Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Village Cafe
Following another recommendation from HQ in Arlington (Thanks Sarah) we hit up the village cafe. And it was the bomb. Dot Com. We got country fried steak and fish and chips. And now I can't take deep breaths I'm so full. And were on the road for the final stretch......
Within Striking Distance.
So we've arrived at the village cafe in Richmond. Only about a hundred miles out of DC.......I can smell that MD air
Q-shack
Made it to the Q-Shack. Made sure to give Dukes campus a hearty and well-deserved middle finger on the way
Brilliant start
Started the day with precision timing.....hit the road at 10 am just as planned. Were headed for the Q-shack, as per Sarah's rec. And after all, this is the Q-trip. The only problem: its knee-deep in dookie territory. If only Sam had sent me some MD gear I'd rock it so hard right now. Even if it got my food spat in. So on to Durham. ETA 1230......precisely as we planned
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
BBQ King
10, A-1, A-OK, aces, best, breathtaking, cool*, doozie, extravagant, fab, fantastic, fictitious, first-class, greatest, groovy*, immense, inconceivable, incredible, legendary, marvelous, mind-blowing*, out-of-sight, out-of-this-world, outrageous, peachy*, phenomenal, primo, rad, remarkable, spectacular, striking, stupendous, super, superb, terrific, top drawer, tops, turn-on, unbelievable, wicked*
amazing, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome , extraordinary, fabulous, glorious, great, prodigious, superhuman, unreal*, wonderful
aperitive, appealing, delectable, delicious, delish, divine*, flavorsome, heavenly, inviting, luscious, mouthwatering, palatable, saporous, savory, scrumptious, succulent, sugar-coated, sweetened, tantalizing, tasty, tempting, toothsome, yummy*
These are all words that can be used to describe BBQ King in Charlotte, NC. We could use none of them, however, as we spent the entire time at BBQ King with our mouth's stuffed. We tried to take another bite to be heard better, but it was no help. So I'll just borrow a catch phrase that I now realize has been used as a misnomer up to this point: The happiest place on Earth.
The BBQ King has successfully created one of the best experiences ever. We drive up to the menu to order our food from the comfort of the Q. So, from our command center where we have shared some of the best and some of the worst of times, we braced our selves for the most anticipated stop of the trip. BBQ King surpassed all our wildest dreams and expectations. The food was the best, and it was brought right to our car!
Moment of terror
So, preparing for our highly anticipated dinner in Charrlotte, we did a last minute check of BBQ King's website. which, in bold letters at the bottom of the page read,"closed monday & tuesday" this was the most devestating news imaginable. i encouraged dan to call and confirm this misfortune. after a tense, fear/crisis mode, dan relieved me of my agony to inform me that the news was infact false. so, here i sit with maybe the best meal ive ever seen right infront of me. thank you to all who were invloved.
The Plaza
We just made it to our lodging for the evening, the Plaza......on Carowinds Blvd. Seems like a nice place. We have a balcony with a nice view of some cool amusement park across the street. Were gonna relax for a while then hit King's bbq
Location update
An hour south of Charlotte, practically done driving for the day. Getting pumped for dinner at king's BBQ tonight
Pam, Joey, and the most organized moment of my life
So now that were back on the open road, I've got time to tell what happened yesterday:
So somewhere in the previously described wasteland between miami and Daytona we stopped to switch drivers. But the car wouldn't start. So I went inside the gas station to ask if they could jump us. No dice. So I returned to the vehicle for a second attempt at starting the car. Success. So we assumed we killed the battery even while driving somehow by having a radar detector, ipod, blackberry, and GPS all plugged in and charging. But we brushed it off and continued on.
In daytona we pulled over to use the restrooms. When we returned to the car, nothing. Based on our previous experiences, we tried waiting for a while and then starting it. No dice. So rather than troll the lot requesting jumps, only to likely have a need to repeat the process at our next stop, we called AAA.
