Hangover Lunch

Having visited a couple of bourbon production sites, we decided to spend our final night in Louisville (the capital of Bourbon country) exploring some of the many consumption sites...or "bars", as they are known here.  After several bourbon cocktails, a craft ale aged in an old bourbon barrel and a couple of "Old Grand Dad" bourbons and coke, we awoke this morning feeling...the "effects".

We needed food - and more food than our motel's continental breakfast buffet could provide.  We needed fried chicken.  And when you're in the home of Kentucky Fried Chicken, why go anywhere else than THE home of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Cue a three hour drive to Colonel Harland Sanders' first and original roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky.  This international franchise started with a gas station and a few home cooked meals served in his family dining room to hungry travellers.  He gained a reputation for excellent food and eventually moved across the road to open his first restaurant.

Part KFC restaurant, part museum and part national historic site, this perfect slice of Americana allows diners to sit in the original dining room beside the actual open kitchen where, during the 1940's, the Colonel perfected his unique fried chicken recipe and speedy 'fast food' cooking technique.  The white wooden building, then on the main route to Florida, once annexed a motel complex which was also owned and run by the man in white.  In order to tempt passing diners into staying the night, he constructed a model of one of his clean and modern rooms inside the dining area.  Seeing that it was often the lady of the house who chose where her family slept, he placed the entrance to the ladies restrooms inside this "room", along with the public telephone.  The motel room is still there today.

When planned construction of a nearby interstate motorway threatened to divert the Colonel's steady stream of customers, at the age of 65, he took to the road himself in order to sell his brand to other restaurants around the USA.  Clearly, this was a successful strategy - a quick check of the list of franchises reveals that there is at least one KFC in every country we have visited during our trip.  The story of this innovative and fascinating gentlemen is well worth a read - and he actually was a Colonel. Check out the Wikipedia article.

Originally a motel, gas station and restaurant complex, the remaining dining room and kitchen has been lovingly restored

The ten piece bucket, (originally called 'the barrel') with boxes of potato wedges and biscuits

In order to show diners how clean his kitchen was, Colonel Sanders was one of the first to introduce the 'open kitchen' concept.

And now to Nashville Tennessee...

On The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

Having taken tours of two of Kentucky's many bourbon distilleries (Woodford Reserve & Four Roses), I can impart the following nuggets of wisdom regarding this seductive spirit...

1. All bourbon is whiskey but all whiskey is not bourbon.
2. For whiskey to be bourbon it must be made in the USA.
3. A bourbon recipe must contain at least 51% corn.
4. It must be aged for at least two years in new, unused, charred white oak barrels.
5. The distilled spirit that goes into the barrels is clear and relatively flavourless - it is from the charred oak inside that a bourbon gets its golden brown colouring and distinctive flavour.
6. 95% of the world's bourbon is made in the state of Kentucky, owing to it's pure, limestone filtered spring waters along with an ideal climate for growing corn and grain.  The cold winters and hot summers also help the ageing bourbon to flow into and out of the ever expanding and contracting oak of the barrel.

Bourbon country is also a beautiful landscape of verdant rolling hills, tree lined roads, crystal clear streams and pretty little villages with perfect lawns and white picket fences.  The spring waters and mineral rich soil also lend themselves to excellent quality grass which when fed to horses, helps them run very fast.  While I can see the appeal of horse racing, I much prefer Kentucky's liquid export...

The Gateway Arch, St. Louis

In downtown St. Louis, built on the bank of the Mississippi river, "the gateway to the West" soars high above the skyline.  This splendid arc of polished steel panels stretching 630 feet into the air marks the point from which the famed Lewis & Clark Expedition left the civilised land of the United States and entered the then uncharted "Wild West".  Their journey up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers would eventually lead them all the way to the Pacific Ocean, commencing the eventual western expansion of the USA.

A string of tiny barrel-like capsules inside the arch lifts passengers to a narrow viewing platform at the top.

