Hello Everyone! I am thrilled to be back on the road after a wonderful two months at home in D.C. It’s definitely tough to leave my folks and my friends, but it’s time to get back to it and I’m very excited for the road ahead. I left on Sunday afternoon and have been making tracks to get south to warmer weather, which I have found here in Northern Alabama where the sun is shining and temperatures were in the mid-fifties today. While I’m sure you all know by now that I prefer the back roads and scenic byways, the interstate is definitely a nice option when you’re trying to hustle. I do love seeing all the exit signs on the way which remind me of some amazing times I’ve had in these southern states. My drive to New Orleans could have taken months, as it has in the past, but I do want to get out west sooner rather than later.
It is always nice to be back in the South, where the food and music are great and people hold doors and wave a ‘thank you’ when you let them in in traffic. I’ve been somewhat surprised at the number of people I’ve seen with masks on, but I’m also well aware of the low vaccination numbers and high hospitalization rates down here as well. It breaks my heart, really, because I know and have met so many good people in these parts who, because of whatever news they are reading, have decided not to get vaccinated. And now so many are getting sick and dying unnecessarily. I wish they knew as many doctors and nurses as I’m fortunate enough to know who could tell them, as they’ve told me, that vaccination is both safe and effective. But I’m not here in this area or here in this newsletter to preach, I just want people to be safe and healthy.
I certainly had a great few days at home this past week before I took off on Sunday. On Thursday my folks and I headed out to the Surratt Tavern in Clinton, Maryland for a tour of this fascinating historic building. My mom and I had been there before when we were on the Trail of John Wilkes Booth Scenic Byway last year, but it had been closed. We were happy to get back and see the inside of the place. Our guide was wonderfully informative and we enjoyed our conversation with her. She realized that we knew the basics of the story of Mary Surratt and her son John and the role they played in the assassination of President Lincoln. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the federal government. Since we already knew most of that story, she wanted to tell us more about the property itself and the role Mary may have played in the death of her own husband. She also wanted to share what she knew about the enslaved people who worked at the tavern and on the property. We were able to take our time wandering around the building and my mother was thrilled to look in all of the closets, nooks and crannies. It is certainly an interesting place and worth a visit if you’re in the area. From there we drove back into the city and made a quick stop at Mount Olivet Cemetery to show my stepfather where Mary Surratt is buried. We stopped for a beer at the relatively new Other Half Brewing Company in Ivy City. Their beers were good, but whoever named them needs a class in creativity and they were awfully expensive, even for D.C. Then we went around the corner for another beer at Atlas Brewing Co., an old favorite of ours. While we were there, the man in charge of their trivia night recognized my mother from her time working with the Boy Scouts. I was really glad he came over to ask because it really made her night. For dinner, we headed over to the Panda Gourmet just down the road. Tucked away in the Days Inn at the corner of New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road, this is the restaurant Chinese President Xi Jinping ate at during his visit to Washington. It’s a pretty great spot although it’s not what it was before the pandemic. I’m sure they’ve been doing mostly takeout and delivery as there was only one person working the front of the house when we were there. The food was still good though.
I spent most of Friday packing and getting ready to go, but Friday evening we had one last basement party before I left. We went with an island theme, so we listened to beach music and drank frozen daiquiris, but also cooked up some crawfish we had found the day before when we were out in Maryland. We played a few games of Lattice Hawaii and had a good time. I will definitely miss our Friday night parties.
On Saturday I wound up most of what I had left to do and then cooked up a pot of gumbo for my friends to enjoy in the afternoon. For some reason I decided to start with a slow and traditional roux, which took me an hour to prepare and even after an hour wasn’t as dark as I would have liked it to be. I learned to make a fast roux at the New Orleans School of Cooking when I lived there in New Orleans, and it’s what I use for everything. But I enjoyed the process of making this roux and it definitely made a nice, rich base for my gumbo. I decided to add a little D.C. to my gumbo by using half-smokes instead of andouilles sausage, and while they were tasty it didn’t give the same intense flavor as the spicier sausage would have. It wasn’t my best gumbo, but it still came out well. Mason and Zsofi and their parents came over in the afternoon and we all sat around and enjoyed some gumbo and conversation. I know my friends will be more or less the same the next time I see them, but their kids will be very different. I was really happy they all came over to spend my last night in town with me.