And thus we entered the darkest period yet of our journey. The operator gave us an estimate of forty five minutes to wait, but in mechanic numbers that could be 2 hours.
So we waited. We had yet to make it North enough to escape that unbearable Gulf heat. The sun beat down on us, and without a running car we had no A/C. Stephen succumbed, passing out in a tepid pool of sweat and self-pity. Knowing that if I closed and locked the door we would both die of heat exhaustion, and if I fell asleep with the door open I would be relieved of all of my worldly possessions, I struggled to maintain conciousness. Knowing not what was wrong with the vehicle -as the symptoms were different from that of any dead battery I had previously dealt with- and hundreds of miles from anyone we knew, and a hard deadline of wednesday night for our arrival, we intrepid travelers were staring uncertainty and confusion right in the face.
As I said before, these were dark times.
But riding to the rescue on their gleaming white f-150 pickup are Joey, smiling big to show the teeth he still has, and his wife Pam, who is flicking her cigarette out the passenger window. She steps out, takes a deep breath, and says,
"You need a new battery. I can tell already." Then let's out a big redneck chuckle.
"What, you can smell these things?"
Hillbilly giggles......
Meanwhile, Joey has been investigating under the hood. He reaches the same conclusion as his spidey-sensing mechanic wife. He asks when I got this last battery. I informed him that I just got a new battery from AAA not two months ago.
"Do you have the paperwork for that?"
Oh, S#!t...........paperwork? I looked back at my vehicle, literally overflowing with the enirety of my material accumaltion over four years of college. Passenger space was an afterthought.
"This is why I tell all my customers to keep the paperwork in the glove box"
Thanks Joey.....
"Well I'm kinda moving right now," gesturing towards the car, with the car-top carrier poking out at odd angles to accomodate its varied and somewhat bizarre contents.
But then it happened: the most organized moment of my life. I knew exactly where I had filed that receipt. And I knew exactly what box I had stashed my files in. And I knew exactly where in the car I put that box.
I dove in, grabbed the box, tore it open, and retrieved the document. Because AAA had given me the very battery that was no longer starting my car they replaced it for free. While Joey was working on replacing the battery, I offered to buy them a drink or snack from the 7-11 we were camped out in front of.
"Well I don't really know what they have in there" Pam replies, glancing in the window.
In a 7-11?
"I guess if they have pepperoni pizza I'll take a slice"
In a 7-11?
So I went in to buy Pam a piece of cardboard that's been rotating in a glass warming box next to the pakistani gentleman behind the counter for the past two weeks. At least I don't have to eat it.
## Change of narrator ##
The oppressive heat was taking its toll and eventually my sleep was interrupted. In front of the popped hood of the Q, was standing a middle age AAA worker who I think was named Joey. Joey did not come alone today to work but was with his lovely wife, Pam. “This battery is dead, I can smell it,” I heard one of them say as I was slipping in and out of consciousness. I felt like a patient with several doctors working on me as Joey and Pam analyzed the Q. I’m not sure if Joey even saw me but I watched as the fresh, long-lasting battery was being installed, replacing the similar battery that Dan got installed a month ago. Throughout his ownership of the Q, Dan has apparently become very familiar and close to AAA and its reliable workers. To keep his esteemed status in the company, Dan dragged me to lunch with Joey and Pam and the local 7-11 where we found ourselves stranded about an hour ago.
So somewhere in the previously described wasteland between miami and Daytona we stopped to switch drivers. But the car wouldn't start. So I went inside the gas station to ask if they could jump us. No dice. So I returned to the vehicle for a second attempt at starting the car. Success. So we assumed we killed the battery even while driving somehow by having a radar detector, ipod, blackberry, and GPS all plugged in and charging. But we brushed it off and continued on.
In daytona we pulled over to use the restrooms. When we returned to the car, nothing. Based on our previous experiences, we tried waiting for a while and then starting it. No dice. So rather than troll the lot requesting jumps, only to likely have a need to repeat the process at our next stop, we called AAA.
