FINALLY, A KNOXVILLE KIND OF PLACE TO EAT IN ROANE COUNTY

I went to lunch today with my wife and daughter, and it was our first time at Redbones on the River in Kingston, Tennessee. The luncheon turned into the day’s big meal!

The old home, situated across from the Kingston City Park on Watts Bar Lake, has been turned into a very nice looking restaurant, with beautiful shiny wood floors, dark wood tables and chairs, with just the right amount of light coming in from outside. You can also sit outside, on one of two decks (upper and lower), if you prefer the summer heat to refreshing air conditioning! Not us, we appreciate old fashioned AC!

There are sitting areas all over the place, including upstairs near the tastefully decorated bar, which features a good selection of pulls, including my favorite – Fat Tire? After the wonderful meal, I sneaked up the stairs to get a “bar shot” for my bar collection on Flickr.

We ordered the fried green-tomatoes as an appetizer and, wow, they were fantastic! They were those droopy, soggy kinds you get some places, these were crunch fried with a horseradish dip. They were simply a wonderful way to prepare your palate for your entrée.

Judy and I ordered half-rack of Baby-back Ribs, baked potato, and Spinach Maria, while Tracy wanted the Chicken Alfredo with broccoli.

We had thought about a club sandwich, a burger, or a salad for lunch, but after seeing all the steak, seafood, pasta dishes, we decided that lunch would be our dinner meal as well. There was no forcing us to only eat one meal today either. After finishing the generous meal, we were too stuffed for dessert, even though the Chocolate Bar Cake kept calling our names!

So, the next time you are looking for a classy place to eat, or just have drinks with friends, but don’t want to drive the 40 miles to Knoxville, check out Redbones on the River in Kingston. You’ll be glad you did.

AN ALL YOU CAN EAT TUESDAY BUFFET

About 45 minutes west of Harriman, up on the Cumberland Plateau, is Cumberland Mountain State Park. We have gone there for years starting way back in the 60’s. It’s a lovely little state park with gently rolling hills, deep untouched forest with winding trails, a lovely lake brimming with fish, a huge swimming pool, lots of cabins and camping sites, and rustic sandstone lodge sitting right in the middle. Inside this main building is a wonderful kitchen that turns out delicious food almost every night, served up buffet style.

No, it’s not an ordinary buffet where all the selections taste like all the food was cooked in the same pot. This buffet has never failed to please all my senses: my vision, my olfactory, and my gustation! Seriously good tasting chicken, roast beef, BBQ, catfish, with all the vegetable and bread trimmings! Tuesdays are set aside for a seafood bonanza that includes: fried and peel-and-eat shrimp, scallops, fried and baked catfish, crab legs, and salmon cut in the shape of a crab shell and stuffed with crab stuffing! OMG folks, it was all great…and then there were the hush puppies!

The other offerings were coleslaw, a pea salad, a salad bar, chocolate cake, banana pudding, and soft-serve ice cream! Tuesday is not the only fantastic evening either:

Cumberland Mtn. Restaurant Dining Schedule - Open 7 Days a Week

Monday - Saturday: Lunch - 11:00 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. - Dinner - 4:00-8:00 p.m.

Sunday: All day - 11:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday - Seafood Buffet with All You Can Eat Crab Legs - 4:00-8:00 p.m.

Friday - All You Can Eat Catfish (baked or fried) - 4:00-8:00 p.m.

Saturday - All You Can Eat Rib Night - 4:00-8:00 p.m.

Well, I jumped right to the eating part, and left out the visiting Neena and Ron at their campsite! Their grandson Chandler (“Chan Man” as we call him) has been visiting with them this past week and so they took him to Cumberland Mountain State Park to camp, swim, hike, and eat!

Charlotte and Gary drove up to the park as well. We had a great time visiting before and after the feast. It was very pleasant today with the temps in the high 70’s to mid-80’s and bearable humidity. We were also thankful that the only bugs we saw were a few flies that only visited briefly.

We all got a kick out of Chandler climbing around on everything and playing in the campfire. It reminded us all of our own youth and how the fire always seemed to be the center of the camping trip. We would play in it, disregarding the warning that we would “wet the bed” if we played in the fire! It was something my grandmother always threatened me with so that I would not poke things down into her wood stove, or spit on the top to watch the water dance off into oblivion!

