Abby, Aunt Jodie and I headed to my Mom and Dad’s place in southeast Kansas for a little Easter frivolity. Gina was on injured reserve with a bum shoulder and didn’t make the traveling squad this time. Abby and Jodie held a traditional Easter egg dying party on Saturday.
The drive between Nashville and Little Rock goes through Memphis, and Memphis is home to some great barbecue joints, and since I’m a barbecue lover it was only right to stop off for lunch on our way home. Gina is generally not big on barbecue, but she loves Rendezvous and the dry-rub heaven they serve, so that was the ticket. (Our waiter took the group shot of us above.)
The restaurant is located in an alley in downtown Memphis and when we turned the corner we saw a big table loaded down with merchandise advertising the University of North Carolina. I thought “now that’s odd.” And then i remembered the NCAA basketball tournament was in town. Because Rendezvous is world famous, I braced for a long wait for a table even though it was 2 p.m.
I love me some Dukes of Hazzard, so you can imagine my delight to see this Cooter’s outlet just down the street from our hotel. Abby did not share my excitement at getting my picture taken with the General Lee.
Abby and I spent the day in Nashville while Gina worked. We hit the zoo and then we drove around downtown. Here are some snapshots. Gina’s off work today so we’re going to do the tourist thing. First stop: Cooter’s. A Dukes of Hazzard museum/giftshop.
It turns out late March is a horrible time to hold a jonquil festival in Arkansas.
We went down to the Historic Washington State Park Jonquil fest with our friends Jim and Brayden. It’s your average Arkansas town festival complete with corn dogs, kid activities and vendors selling useless tackiness at barely justified prices. The little town of Washington is covered up in daffodils of all kinds, but they were all but finished blooming. It put a pall over their namesake festival. I guess the organizers were trying to avoid competing with at least three other such celebrations that I know of across the state in March.
We wrapped our adventures in Natchez by dining at the Castle restaurant on the grounds of Dunleith. For some reason we were expecting an exceptional dining experience, but all we got was average for a nice restaurant. We got off to a bad start when the waitress informed us the kitchen was out of filet mignon, which is both Gina’s and my go-to dish when we want to put on the fancy.
We woke up Saturday to cool temperatures, something we hadn’t expected just two days ago when the forecast called for springlike weather in Natchez. The forecast had taken a turn for the cold by the time we left Friday evening, so we packed coats, scarves and long underwear. I’m a hater of the cold, but I decided not to bitch about it like I normally would. This trip is for Gina’s 40th birthday and I didn’t want to ruin things like I normally would.
After a pretty long drive through deepest darkest Arkansas and Louisiana, we arrived at Dunleith, our antebellum home in Natchez, Miss., for the next 36 hours.