And thus we entered the darkest period yet of our journey. The operator gave us an estimate of forty five minutes to wait, but in mechanic numbers that could be 2 hours.
So we waited. We had yet to make it North enough to escape that unbearable Gulf heat. The sun beat down on us, and without a running car we had no A/C. Stephen succumbed, passing out in a tepid pool of sweat and self-pity. Knowing that if I closed and locked the door we would both die of heat exhaustion, and if I fell asleep with the door open I would be relieved of all of my worldly possessions, I struggled to maintain conciousness. Knowing not what was wrong with the vehicle -as the symptoms were different from that of any dead battery I had previously dealt with- and hundreds of miles from anyone we knew, and a hard deadline of wednesday night for our arrival, we intrepid travelers were staring uncertainty and confusion right in the face.
As I said before, these were dark times.
But riding to the rescue on their gleaming white f-150 pickup are Joey, smiling big to show the teeth he still has, and his wife Pam, who is flicking her cigarette out the passenger window. She steps out, takes a deep breath, and says,
"You need a new battery. I can tell already." Then let's out a big redneck chuckle.
"What, you can smell these things?"
Hillbilly giggles......
Meanwhile, Joey has been investigating under the hood. He reaches the same conclusion as his spidey-sensing mechanic wife. He asks when I got this last battery. I informed him that I just got a new battery from AAA not two months ago.
"Do you have the paperwork for that?"
Oh, S#!t...........paperwork? I looked back at my vehicle, literally overflowing with the enirety of my material accumaltion over four years of college. Passenger space was an afterthought.
"This is why I tell all my customers to keep the paperwork in the glove box"
Thanks Joey.....
"Well I'm kinda moving right now," gesturing towards the car, with the car-top carrier poking out at odd angles to accomodate its varied and somewhat bizarre contents.
But then it happened: the most organized moment of my life. I knew exactly where I had filed that receipt. And I knew exactly what box I had stashed my files in. And I knew exactly where in the car I put that box.
I dove in, grabbed the box, tore it open, and retrieved the document. Because AAA had given me the very battery that was no longer starting my car they replaced it for free. While Joey was working on replacing the battery, I offered to buy them a drink or snack from the 7-11 we were camped out in front of.
"Well I don't really know what they have in there" Pam replies, glancing in the window.
In a 7-11?
"I guess if they have pepperoni pizza I'll take a slice"
In a 7-11?
So I went in to buy Pam a piece of cardboard that's been rotating in a glass warming box next to the pakistani gentleman behind the counter for the past two weeks. At least I don't have to eat it.
## Change of narrator ##
The oppressive heat was taking its toll and eventually my sleep was interrupted. In front of the popped hood of the Q, was standing a middle age AAA worker who I think was named Joey. Joey did not come alone today to work but was with his lovely wife, Pam. “This battery is dead, I can smell it,” I heard one of them say as I was slipping in and out of consciousness. I felt like a patient with several doctors working on me as Joey and Pam analyzed the Q. I’m not sure if Joey even saw me but I watched as the fresh, long-lasting battery was being installed, replacing the similar battery that Dan got installed a month ago. Throughout his ownership of the Q, Dan has apparently become very familiar and close to AAA and its reliable workers. To keep his esteemed status in the company, Dan dragged me to lunch with Joey and Pam and the local 7-11 where we found ourselves stranded about an hour ago.
Nights in Savannah
So we spent the evening in the lovely Baymont inn and suites in Savannah, GA. Nice place. We crashed pretty hard once we got there...slept until checkout time. Watched American Pickers series premier on the history channel. Its about two guys who wandering junkyards looking for stuff they can resell for profit. Stephen said he just found a new possibility for a career path. In the morning, we tried to grab some shrimp po boys for lunch from despositos seafood.
Failure.