Sunday morning my mom whipped up a nice hearty breakfast and then helped me finish packing up Shadow Catcher and we got on the road about 1pm. I wanted to leave on the weekend so I didn’t run into any traffic and was certainly successful in that regard. It was smooth sailing around the beltway, out 66 to 81 and all the way down 81 to Bristol. It was a beautiful day to travel and I really enjoyed the ride south and west along the Appalachians and the sunset over the mountains was magnificent. I pulled into Bristol just after dark and spent some time reorganizing some things in my van before calling it an early night. That first night back in a cold van is always a bit of a shock, but I was pretty warm back there and it was nice to be back on the road.
I headed on to Nashville on Monday, not for any particular reason but just because I enjoy Nashville and it was an easy night stop. I’ve got somewhere great to park in a safe neighborhood within walking distance of downtown so I can enjoy a few beers and not have to drive anywhere. I took a nice long walk around the city and up to the beautiful state capitol on the hill. I visited the grave of President Polk right there on the capitol grounds and then headed back down to Broadway. I was in Nashville in early 2020, so not that long ago, but it’s always changing as they scramble to put the names of the latest country stars on the outside of bars they have little or nothing to do with. I always go for a wander and end up at the same bars I always go to: Layla’s and Robert’s. They always have older bands playing older music instead of the latest pop-country hits. Plus their beers are cheaper. I got my favorite - the “Recession Special” - at Robert’s which is a fried bologna sandwich, a bag of chips, a PBR and a Moon Pie for $6. That’s tough to beat and the music is always good. It was a fun night, but not a late one.
Tuesday I hit the gym and then went to Monell’s in Germantown for my favorite breakfast in Nashville. It’s a family-style restaurant, so you sit at a table with whoever happens to walk in at the same time you do and then they just bring out heaping bowls of delicious food. I sat with a nice group of young people from Orlando who were in town for a concert. Two of them work in healthcare in Florida and told me they definitely felt tired of fighting the Covid battle there. The third worked in a restaurant and told me how one day a man came in and asked to be sat at a corner table so he was less likely to spread the Covid that he currently had. The selfishness in that story just blows me away. We did have a wonderful breakfast and a good chat though and I really enjoyed it and having people to share it with. From there, I hit the road south to The Shoals region of Northern Alabama. I’ve spent some time in the area before, but my friend Jason has recently acquired a building which he is converting to a recording studio and a house for the musicians on his label to stay when they are recording. I was happy to accept an invitation to see both and spend a night inside and off the road even though it was only my third night out. I arrived in mid-afternoon and had a nice walk around downtown Florence before heading out to the house. It’s a great little spot in Sheffield and I got a little bit of work done before settling into the upstairs deck to have a beer and watch the sun set. The very talented singer-songwriter Meaghan Farrell was also in town so we went out and grabbed some dinner. I really enjoyed hearing the story of her journey and about her tour and plans for the future.
Today I got up and wandered down the road to the new studio which is going into an old doctor’s office right off the main drag in Sheffield. Craig Alvin, who is a Grammy Award winning sound engineer, is taking the lead on the project and was kind enough to show me around and share his thoughts on the area. Because my background is in tourism, I always think in terms of that when it comes to rejuvenating a town which has a lot of history to it. Because his background is in music, he has a very different take on the situation. I found it fascinating to hear his thoughts and perspective and he also shared some of the fascinating history of the lesser known recording studios on the block there in Sheffield. I certainly wish Craig and Noble Steed Records a successful future and I’m looking forward to coming back when the studio is up and running. From there, I took a short wander around downtown Sheffield and saw the space where Percy Sledge recorded his big hit When a Man Loves a Woman. It’s a beautiful day out there and I may put on some shorts before I take off.
I’m going to wrap up this newsletter here in a minute and then hit the road. I’m not sure where I will get to this evening, but it’s already a little late to be headed all the way to New Orleans. We’ll see how it goes. I’m definitely looking forward to a few days in the Big Easy, to catching up with some old friends, eating some great food and watching the beginning of the Mardi Gras parades this weekend. I always think I’m going to be in New Orleans for less time than I end up there, but I definitely plan on being out of there and on my way west towards Texas by this time next week. We’ll see how that goes. Either way, it is great to be in the sunny south. It is wonderful to be back on the road and I’m truly looking forward to the adventure ahead. I hope you’ll come back next week to see what I get into and I wish you all a wonderful week. Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike