Southern Charm Freestyling
Southern Charm freestyling
David, the baby, and I packed up our bags and started heading east. Why? To "Barn It Up," of course. Destination? I wasn't given one except for that David thought Tennessee had some buried treasures.
We soon left Texas and began to wind our way through Louisiana. We hit the dirt roads, not finding much except tornado aftermaths. Come supper time; we were lucky enough to be in Monroe, LA, where we found the Waterfront Grill. Their signature dish Catfish Desiard was featured in Southern Living Magazine, a grilled catfish dish with baked cheese on top. It was good but, the best part of the restaurant was feeding the turtles on the large Bayou DeSiard.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in the antique alley, Hamilton House Inn. It was cute, like staying at your friend's house.
The next morning we grabbed some boudin kolaches at a drive-thru donut shop before heading out. Delicious.
Skipping through Mississippi, we made our way to Decatur, AL. We strolled the baby to downtown and were able to find our way to Moe's Restaurant. A perfect little joint to eat Alabama BBQ at that is baby-friendly. When we were there, we just so happened to run into other Fort Worthian! Crazy. He was traveling to, and only by chance at the same place at the same time.
Freestyling onward, we stopped in Huntsville, AL, to grab a cup of joe at Old Towne Coffee Shoppe. The coffee fueled us for our tour through the beautiful hilly neighborhoods and mountainous woods. The weather was perfect. Canada requested that her "doo-doo" (window) unbeknownst to me why she calls it this, but she wanted it down the entire time. We didn't mind since the weather was perfect, and we were barning it up!
We made it to Chattanooga, TN, for lunch. We landed at a Ping Pong recreational restaurant, HiFi Clyde's.
After lunch, we decided to cut through the smoky mountains and stay in Franklin, NC. That led us to meander along the beautiful wooded river. We stayed at another Bed and Breakfast, the Franklin Inn. The house was built in 1887, and it was the perfect southern spot to sit on the porch and view the mountains.
We walked to Caffe Rel, a fancy French restaurant in a gas station. We enjoyed heavy, creamed pasta dishes and homemade desserts. Good thing we had to walk back to the hotel to and from dinner! We relaxed for a bit under the hotel gazebo before trying to find a spot to watch the Dallas Stars playoffs. We made it to the Lazy Hiker Brewery. An excellent place to take a baby since they had chalk, chalkboards, coloring tables, and books. A bad spot to watch sports since they don't have a tv.
We awoke in the morning to the owner's mom, cooking us the most amazing southern breakfast with peach cobbler and homemade whip cream. After our bellies were full, we were heading to Georgia to try to land the 40 car barn find deal.
The owner of the barn cars agreed to let us mark the vehicles with the price we would buy them for, and he would get with his brother and sister to see what they were willing to sell. We spent the afternoon doing just that.
We left intending on making it to Montgomery but, we only made it to Auburn, AL, with the baby. She got restless, but we were able to tour the beautiful campus. It happened to be graduation weekend and totally packed, so we stayed across the highway at the Hilton Tru. That's about all the touring of Auburn that we did before leaving for our next stop, Pensacola Beach.
With barning it up still on our mind on the way to the beach, we found a VW bus and a couple of old trucks we still need to get.
But we had a room booked on the beach, and we needed to get swimming! We ate at Crabs—A perfect restaurant for kids. You can eat in the sand by the playground, and they serve sugar donuts out first!
With our bellies yet full again, we managed to put on our swimsuits and make it to the beach. It was a perfect afternoon, followed by a perfect sunset dinner on the beach at Red Fish Blue Fish.
It was time to start making our way back west, and we hoped to see some friends along the way. I booked as a night at The Saint in New Orleans on Canal St.
When we made it to Biloxi, MS, we cruised the coastline until a rainstorm hit, and we went back to the highway to hurry our check-in. After walking bourbon St with the baby in search of voodoo daiquiris that I failed to get because of the long wait, David took me to a restaurant that I had wanted to try for five years. We were first in line to dine at Jaques Imos.
Boy, was it a treat. The reason for wanting to go the alligator cheesecake! Little did I know to start my meal, I would be served cornbread muffins that I'm still dreaming.
The next day we headed north to the Toledo reservoir. Along the way, we made some awesome car finds—the big-ticket items we have to wait until July to make deals. We stayed on the lake at the Cypress Resort.
They served us steak with views for dinner as we dined outside while the baby ran around. We swam and, hot tubed our last night of the trip before heading home.
