Spring always spurs wanderlust in my soul. Some of the greatest memories of my life were spawned by that very restless feeling that the warmng sun brings. I can't forget the trip that my good friend Gary Spaeth and I planned out together and entitled "The Eat Like Elvis Tour". If you asked me what year it was, I couldn't tell you exactly, but it had to be at least 15 years ago.
I do remember that it began before Sprng had arrived here in Wisconsin so we drove South in search of it. We rented a 1979 Cadillac sedan that would make Elvis proud, picked up my younger brother Anson who lives down near Milwaukee and headed out for our first official stop, James Dean's grave site in Indiana in time to celebrate Dean's birthday.
I brought along the poor man's epicurian bible: "Road Food, Good Food" and our first scheduled eat-stop was at a really cool 50's style Indiana soda fountain for sustinance. In honor of the King I had a cheeseburger and a cherry phosphate.
Our next stop was Lexington, Kentucky, and the Corvette assemby plant, then on to Clarksville, Tennessee, for our first go round of barbeque. We rolled on to Nashville and visited The Grand Old Opry and took in some country music that evening. I will always remember that Gary knew the pedal steel player in the band, who recognized Gary while on their break. He sat and visited with us for a spell and then got this panicky look on his face and asked Gary: "You're not moving down here, are you?"
I thought that was the greatest compliment the guy could have given Gary. Obviously he had heard Gary's expertise on the steel!
Next day it was on to Memphis. We stopped at a great little cafe outside of town and had the best Southern smoked ham I have ever had the pleasure to wrap my lips around. Our waitress knew we were "not from around here" (I wonder what gave us away?) and wanted to know where we were from and where we were headed. We told her we had just recently visited James Dean's grave and that we were on the way to Graceland. I still smile at her answer: "James Dean? Oh, yeh, he was that purty boy wa'nt he?" Yes Ma'm; from one purty boy on our way to pay homage to another purty boy.
We got in to Memphis early enough to make a trip to Sun Studios. It was memorable because we three were the only ones that took the tour at that time of day. the guide played tapes of Elvis during an actual recording session and we could make out the voices of Jerry Lee Lewis and later Johnny Cash as they dropped by. it was eerie to be in that tiny studio with those voices.
Most of the rest of the day was spent at Graceland. As a youngster I used to listen to Heartbreak Hotel while doing barn chores. I grew up with early rock and roll and this was like being in the Holy Land. It's a long way from the barn to the jungle room.
Having reached the Holy Land, we turned the Caddy north and didn't make many stops, except for a restaurant in Southern Kentucky (I believe), the name of which escapes me but is famous for being "The Home of The Th'owed Roll", an all you can eat joint which featured waiters that would come out of the kitchen with huge baskets of fresh hot rolls. You would wave to the servers and they would zing a roll to you from across the room.
I knew about this, but my younger brother Anson didn't, so after we were seated (I made sure his back was to the kitchen) i waited until the server came out of the kitchen, basket in hand, gave him that "wide receiver, I'm open" wave and the roll whizzed past my little brother's ear and into my hand. I wish you all could have seen the look on his face!
The other special moment was a conversation with a waiter in a diner somewhere down in Dixie. I was having my eggs, grits, hot vegetable, (you always get a hot vegatable down South) and really tasty biscuits and I asked him what kind of biscuits these were. His answer was priceless: "Hell, I dunno! Biscuits is biscuits!"
And road trips is road trips! Hell, I am way overdue!