You can also see that Judy was trying to excite me with her tongue-to-straw-action! It worked!

Ron and Gary both have campers, Ron’s, as you can see is a “pull behind”, while Gary’s is a mid-size motorhome. Judy and I struggled with the idea of getting one as well, but after a couple of weeks of agonizing over it we came to the conclusion that an RV was just not for us. It was amazing how relieved we both were to finally come to that decision.

However, Ron/Neena and Gary/Charlotte all seem to love their campers, so more power to them.

We can hardly wait for them to camp at Cumberland Mountain again, so we can drive up, eat, and come home!

…ON TO MEMPHIS!

Jeff met us at the house Wednesday morning and we headed out for Memphis. We made four stops on the way down, making the trip in about five and half hours of actual driving time.

The first stop was for a Hardee’s biscuit, the second stop was a “pause for a cause”, and the fourth was for gas. The third? Well, the third had my butt clinched while I watched a local cop talking to Jeff in my rearview mirror. Jeff had apparently cut in front of an 18-wheeler a little closer than the officer liked, so he pulled him over. I pulled over about 50 yards in front of them and sat there watching, waiting for the cop to discover Jeff’s M-16 in the trunk!

Fortunately the cop only wanted to warn him about cutting over in front of folks, and jaw about Jeff’s “Proud to be and asshole” bumper sticker, and about the flavor of his cigar! I had noticed big white clouds of cigar smoke bellowing from his sun-roof on occasion, so I knew he was puffing away, probably “toking” away from a butt at the end of his Texas size toothpick!

Soon we were on our way and talking about what was said on our cellphones.

We both stayed at the Westin Beale Street, so we checked in and headed for “the street”!

The first order of business was to get something great to eat, and we knew it had to be barbeque ribs! We ate at the famous Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous located in the “Downtown Alley”, which is across the street from the Peabody Hotel. The Rendezvous does a “dry rub” finish on their ribs and, man, they were delicious! However, it turned out that Judy is fond of “dry rub”, but she did finish her half slab, while Jeff and I polished off full racks with Yuenglings!

We were then ready for the strip, and we headed for BB King’s for some blues/jazz music and more Yuenglings!

It wasn’t long before Chuck Atkinson, another long time blogger and Facebook buddy buzzed Jeff, and was soon on his way down from the Doubletree on Union Street. Chuck used to post regularly on “What’s ‘Up Chuck’”, but is so busy with his traveling job that he mostly post on Facebook these days. Anyway, Jeff and I both had wanted to meet him for some time. Chuck, and his wife, is from Tennessee, and he is almost always seen wearing a UT hat, but he now lives near Birmingham, AL. Since his sales job requires he travel to many large cities, he drove up explicitly to meet us, but, he did have a client meeting scheduled on Thursday morning.

We recognized each other instantly and greeted each other with warm handshakes and hugs. I think Judy was a little nervous meeting Chuck for the first time, but within the next hour she grew to like him very much. Since the music was too loud for us to talk, we left BB’s and went across the street to the Beale Street Tap Room.

The Tap Room has 27 beers on tap, but I settled on Fat Tire for the evening, while Jeff and Judy stayed with Yuengling. Chuck, well Chuck tried several things, including buying a round of Jim Beam shooters for us.

We had a good time talking and bringing each other up on our lives, beginning with the log-cabin where we were all born! I’m not sure what beer number I was up to by then, but whatever the count was, it was just enough to get me into Coyote Ugly just about block down the street! Luckily for me, I did not get involved in any of the “belly shots” the gals were selling, but most of the rest of us did, and I have photos to prove it, but you’ll not see them here!

My thanks to Chuck (especially Chuck), Jelvis (yes, Jelvis, a stage name for sure), and Lolo for the great time we had there.

Judy, bless her heart, had as big a time as any of us guys. I’m blessed with a great lady who enjoys live and hasn’t got a jealous bone in her body. She is great, and I’m just the same with her as I am without her along. We have no secrets and take the greatest pleasure in seeing the other have a great time.

