Tennessee Friends and Travel Food

Pastor Rob, Kara, Julie, Bethany and Noah Harbin

     When we put together our little plan for Spring Break it included going to Memphis and visiting our previous Pastor and his family (see pic of the Harbins & older post about the day he told us they were leaving) who just moved into a new beautiful home there.  We really wanted to head over to eastern Tennessee so the kids could see real mountains, but time and money kept us closer to home.  Instead we took the long way home through Hot Springs, Arkansas where we settled for large hills.

        When we spread the word about our trip idea, a couple of families joined us.  So the Wards, Greers and Bremers all caravan'ed to visit our Tennessee friends at Faith Lutheran Church.

A very windy and cold day @ Faith Lutheran Church

    Our first stop was Baton Rouge where stopped to swim, get drive-through daquiri's, and spend the night.  We had this great breakfast spread in the morning at the hotel so we ate, a lot. Then we drove through Mississippi while Tomika (who is from the area) texted both families fun facts about herself.  "My grandma's house is at this exit.  My aunt's house is at exit 81, do you see the white house?"  Things like that.  We had our own personal Tomika tour. In fact when we stopped to eat, her parents drove the hour to meet us at Chick-Fil-A.  And I've learned that it doesn't matter which Chick-Fil-A you go to, there is always an older lady whose job is to just walk around and help clear tables, get you things that you're missing, and talk to babies.  I love it. I want that job when I'm retired.

      In Memphis, we stayed at a swanky hotel (thank you Bryant Bremer and all your Exxon connections) that ended up giving us a King bed for 5 people.  That was fun.
But what was really fun was walking down Beale street with a thousand young drunk folks who probably thought our group of 13 & 2 strollers were crazy and completely out of place.  And we were.  I counted maybe 5 kids out the whole night.  Apparently, blues and beer don't mix with fun kid outings.  We tackled it though, pushed those strollers, held those kids, and waited an hour for what everyone calls famous dry rub ribs (which apparently made our group very happy, but me not being a foodie, would have settled for a salad.)

        On Sunday, we drove to Collierville and walked into Pastor Rob's church service 3 minutes late.  It just wouldn't be right if we weren't a little tardy.  We spent the whole day visiting, eating lasagna, and eating seconds, and talking and eating some more.   The girls got manicures from the Harbin girls and thank goodness, Elijah finally had a boy to play with.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

        No one wanted to leave, but we made our way back to our Memphis hotel and tried another Beale street cafe where they had the "best tamales ever" or so it was advertised.  Then on the last day together, before we all went our different directions, we toured the Lorraine Motel where MLK was shot, and then ate famous Memphis spicy chicken (again, I would have settled for a vegetable, really any vegetable.)  Do you see any repetition?  We did a lot of eating. Poor kids - it was either chicken, grilled cheese or pbj.  Nary a fruit on the menu.

      And with our bellies full, we said goodbye to our small group.  And it was strange saying goodbye,  to make the rest of our trip as just the Wards. It's not like we wouldn't see these people in a week or less. It's just that the best way to get to know people, really get to know them, is to take a trip.  To hang out in a hotel hallway and talk till 2am while the kids sleep.  To wait for a hotel room, to wait for a table of 13 to open, to wait for a bathroom stall.  To learn food preferences, driving speeds, and who packed correctly for the weather (not us.) To take care of someone else's kid, to carry them, to swim with them, to play games with them, to take them to the potty, because it really does take a village.  And this trip took a village.

      I'll leave our Hot Springs portion of the trip for another day when it was just a table for 5 and no waiting and no famous food.  We ate, but we didn't EAT like our party of 13.

      Good times.

Elijah and All Those Girls