The Barbecue Quest Continues in St. Louis, Missouri

Pappy's Smokehouse.  This multi, multi-award winning restaurant smokes it meat, and it smokes it good! Huge smoker furnaces are stocked with cherry and apple wood in one side and large slabs of very high quality meat in the other.  It is then left for four to fourteen hours, depending on the joint.  What comes out is just out-of-this-world good.  The super slow cooking process leaves it unbelievably tender with a delicious smokey flavour that is perfectly complimented by the sweet, sticky BBQ sauces that are offered on the side.  The dining hall is one long row of wooden picnic benches with a few smaller tables off to the side.  Paper table cloths, plastic cutlery and a help-yourself soda fountain.  No five star, Michelin quality restaurant could ever compete with this.  It is what food is all about.

Beef brisket with green beans on the left (note the pink smoke line) and pulled pork and BBQ beans on the right.  Both served with sweet potato fries and a thick slice of bread.

Check out the MENU (warning - may induce severe salivation)

Just to confirm...

...that we are safe and well, still in Kansas City.  We passed through Oklahoma last week and cannot  quite get our head around what has happened to some of the towns we visited.  Although we have had two nights of incredible displays of lightning, torrential downpours and some localised high winds, Kansas city has escaped these spring storms tornado free.

Tomorrow we head 250 miles east to St. Louis for a couple of nights then on to Kentucky at the weekend to hit "The Bourbon Trail".

You have to love a city where...

...one of its most popular restaurants lives inside a gas station.

We're in Kansas City in the heart of the great plains.  Straddling the state line between Kansas and Missouri, "KC" is known for its public fountains, extreme weather, jazz music and barbecue joints.  Regarding the latter, we visited one of the best, Oklahoma Joe's.  And yes, it is inside a gas station.  After thirty minutes waiting in line outside, we finally made it through the door only to face another twenty minute queue around the dining room, past the shelves of chips, windscreen wipers and pine tree air fresheners of the gas station's shop before making it up to the food counter from which trays of food were literally flying into the outstretched arms of eagerly awaiting diners.  The service was incredible, with the cheerful lady speedily preparing the previous order while taking mine, before calling it out to the cashier who totted up our bill and took our payment.  No sooner had I signed my Visa receipt and filled up our cups with soda, two trays of steaming meat, barbecue beans , Texas toast and french fries lay before me.

We ordered a selection and man, them portions were huge!  The ribs - the most meaty, tender ribs I've ever eaten with large mouthfuls of meat just falling from the bone.  The pulled pork - it was chunkier than any pulled pork I've had before, yet so juicy it melted in the mouth and tore apart like stewed beef.  The smoked turkey was light and moist with aromatic smokey flavours which complimented the heavy punch of the red meats.  And the brisket, oh the brisket - each slice ringed with a gorgeous ribbon of pink where the flavour packed smoke had actually impregnated the meat, leaving little need for Joe's incredible home made BBQ sauce.  The piles of slow cooked meats fell apart on the fork, impossibly tender and like no other BBQ food you're ever likely to get in the UK.

I'll let a fellow meat lover give you his verdict - Man vs Food's Adam Richman
(Oklahoma Joe's pops up just after the two minute mark):

Memphis

A few photographs from the historic town...

Beale Street filled with revellers on a Saturday night.  Outdoor bars keep the crowd moistened while live blues packs the street with noise and rhythm

Sun Studios.  The place where a shy, eighteen year old Elvis Presley recorded his first single That's Alright Mama,  where a travelling salesman named Johnny Cash arrived one day looking to record a song and the room in which rock and roll was born

Sunset over the Mississippi River.  The state of Arkansas lies on the opposite bank.

The Lorraine Motel, room 306, the balcony on which Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.

The walls of Graceland Mansion, covered entirely by decades of visiting fans.

Rosie kicks back in The Jungle Room

Crossing over the river, we slipped into Arkansas, made a quick stop off at Little Rock High School, (made famous by the Little Rock Nine, an incredible yet disturbing chapter of history) and arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The temperature today hit 100F (37C) as we picked up our favourite road again, Route 66, and explored a few roadside oddities - a giant blue whale in a disused swimming pond, for example.  Tomorrow we'll enter Kansas for a spot of tornado hunting and a diet of nothing but barbecued meat.