They only serve dinner. So Savannah, you owe us one. We'll be back to collect. On to Charleston......
Failure.
They only serve dinner. So Savannah, you owe us one. We'll be back to collect. On to Charleston......
Monday, June 7, 2010
Dicks Wings
After making it quite clear how excited he was for Dicks, Dan continued to navigate me through some torrential rains and on to our dinner stop for day one. Dicks Wings came highly recommended by Sarah, and had a great description online. We started with buffalo shrimp and split some good cajun ranch and Caribbean jerk chicken wings for dinner.
Most Valuable Roadtripper
While we sit and wait for a AAA rescue, let me tell you why Stephen wins the MVR award for day one: He accused me of farting. But I didn't.
So I began to explain the ridiculousness of accusing the lone other occupant of the vehicle when he must in fact be the culprit himself, as it surely could not have been I. But he continued to deny responsibility and moved his hand towards the switch to roll down his window and clear the air. Only then did I realize how perilous our situation had become.
Taking swift action, I shouted for him to roll the window back up and hit the recirc button on the air conditioning. A few deep breaths later, relief washed over me as I came to fully realize what we just avoided.
If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about then chances are you've never driven through that dark, dank stretch of I-95 through the sulfur swamps of central Florida. For those of you who have been spared this most unpleasant of experiences, let me try to paint a picture of the horror my brother and I narrowly avoided thanks to his bloodhound olfactories and my powers of deduction.
You and some friends are enjoying a lovely roadtripping afternoon together. Its a beautiful day, so everybody has their windows down, arms hanging out the side, taking in the view of low trees rushing past as you drive. Suddenly, the worst smell imaginable permeates the vehicle, clutching the hopeless inhabitants by the nostrils.
Now, whenever an unpleasent odor is detected by a group of men, the assumption is that one of their party produced it and shared it with the rest. Once a roadtrip squad realizes that the danger is in fact from without, everyone rolls up their window and switches the a/c to recirculate. But its too late.....its ALWAYS too late. Even with all the windows closed tight, merely having the A/C set to draw from the outside air is enough to doom a carload of travelers....once the gas is in, there's no escaping........the methane is everywhere. I've watched grown men cry under such stress. Everyone gasps for air, but there is none.
Central Florida is where God dutch ovens humanity
So I began to explain the ridiculousness of accusing the lone other occupant of the vehicle when he must in fact be the culprit himself, as it surely could not have been I. But he continued to deny responsibility and moved his hand towards the switch to roll down his window and clear the air. Only then did I realize how perilous our situation had become.
Taking swift action, I shouted for him to roll the window back up and hit the recirc button on the air conditioning. A few deep breaths later, relief washed over me as I came to fully realize what we just avoided.
If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about then chances are you've never driven through that dark, dank stretch of I-95 through the sulfur swamps of central Florida. For those of you who have been spared this most unpleasant of experiences, let me try to paint a picture of the horror my brother and I narrowly avoided thanks to his bloodhound olfactories and my powers of deduction.
You and some friends are enjoying a lovely roadtripping afternoon together. Its a beautiful day, so everybody has their windows down, arms hanging out the side, taking in the view of low trees rushing past as you drive. Suddenly, the worst smell imaginable permeates the vehicle, clutching the hopeless inhabitants by the nostrils.
Now, whenever an unpleasent odor is detected by a group of men, the assumption is that one of their party produced it and shared it with the rest. Once a roadtrip squad realizes that the danger is in fact from without, everyone rolls up their window and switches the a/c to recirculate. But its too late.....its ALWAYS too late. Even with all the windows closed tight, merely having the A/C set to draw from the outside air is enough to doom a carload of travelers....once the gas is in, there's no escaping........the methane is everywhere. I've watched grown men cry under such stress. Everyone gasps for air, but there is none.