Some time way past my bedtime, we all parted company and went back to our respective hotels. I found it hard to go to sleep, with all the excitement from that evening dancing in my head. However, I was soon asleep and feeling fine!

The next morning Judy and I met Jeff and we had breakfast at the Hard Rock Café on Beale…it was actually our lunch, and the burgers were perfect!

We three then headed out for Sun Records, which turned out to be at least a mile walk, and by the time we arrived the humidity had beaten us down pretty good. We cooled off in the café there and bought tickets to the museum and studio. The tour was great and we all enjoyed the memorabilia, history, and music. It was kind of good to stand where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other modern day acts had stood while making their recordings. I know I’m no Elvis, but it felt good standing there, and it was all I could do NOT to break out in “Hound Dog”!

Check out all my Memphis photos on Flickr by clicking HERE!

The way back was just a far as it was there! We finally made the hotel for a quick cool shower and about an hour’s down time. We then met in the lobby where I called for my car.

I popped in the GPS and we were off to Stax Records, a museum for SOUL music! I didn’t take any photos there, mostly because you have to check your camera before you’re allowed inside!

The museum there is quite large and full of clothes, records, recordings, photos, and Isaac Hayes’ “Gold Cadillac”! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, right up until the tornado sirens went off!

The staff hustled us inside a long inside hallway, where we stood until the all clear. It turned out that a tornado touched down about 2 miles away, tearing up a shopping mall where the stone exterior of Kohl’s Department Store was torn away. The rain came down in buckets and the sky was very dark outside the Stax building, but finally the rain broke enough that we made our way to the car and left the area.

With the GPS guiding us (what a wonderful invention they are), we arrived at our next adventure…more BBQ! This time we tried Neely’s Bar-B-Que on the West side. Jeff got the beef ribs, Judy got BBQ spaghetti, and settled on pulled pork! Man, it was all terrific and beat the Rendezvous’ hands down! It had that sweet BBQ taste!

In 1997 a local media TV station held a BBQ contest for the best ribs, along with other local top BBQ restaurants in Memphis, which was featured on “The Today Show” with Al Roker, Neely's won hands-down! We found out why!

Chuck had by then called to say his meeting had been canceled and he was on his way home. Home time is important to a man that spends most of his work time on the road, so we understood.

Back at the hotel, the rain was still coming down. By 8 o’clock, I called Jeff and told him I was staying in for the rest of the evening, so we said good night. However, Jeff later went out and bought up half of Beale Streets’ t-shirts and CDs! I regret not going with him, but I really didn’t know his intentions, but Judy and I were pretty tired after the day’s activities anyway.

So, we got up Friday morning and found the nearest Cracker Barrel, which turned out to be across the Mississippi on the Arkansas side. We had a great breakfast and last few minutes together, reminiscing about the week’s events. We hugged and parted, knowing that there would be another time to come.

Thanks Jeff…and Chuck…for a great week!

Jeff went on to visit our friend Bruno in Missouri, and Judy and I made it home in another 5 and ½ hours, but only after stopping at Cancun’s on Peavine Road near Crossville, Tennessee. Our last great road-trip meal for awhile!

WHEN JEFF COMES TO TOWN

Yes sir, ol’ “Fat” himself, Mr. Jeff Wilson from Killeen, TX, and famous for his “Fathairybastard” Blog came to see ol’ Mushy for a couple of days this week. This is his third trip and each trip seems to bring us closer together. He’s like a brother to me and I thoroughly enjoy his visits. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed his company so much this time that I followed him part of the way home, to Memphis, just to spend the best of three more days with him – but more on that in the next post!

Jeff got into town on Monday and we headed for the “Good Ol’ days Diner” for a quick lunch. Judy and I decided to feed him enough to get him to Ozone Falls and up on Black Mountain, and then on to Big Ed’s Pizza for supper! We weren’t about to let the boy go hungry!

Jeff loved the huge boulders upon on Black Mountain and promised to come back when all the copperheads were hibernating! However, we did get to the top of one overlook and walked beneath one of the rock over hangs where Indians camped long ago when on “long hunts”.

