area and that's the frightening part. (Well, the menu is quite scary as well, but that's another story.) The C B store is jammed packed with stuff, it's a hoarders delight, it's so crammed with everything that you can hardly walk through it without your arms touching the merchandise. Clothes, toys, hats, jewelry, food, candy, Christian books and statues, CDs, artwork, kitchen equipment, knickknacks of every sort like bobblehead dolls and magical dream catchers, on and on. Frightening, and people are actually buying this stuff! Of course, if you eat there you are forced to stand in line in the store, in the midst of all this stuff, to pay your tab. But hey,  their restrooms are clean!

If you eat at a C B it can take you 20 minutes just to get through the menu, it goes on and on. I have not yet had that pleasure (although I did ask to see the menu thinking I might get a breakfast sandwich to go but I couldn't anything quite that simple) but there's still time! 

(I wish I could post photos here but I don't have the patience or the smarts to figure out how to do that without actually using the iPad to take the photo. I am posting a few on Instagram if you are interested. Under jagjulie68)

Time to get rolling.....