Rock 'n' Hops

On a Saturday evening in early May, surrounded by sacks of grain, giant copper vats and pallets piled high with beer crates, we stood in the half light of the twinkling fairy lights strung above the NOLA brewery factory floor, a craft beer producer in the deserted warehouse district of New Orleans, for the first Rock 'n' Hops festival.  Across two stages, local band The Breton Sound presented an evening of their favourite Louisiana bands and performers while the breweries '"Tap Room" provided an endless (and free) supply of six different NOLA beers.  The event was held in aid of the GRAMMY charity Musicares, an organisation set up to provide assistance to musicians when, for example, a hurricane destroys your rehearsal space or floods carry away your instruments - a scenario several of the bands told us they where familiar with.

Great live music, great venue and free beer.  A perfect combination if ever there was one.  They even had a funky little Mexican food truck parked outside which I'm sure would have been delicious, it's just that we somewhat stuffed ourselves before we arrived - on Yo Mama's bacon and peanut butter burgers.  Sounds odd but it actually turned out to be one of the best burgers we've eaten - although this list seems to get longer each week.

Back to the festival...

Favourite beer of the night - Flambeau Red.  An ice cold, easy going but full flavoured brew the colour of autumn, full of toasted hoppy goodness with a subtle hint of citrus and spice.  

Favourite act - Gary Larson & Nora Patterson of The Royal Teeth's gorgeous stripped-down acoustic set gave us goose pimples.

Having left New Orleans, we drove north over the swamps and mangroves that surround the city, along the eastern bank of the Mississippi and on to Clarksdale, a town considered by many to be the home of the blues, in order to spend the evening at the awesome Ground Zero Blues Bar (part owned by Morgan Freeman and so-named as the alley in which it sits is considered the 'ground zero' of blues music).  From there, we made our way to another musical mecca, the place where rock and roll was born, Memphis Tennessee.

Down in old New Orleans

Firstly, if I'm going to write about N'awlins, there's gotta be some music a playin'...

As soon as you step into the French Quarter, the historic downtown area of New Orleans, you feel it.  It hangs in the thick air.  It winds its way down alleyways, swirls with the wind coursing up the Mississippi river and beats a steady rhythm as rattan ceiling fans stir on ornate iron balconies overflowing with trailing ivy.  It flows through the brass, the drums and the strings of kerbside bands, spirals in the incense smoke haze of a voodoo shop's doorway and sinks sumptuously into a steaming bowl of Cajun gumbo.  When the bloated sun sets over the city, it electrifies the neon tubes of Bourbon Street which buzz and flicker into life, it ignites the gas street lamps overhead and pumps the crowded streets with the sounds of jazz - melodies which howl, saunter and hop out at you from every direction, pouring from open doorways and windows, floating down from balconies and roof gardens.  This is the soul of a city, a soul so clear and ever present I have never felt anything like it before.  'How y'all doin'?' comes the common welcoming phrase of the locals, whether walking into a shop, bar or restaurant or simply passing in the street.

The narrow streets run like a history book, a time line of architecture, immigration, politics and art; the stories of so many cultures derived thousands of miles from here; Cajun, African, Creole, Caribbean, French, Spanish...the list goes on.  And despite centuries of hardship, from poverty, disease, hurricanes and the resultant floods, New Orleans seems tougher yet all at once friendlier than any other city we've visited.  A place where music and food are the primary languages and just having a good ol' time is the most important thing in the world, whether it's tapping your foot in a smoky jazz hall, downing enormous cocktails in sports bars or simply sitting out on a doorstep with your neighbours and a few bottles of wine.

Voodoo!

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Universal Studios is not your average theme park.

