Out of the East

We camped in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and managed to avoid the rain. On Wednesday morning, smelling of campfire, we rolled through the Appalachians and past scenic Tennessee forests newly awake from the winter and filling the sides of I-40 with greens, burgundies, reds and pinks. Tennessee is a long state indeed and it felt like we'd never reach Memphis. At some point, we realized that we had entered the Central time zone, meaning we still would be traveling about seven hours, but when we arrived it would be 5pm instead of 6. Small favors.

Since we were exhausted and planned to drive over 400 miles the following day, we were unable to truly explore Memphis--a city of enormous potential for fun, rowdiness, history and music. We were able to explore some local food--Leonard's Pit Barbecue. This little place had amazing ribs, beans and slaw; the staff was friendly with just enough south-north teasing; the atmosphere was great. Our waitress was so eager to have us order the homemade lemon icebox pie that she brought a sample slice for us to try first. Any restaurant with that level of confidence is worth tasting.

To top it all off, there were four Memphis PD squad cars in the parking lot when we ate, and Google Street View showed a Memphis PD squad car out front at the time the latest photos were taken. Leonard's is obviously a favorite with Memphis' finest. You know it must be good if it's full of local cops! And, all that police presence didn't make me feel nervous about leaving my huge roof bag on the car outside.

Since our bodies were still on Eastern time, we woke up early and left Memphis before morning traffic picked up. Today we raced across Arkansas, watching the tress get shorter and the land flatten out while Woody Guthrie chirped away from my mp3 player. I felt tempted to pull off the highway at Okfuskee to search for Woody's old house, but we wanted to make Oklahoma City before dinner.

In a tremendous stroke of luck, our room was facing the home of the Oklahoma City RedHawks, and we could see home plate through the support beams of the outfield wall. The street running behind this stadium was named for this city's own rockers, the Flaming Lips:


Tonight we decided to sample to local brews at the Bricktown Brewery. This brew house and restaurant opened in 1992, transforming an old redbrick building into a great space for eating, drinking and hanging out. It has two floors and lots of seats and room for socializing, and there was a happy hour before the RedHawks game with all house beers selling for $1.75. Bricktown Brewery has been named "Best Brewpub in the Southwest" by Brewpub Magazine, but I wasn't terribly floored by their beers. The brews were good, to be sure, but lacked imagination. My favorite was the beautifully-colored Red Brick ale, but the Bison Hefeweizen with its clove and banana flavors was pleasantly surprising.

Oh, and there was also a bigrig orgy...