Finally, we got to one of the things he insisted we do again, and that’s visit Big Ed’s and share a pizza. Terri and Steve met us there and we really enjoyed ourselves over a pizza and beer feast. To our surprise, Big Ed has branched out is now offering a wider selection of draft beers – Fat Tire and Yuengling, to name a couple. What a difference variety makes in the world of beer! (There will be more on what we ate over the last few days on mushyscookings.blogspot.com, later in the week.) We split a couple of pitchers and then broke for my house again.

If there’s anything the boy likes more than pizza and beer, it’s sitting on my back porch with a cigar, a beer, listening to my tunes, and looking out over the lake. The screened porch is situated in such a way that you feel like you are high up in a big tree-house. This July has been unusually wet for East Tennessee and everything is still deeply green and clean looking. When the pollen subsides, I too like to sit our there as much as Judy does. She’s out there reading as I write!

Tuesday morning came and we met Neena and Ron at Mimis Cafe for breakfast. After a very satisfying meal, we broke into teams…the Dragons deciding to go shopping in Turkey Creek, while we, manly men, took off for Smoky Mountain Knife Works and Bass Pro Shops in Sevierville, TN!

As you can see Jeff was in hog-heaven at the knife store. I think he touched almost all of them and they got a lot!

So, with the shopping over, we headed back to Gander Mountain to kill time until it was time to meet the ladies, and my son Corey. We finally got to the third place Jeff made me promise to take him back to…Wild Wings Cafe! As Corey is fond of saying, there was plenty of “carnage” after the meal!

We wanted to drop by Steve’s afterwards and shoot Jeff’s M-16, but the rains came and forced us back on the porch. Only the smell of gun powder and sounds from yesteryear could have made the evening better. Like I said, the boy likes his cigars and if you note in one of these shots he has a big tooth pick stuck through the butt of a cigar. He’s “toking” that thing like it was a joint or something! I said something about tar, but he just says, “Dude, these things are expensive!”

Jeff bought the Colt AR-15 (M-16) just because it was early Vietnam vintage and looked just like the one I had in ‘Nam. Here’s a “then and now” shot for you viewing pleasure. No laughing or pointing out what is obvious either guys! I think the photo was worth the price of the firearm to Jeff, who took great pride in bringing a “piss-pot” for me to better re-enact the “mail room” shot from DaNang I had taken sometime in 1966.

Oh yes, if I don’t mention the gun anymore in the Memphis post, please remind me…it plays into another good part later! Of course, Jeff may mention it before me…so check his post out first…if he does I won’t rub it in any more!

Wednesday morning found Judy and I in our car headed for Memphis, with Jeff following along behind us. I was leading the way taking directions from the bossy lady in the GPS and we made it to Memphis in about five and half hours. We booked into the Westin, just a block from Beale Street and set out for our next adventures!

As Jim “Suldog” Sullivan is known to say… I’ll be back with “More better stuff!”

ON SETTLERS RIDGE

It was Katie Bug’s birthday this week and she decided that the family should celebrate the occasion in Gatlinburg, sitting high atop a mountain top! So, that’s what happened. Wednesday morning we all woke up bright and early and started the 80 mile trip.

Me, well, I woke up dizzy…hadn’t been drinkin’ either…inner ear trouble I suppose. Anyway, I fought it all day Wednesday, even driving a couple of 40 mile per hour go-carts! One of the suckers put me through quite a “G” force battle on turn 3, leaving my right thigh a little sore from my mass being forced into it. However, it was a slick-track and you don’t let up on a slick-track…it’s peddle to the metal and you slide the corners, and I would gently scrap the wall before hitting the straightaway! It was cool as heck for a fat boy to be scooting along and passing “old” people! I even t-boned one young dude that spun out in front of me…BAM!

But, I get ahead of myself! We killed time before checking in at the cabin by driving up to Ober Gatlinburg and letting everyone, everyone but me, ice skate…I was too unstable for falling on my butt on wet ice! Judy walked herself around the rink holding on to the rail, and I sat above and took pictures, with my finger on the movie mode just in case a YouTube moment happened!