Let me give you an example...The Terminator 2 ride.  *Spoiler alert*

The show begins as a classified Cyberdyne Systems weapons demonstration in a large auditorium.  Giant robots rise up from the ground and begin firing their machine guns over our heads as we are told about how Cyberdyne will make our world safer, more connected and free of fear.  As the overly enthusiastic "Head of PR" continues her speech in front of a large cinema screen displaying a rotating Cyberdyne logo, two armed guerrillas are suddenly abseiling from the ceiling.  Hitting the ground they fire their sub-machine guns into the air to get our attention, sending the PR lady running for cover.  It is John and Sarah Connor.  'Listen up everyone,' she shouts.  'Cyberdyne is evil. Their latest project, "Skynet" is going to bring about the end of the world as you know it.    We tried to warn you.  You have one minute to get out of the building.  We are going to stop them.'

Then, from behind the scenes, the terrifying T1000 from the Terminator 2 movie strides out onto the stage, in full police uniform with motorcycle helmet.  'John, look out!' cries Sarah.  As the "robot" pursues John across the auditorium, the loud roar of an engine is heard, and there, from beneath the screen at the rear of the stage, The Terminator rides out on his Harley Davidson, skids to a halt in front of the T1000, pulls out his shotgun and pumps two deafening shells into the guy who goes flying backwards to the ground.  By the way, this is all happening live on stage in front of us - it is not a movie (yet).  He grabs John, swings him up onto the back of the motorbike and, after firing yet another shot at the now back-on-his-feet police guy, goes roaring up the ramp at the back of the stage and into the electrified time portal which has opened up in the screen behind them.  Then, with the help of our 3D glasses, we are all transported to a post Judgement day world as the Terminator and John pop up on the screen in a short but thrilling 3D movie, directed by James Cameron himself - as if they have actually left the stage to be transported into the film we are now watching.  They race across the post-apocalyptic landscape, pursued by robotic flying, laser-beam blasting drones towards the Cyberdyne headquarters.  There, we are once again back in the live action as the screen stretches around the entire room, turning it into the futuristic power plant at the centre of Skynet, an artificial intelligence responsible for the annihilation of mankind.

Once again, the Terminator and John appear on the stage, this time firing laser cannons at the large liquid metal scorpion/spider creature which guards the Skynet central computer.  The 3D film interacts incredibly with the live action on stage and as Arnie, sorry, The Terminator, fires his gun, laser beams shoot across the screen in 3D and into the squirming metallic creature which reaches out into the audience with razor sharp tentacles.  John and his robotic companion then run through the audience, passing right in front of us, and over onto a spiral staircase leading to two bridges, which stretch out into the movie screen.  With extreme precision, they each pass through a doorway to be, magically, back in the movie again for the grand finale where we see the Terminator swing over the scorpion type thing, land on the super computer at the centre of the room and blow it up with a rucksack of TNT, showering us all in smoke and ice cold liquid metal, (ie. water), just as John swings in the other direction into another time portal, transporting him back to the present and, after the smoke has cleared from the room, back onto the stage and into the arms of his mother.

The whole experience is like nothing else in the world - where a movie franchise as famous as the Terminator can be brought to an audience in a real life, live-action stage performance, to then transport them into the movie itself and throw them back out again, utterly exhilarated, just a few hair-raising minutes later.

Another highlight of the two parks was the Spiderman ride - a jaw dropping blend of roller coaster, super hi-tech simulator, hi-def 3D movie and hair singeing, fireball-flinging live staged action.  I cannot even begin to describe it.  We did it four times!

Another ride that saw us line up four times, each time opting for the slightly longer line to ride in the front seats, was The Incredible Hulk - A bright green, world renowned roller coaster, famous for its negative G's, super fast, face-melting accelerated launch system, and loops - lots and lots of loops:

The Islands of Adventure park also contains several water rides.  And we got absolutely soaked - despite the funky ponchos...

Having thoroughly "done" Orlando, we said a teary goodbye to my parents in a Seven-Eleven carpark and after two days on the road, arrived in New Orleans, (pronounced round here as "N'awlins") in the state of Louisiana, in time for a live music and beer festival in a brewery...

To be continued...