Central Florida is where God dutch ovens humanity
First Snag
So we hit the first delay of the trip so far.....pulled over to switch drivers and the car chooses not to start. So we sit in the heat with a dead car in daytona eagerly awaiting AAA.....let's see how this goes
Grampa's Bakery
So we arrived in Dania early and found Grampa's Bakery without delay. Outside was a big poster of that frosty-tipped gentleman from the television, so we knew we were in the right place. As we got out of the car we struck up a conversation with a middle-aged man who noted that we must be either en route to or from college. He then shared some pictures on his iphone from his college days, where him and his roomate sported afro's and smoked hash pipes. Then I saw he was wearing a Florida sweatshirt in one of the pictures. So I bid him adieu.
We then proceeded into the bakery. It was a pleasant little place, typical diner decor. A flat screen on the wall replayed scenes from the restaurant's appearance on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Service was swift and friendly.
I ordered the western ommelette, Stephen ordered the pancakes. Several minutes of watching the LCD on the wall confirmed that the pancakes were their breakfast specialty. They were good, but not lifechanging. Not like Oma used to make them. My ommelette was acceptable but nothing more. A good way for us to start the day, but nothin to blog home about. After telling our waitress of our roadtrip plans, she insisted on us knowing how awesome of an idea it was, repeating the observation numerous times until we left. Back on the road......
Embarkation
Today we set off to the frosty north to escape the oppressive miami summer and the gaza level of chaos that house 9 had descended into. Outrageousnous had always simmered right to the brink of real warzone status there, but with Joey and Regina gone, and with everyone's mind on their next moves, the lid really blew off. I've never waded through so much broken glass in my life. The frat house was more stable.
So, leaving all that behind, Stephen and I hit the road before the grand ave crackheads had even retired for the evening. We arrived at stop one, Grampa's Bakery in Dania Beach, by 9 am.
So, leaving all that behind, Stephen and I hit the road before the grand ave crackheads had even retired for the evening. We arrived at stop one, Grampa's Bakery in Dania Beach, by 9 am.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Rough Draft of the Route
Here's our rough plan so far:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=3464+Oak+Ave,+Miami,+FL+33133&daddr=I-95+N+to:US-17+N%2FCharleston+Hwy+to:E+Bay+St+to:35.223185,-80.848389+to:I-40+W+to:1806+Kimberly+Rd,+Silver+Spring,+MD+20903&hl=en&geocode=FZKaiAEd33w3-ymPAOuRw7fZiDHyufiEh0TIXg%3BFX7N7gEdBgAs-w%3BFaas8QEdePgv-w%3BFZwi9AEdCmk8-w%3B%3BFfImIQIdhuJQ-w%3BFeOQUwIdT3Vp-yl5gI5EsMW3iTFErY3AxMHyXw&gl=us&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=4&sz=8&via=1,2,3,4,5&sll=34.930979,-79.920044&sspn=2.053553,5.410767&ie=UTF8&ll=33.027088,-79.936523&spn=16.766101,43.286133&z=5
Doesnt include where were gonna stop.....just the route
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=3464+Oak+Ave,+Miami,+FL+33133&daddr=I-95+N+to:US-17+N%2FCharleston+Hwy+to:E+Bay+St+to:35.223185,-80.848389+to:I-40+W+to:1806+Kimberly+Rd,+Silver+Spring,+MD+20903&hl=en&geocode=FZKaiAEd33w3-ymPAOuRw7fZiDHyufiEh0TIXg%3BFX7N7gEdBgAs-w%3BFaas8QEdePgv-w%3BFZwi9AEdCmk8-w%3B%3BFfImIQIdhuJQ-w%3BFeOQUwIdT3Vp-yl5gI5EsMW3iTFErY3AxMHyXw&gl=us&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=4&sz=8&via=1,2,3,4,5&sll=34.930979,-79.920044&sspn=2.053553,5.410767&ie=UTF8&ll=33.027088,-79.936523&spn=16.766101,43.286133&z=5
Doesnt include where were gonna stop.....just the route
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