Can't go past Tuscaloosa

Can't believe it is a week since I last posted. Life has a habit of swallowing you up. Have been busy putting together the Darwin-Broome movie in time for the aqua group's Christmas party. Then I have to do the USA movie in time for sending to loved ones for Christmas, so many deadlines. I thought I would give them up when I retired. Ha ha.

Anyway back to our last day on the road in the USA.

We left New Orleans at 0830 hours, Maxine hopeful that we would find a shop selling quilting materials en route. A town called Laurel had nothing but a Macca's where we stopped for coffee. The car needed filling up at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and we did too. It was lunch time. The only eating places in sight were the usual suspects. I was not in the mood. 'Any diners around here?' I asked the woman in the service station. 'Y'all like ribs?' she said. 'Yes' was my cautious response. I wasn't sure I wanted ribs either, all that pork, but anything was better than Wendy's or Macca's.

Following her careful instructions we wound our way out of town into instant countryside past a church and there it was, Dreamland BBQ Ribs. (like everywhere else they have a website) It took a while to adjust to the gloom after the bright light outside. Dreamland BBQ Ribs was like a small bar, the walls decorated mainly with car license plates, sporting memorabilia and photographs of satisfied customers, many of them famous like George W. Bush who preferred to eat their ribs to Air Force One food. Now some may think this a dubious recommendation but what the hey, we were hungry. If it was good enough for George Dubya it would do.

Sign above our table

I balked at the ribs, ordered a half sausage instead but I fancied the home baked beans and potato salad. The sausage was like a bratwurst. The rest each ordered a quarter rack of ribs. There must have been about a pound of meat on those ribs. Wouldn't like to run into those huge hogs on a dark night!

The food was good, the ambience friendly; 'you want your picture taken together y'all?' Love those southern accents.

The aftermath!

Our stop at Dreamland BBQ Ribs encompassed what I consider to be three passions of the south, eating, sport, and religion (the church across the street, bet they're busy on Sundays.) The only thing missing was the guns.

Well fortified and with plenty of time to spare we decided to keep on going to Atlanta instead of stopping the night in Montgomery as originally planned. While on the road, Krista checked us into the next day's flight via her I-phone and her Atlanta friends looked for a hotel for us via Hotwired, a website which finds last minute accommodation for you. (Love modern technology)The deal is that you don't know where you'll be staying until you pay your money via credit card. You can get lucky like us. For $89.90 (A double Queen room) we secured rooms at the airport Hilton. If you're game to take a chance on a road trip it's worth  it. I wish we'd known about it sooner but then we may have missed out on some of the experiences and personalities we met going the budget route.

We were gagging for hot tea when we arrived in Atlanta (none to be had at two stops en route. We couldn't believe it, not even at Macca's). Krista's friends obliged, serving it in glass cups that don't burn your fingers. I was fascinated.

The next day I experienced another first, coffee out of a ceramic mug at 'Waffles'. Thus far it had all been polystyrene. Okay, it was a budget trip!

An uneventful flight deposited us in NY and a cab ride with a driver (Brooklyn born of Greek- Albanian parentage) who entertained us all the way to Brooklyn. Only in New York!