The Kennedy Space Center

Just an hour and a half drive from Orlando, over on the Atlantic coast, sits a real slice of world history.  It is the home of NASA's primary launch facility, the starting point for the famous Gemini and Apollo missions and the launch and landing location for the recently retired space shuttle programme.  Sitting amid a vast nature reserve full of alligators, bald eagles, manatees and migratory birds, it is the last place you'd expect to find a rocket ship.  As we drove up the approach road, a single strip of tarmac connecting the narrow wetland peninsular of the base to the mainland, I imagined those brave Apollo astronauts in the 60's and 70's, travelling along the very same highway in their sports cars for the last time before being rocketed into space.  Some would return, some would not, and some would go on to walk on the moon.  The history of this place will stun you before you've even arrived.

Before taking in the various museums and displays at the visitor's centre, we were given a guided coach tour of the facility, taking in the Apollo 11 launch pad, the immense Vehicle Assembly Building (within which the famous Saturn 5 rockets and space shuttles were constructed before being rolled out to the launch pads - a single storey structure so large, clouds have been known to form inside) and the launch control centre.  We were then dropped off at the Saturn 5 museum.  Surrounded by palm trees and shrubbery, it was difficult to gauge exactly where we were or what we were stepping into.  Once the large steel doors had rolled open, we found ourselves in a darkened room where a compelling documentary about the moon race was shown over three separate and unique screens suspended from the ceiling.  The time line of the film ended at the historic Apollo 8 mission - the first manned rocket to leave the earth, orbit the moon and return safely.  'In the room to your left,' the narrator concluded, 'you will find the actual launch control centre used on that monumental day...not a recreation, not a mock up, the actual room, as it stood, way back in 1968.  You will then watch the launch as it happened in this very room, in real time, complete with the radio communications made between the control room and the astronauts recorded on that day, starting at three minutes before lift off.'

The lights came up, the doors to our left opened and we stepped inside.  Beneath a curve of tiered seating, three or four rows of control desks lay in a dim blue haze of light.  Each row was home to some ten or fifteen 1960's office chairs, each one sat before a panel of glass monitor screens, light boards, switches and dials - basically, the giant dashboard of a moon rocket.  Above the scene, several cinema screens began the presentation, transporting us to the moments before the launch.  The observation areas around the base were crammed with spectators and photographers, the Press areas filled with TV camera crews, Walter Cronkite welcoming the TV viewing world to Cape Canaveral, narrating the run up to the launch with the steaming rocket straining on its launch pad behind him;  the tropical beaches to the north and south of the base flooded with day trippers stretched out on the sand with their portable wireless radios and picnics,   traffic on the surrounding roads at a stand still, everyone looking in the same direction, their hands held above their eyes, the world, waiting, for blast off.

Beside the cinema screens, a large digital clock counted down.  As it reached three minutes, the control room before us flicked in to life.  The radios crackled and we heard the voices of history from the loudspeakers.  We listened as each department gave the mission controller their 'go / no-go' confirmation for the launch.  With each voice, a new desk lit up, and with each 'go' another green light on a large status board overhead would illuminate until the room was sparkling with lights.  Needles on dials bounced, TV monitors flickered and the tension grew.

Thirty seconds.  Commence ignition sequence.  As the drama continued to unfold in front of us, the distant blast of the igniting engines filled the air with startling realism.  Ten seconds and the room around us began to shake as they neared full power.  What we had assumed was the sky outside, through slanted roof-light windows above us, began to turn red and fiery, and wild clouds of smoke billowed by.  Closing my eyes, it was quite easy to imagine that an actual rocket launch was taking place outside.  Zero.  The roar of the engines reached a deafening peak.  The ceiling panels of the room began to shake wildly, the windows rattled on their hinges and our mouths hung open at what we were witnessing.  This was more than a reenactment or a simulation - this was real.  Lift off.  Once the noise of the rocket had faded and control of the mission handed to NASA's secondary facility in Houston Texas, the lights came up once more and we were ushered, somewhat dumbfounded by what we had just experienced, into the next room of the tour.

This room, however, was larger than the previous two - it was a hanger.  In here, we came face to face with the tail end of an actual, unused, Saturn 5 rocket.

