GNAT - Leg 3 - It's SUPERIOR!

Leg 3 of GNAT (Grand North American Tour) took us west to the home of the King of Rock n Roll.  We were walkin' in Memphis, on Beale Street specifically when it hit us.  We had organized our one day to Memphis in the wrong order.  We planned a quicky lunch at this FABULOUS restaurant on Beale Street then an afternoon visiting the King of Rock & Roll.  But who knew the place we had googled for best ribs in Memphis was so cool?  I'm not talking kinda cool, I'm talking flat out, fun to be had, good eats to be ate, crazy kinda of cool.  And we were only there for lunch.  

Turns out this smokin' little rib joint is housed in the former high school of none-other than the King Himself.  So aside from having an outstanding meal and genuine southern hospitality, we also got a start on our king of rock n roll themed afternoon, because who knew(?) The King went to school here?  

So if you make it to Memphis make sure to make a stop at 159 Beale Street.  Tell Michael the Doorman that we sent you and tell the owner Danny you found out about his restaurant on the inter-web!

GNAT Leg 2 - In the Garden of Good & Evil

Just like everything else in our life, our vacation has thus far been action packed.  First there was The Thing That Happened From New Hampshire To Boston…which with the perspective of a few days and considering recent events now rivals The Garden of Good & Evil Incident.

Our first day in Nashville got underway as we expected…a lazy morning, breakfast on the patio alternately listening to the birds and the traffic of the freeway which is mere blocks from Mom’s house.  Birds, traffic, traffic, birds.  Very peaceful. 

A quick trip to the local Kroger for some American groceries (we love foreign grocery stores!) and to stock up on much needed beer we were back home in time to catch the high noon rays in the back yard.  A tour of the gardens, inspecting the carrots that are just starting to pop their heads up through the soil and lounging lazily reading the latest Bernie Madoff article in Vanity Fair made up our afternoon.  While David toiled away up in his second story office the three of us rotated our chairs around the yard to best capture both shade & sun.

With the deafening sound of gunfire or fireworks (I wasn’t sure which) suddenly Mom who had the perfect vantage point was screaming RUN, RUN, RUN!  I looked up but couldn’t see anything through the patio umbrella, so like a lump on a log, I just sat there.  Thank God the one whom I adore has cat-like reflexes because at the shrieking of my mother, he did exactly what she said and he ran…thankfully in the right direction…Just as this happened...

Yes, that’s their neighbor’s 70-foot tree now lying prostrate across the yard.  Mere inches away from where Mom & the one whom I adore sat not minutes before.

This is the chair mom had been sitting a half hour before.  You will notice the wrought-iron chair is missing, oh a back and an arm.  This is not part of the original design.  This is complements of a 7-story tree landing on it.  

This is the apple tree the one whom I adore was sitting beneath 45-minutes before.

You will notice that no, that is not Johnny Appleseed's handy work splitting the tree in half down the middle.  Yes, it is the work of the tree from hell.

Three of us and two dogs narrowly escaped injury, but not the subsequent heart attack that ensued when we realized just how close we had come to being crushed under the weight of that old dead tree. 

Suffice it to say, happy hour started a bit earlier that day.