Day 1 -- to Mississippi

Greetings, and welcome to another installment of the Long Time Gone travelblog. We're glad to have you along! This 25-day, 3,500-mile journey will take us to Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coast, with stops in New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. We'll also hit Padre Island National Seashore, Hot Springs National Park and the Buffalo National River. So, fasten your seatbelt and away we go.

The kids got out of school yesterday. We left this morning. We decided to push hard to get to New Orleans in two days; no dawdling. So, we drove 600-some miles today; that should be the longest day of the whole trip. We're in ... I don't even know ... some Holiday Inn in Mississippi.

We've pretty much decided that the theme of the trip is going to be food. Music, too. But, I mean, this is New Orleans. And San Antonio. And Austin; we're looking forward to some memorable culinary adventures. So as we were approaching Memphis around dinnertime, Keith, who is extraordinarily dedicated to his Yelp app, pulled out his phone and started researching restaurants.

Given that we were trying to rack up as many miles as possible today, I was reluctant to get too far off the freeway to explore. I would have been happy to blow through a Sonic and keep going, That, and I am wary of this Yelp. We've had some good luck with it. And we've had some not-so-good luck. Tonight, via Yelp, Keith discovered Ray's Famous BBQ in West Memphis. One Yelp reviewer said it ranked in their top five Memphis bbq joints. Another said, "I loves me some dry rub from Ray's." Yelp said it was right off the interstate. Keith called ahead to make sure they had enough parking spaces for a van with a trailer, and was assured that they did. So I couldn't really argue. And anyway, there wasn't a Sonic in sight.

Sure enough, we found Ray's, on an I-55 frontage road, on a gravel pad wedged between a overgrown vacant lot and an electrical power station. It's a tiny, windowless shack with a sign facing the interstate advertising not only the phone number, but also the CB station where they can be reached.



I hoped that the actual dining room would belie the shabby, forlorn exterior, that the place would be comfortable and packed with people who were all happy to be there. In reality: not so much. The tiny dining room's most prominent. most remarkable feature was a tray loaded with seven whole roasted chickens cooling under an enormous fan. (Don't order the chicken.)



Anyway, we ordered food, it was served up in styrofoam cartons, and it was decent enough. But I'm not sure we'll be letting Keith use Yelp again anytime soon.

As Clare observed, "If it's so famous, why isn't anybody else here?"

And as Keith remarked, "Hey, at least they had plenty of parking."