Laid on its side, complete in every way, from the massive launch engines to the cramped re-entry module on the top, this giant - the most complicated machine ever built - stretched far into the distance inside the enormous space in which we were now stood.  Beneath it, various displays offered brief distractions from staring up in bewilderment, allowing visitors to touch a piece of moon rock, gaze in awe at an actual space suit still covered in moon dust, and learn about the highs and lows of the Apollo programme, from the doomed Apollo one (in which all astronauts were killed during a training exercise) to Neil Armstrong taking mans' first steps on the moon.

As museums go, this one is something very, very special.  Add to this the fact that we hadn't even made it to the actual visitor's centre at this point, where we would later learn about the future of NASA, marvel at the now retired space shuttle programme, lay flat on our backs aboard a state of the art launch simulator, and watch one of the most beautiful 3D IMAX movies I've ever seen.  It's easy to see why our day at KSC was one of the soaring highlights of our trip so far....and it only costs $38 (£25) to get in.  A true bargain and a must for anyone who thinks that Florida is nothing but Mickey Mouse and oranges.

Florida Road Trip - Part 3

Road tripping!  

Road Trip Rule Number 1: If it looks good, STOP!

A good roadside attraction can turn a good day on the road into a great one.  Here are some of our favourites:

Huge cream pies at Yoder's Amish restaurant in Sarasota (another Man vs Food eatery).

Cuddling baby 'gators at the Miccosukee Indian Village.

Slurping super thick fresh fruit shakes at the historic 'Robert Is Here' fruit and vegetable stand.

Florida Road Trip - Part 2

Alligator hunting!  After a flying tour of Miami, we drove further south to Homestead, the gateway city to the Everglades National Park.  This immense area of swamps, coastal forests, steamy mangroves and grasslands covers the entire tip of the Florida peninsula and is home to countless species of bird, mammal and marine life.  Strolling along a meandering boardwalk on day one, just a few feet from the rivers and swamps below and only a few hundred metres from the car park, we were stunned by the abundance of wildlife.  Turtles bobbed around in the water, fish jumped and splashed down in a flash of silver, Anhingas dried their out-stretched wings in the sunshine, Tri-Colored Herons and Ibis' waded in the muddied waters spearing fish and collecting snails and crayfish from the riverbed with their long beaks, and large Osprey circled overhead, flexing their talons in search of their next meal.  Being an avid twitcher, my mum was in her element, sighting species of birds in their dozens that fall under the 'extremely rare' list back in the U.K.  She barely needed her binoculars as everything was just so close (or so large!). 

Then, in the shade of an overhanging Cypress tree, a ripple spread out across the river's surface.  A dark silhouette moved beneath the water.  Two dark, stone-like eyes rose up and sank down again.  The ripple moved and a slow wake began to develop as whatever it was swam effortlessly along beside us.  Then the head appeared.  The two eyes, glossy and black followed by a long snout edged with white teeth.  A few feet behind the head, the rippled armour of its back surfaced and a giant tail propelled it with a slow but powerful beat.  We were looking at eleven or twelve feet of alligator, swimming by just a few metres from where we stood.  A rare sighting, so we thought.  To see such a large, supposedly deadly creature so close to a tranquil, tourist-friendly nature walk could not be normal.  As the day went on, we began to realise that these prehistoric creatures, made up of little more than muscle, armour and teeth, were, literally, everywhere.

Once we'd seen one, they began to appear all over.  Under the boardwalks, slumped on river banks, floating in the middle of lakes, stood by the side of the road, swimming in man made ponds and canals and lurking among the reeds of streams and swamps.  

Away from the visitor centres, car parks and boat ramps, the Everglades is a timeless place.  The seasons come and go, migratory birds arrive each year like clockwork, en route to South America, and dolphins and manatees play in the sparkling waters where the Gulf of Mexico meets the wild Atlantic.  The elusive and endangered Florida Panther lurks in the undergrowth as warm winds carry butterflies and clouds of pollen across the landscape, rippling the tall grasses like waves on a lake.  A heron darts a fish with pinpoint accuracy, a colony of pelicans, maybe fifteen or twenty in number, soar motionless across the sky, and the black and white face of a raccoon scurries along the riverbank as he forages for food before the nearest alligator spots him.