Katie and Zack rode the Alpine Slide down the mountain while the rest of us tried to cool off with water and soft serve! Tracy got a kick out of how fast I can inhale a soft serve! I hate melted ice cream, so, I just start licking and sucking in as I rotate the cone…soon it’s gone and I’m cool! Not cool in how it looks for a full-grown man to be making sucking noises with his tongue sticking out, but like cool inside!

Afterwards, we made our way back toward Pigeon Forge, and up to Settler’s Ridge to the cabin called Perfection! It was too! Located just right to see the mountains to the south of Pigeon Forge, and it had everything you could want in a cabin for 6 people. A beautiful view, three bedrooms (and 3 couches for Zack to chose from), 3 baths, a game room with pool table, Foose ball, and a pin-ball machine, a huge kitchen and dinning room, a computer room, 6 wide-screen TVs…one in the master bath and all with Dish TV hookups, a Jacuzzi, and lots of outside deck space with rocking chairs! If I could afford it…I’d live there…no wait…the drive up and down would be hell in the winter! Maybe not…maybe I’ll just stay right here.

That evening we did go for the go-carts, which were, besides the family, the high light of my trip!

Later we went to the Alamo Steakhouse Restaurant and chowed down! Katie ordered a t-bone and said it was the best steak she had ever eaten! Judy and I split a fried shrimp and a shrimp wrapped bacon dish and thoroughly enjoy it. I was not feeling my best and the taste of beef was just not on my list of foods I wanted that night.

Before going back up the mountain, we stopped at MagiQuest for Katie and Zack, but Judy and Tracy decided to join them inside the attraction. Eddie and I sat in the lobby talking and watch the people inside on a monitor. We then used another tag off our “ParkHopper Pass” brackets to ride go-carts at another track. Then it was time to go back to the cabin.

Sometime early in the morning I got very sick and threw up several times…I was out of it for the rest of Thursday. I was weak and dizzy all day, and spent most of the day in bed. (I should point out that it was not from bad food…there was no food in what came up ! It may be that I’m developing a gall bladder issue…we’ll see. )

So, Thursday afternoon, the rest of the family left me in bed and went back off the mountain to continue their fun. I insisted Judy go and told her I would be fine. Around 1AM Friday morning, the group woke me up. They had closed Gatlinburg and other parts of the mountain at Murder Mystery Theater and playing Black Light Golf! Me, I had slept most of the day, and after they settled in for the rest of what was left of the night, I went back to sleep!

This morning I seemed to have my balance back and after a pancake and egg breakfast I was feeling pretty good. Judy decided she had better drive back, but only made it to I-40 where she had to pull over from fighting sleep! I drove from there home, with Judy only waking up for the last 11 minutes of the ride! Good thing I drove!

Tomorrow we are invited out on the Charlotte and Gary’s party boat, but I think Judy will make the trip by herself. I’m in no shape for any wave action on Watts Bar Lake right now.

Thanks to Katie’s birthday wish, we all enjoyed each other in the Smoky Mountains, which is just in our backdoor. We should go there more often, and probably would if so many of you folks didn’t also like it enough to go there. Gets too crowded for me at certain times of the year and I hate bumper to bumper traffic! Let me know when you’re not going and maybe I’ll try it again soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE…and thanks!

A WINGS RUN WITH THE BOYS!

My son called me Monday and invited me out to Wild Wings with him and his two college buddies from Middle (Doug) and West (Justin…wearing cap) Tennessee. It seems Doug, especially; always insist Corey’s “old man” come along.

We have all spent time on the golf course and in a mountain cabin for a “boy’s weekend” several times before, and for some reason they seem to get a kick out of me!

They don’t realize how honored I am being with them and hearing them talk about the good times they’ve shared over the years – most of which I will not share with you publicly! I love those guys!

Anyway, Wild Wings served up much better wings this time, and the Yuengling Doug and I shared (an iced 6-pack bucket) was extremely cold and delicious. Those were actually the first beers I’ve had in several weeks. Corey was relieved to see me having a beer again. We’ve been there twice before and I drank tea with him, and he was afraid I was sick or something!

Anyhow, we left a pile of “carnage” and had great fun playing with our “nerdy” equipment; flashing cameras and camera phones, and talking or texting to other parts of the country.

There’s nothing quite like a “boys night out!”