Tennessee 2015, Part II

Steve heard about the National Cornbread Festival early on in our marriage and spent several years lamenting the fact that we had never been there, so this year we arranged our trip to Tennessee to coincide with the festival.  It takes place in South Pittsburg, near the border of Tennessee and Alabama.  The whole town shuts down to host the event and it was really wonderful.  We listened to bluegrass, we ate cornbread in cornbread alley (try the recipe for the coconut almond cornbread bars), we spun the Martha White wheel for prizes and received free merchandise, we toured the Lodge factory, and we watched a round of the cornbread cook-off.  Steve even got a special mention at the cook-off as the person visiting from farthest away.

Steve's second southern dream has long been to visit Alabama.  Since we were so close, and since the woman standing in front of us at the Martha White booth was from Alabama and spoke to us when she could tell Steve was foreign during our Steve, drink some water.  You have to drink water here.  You will die without water here.  I'm serious go get a drink. conversation, we decided to drive across the border to the town she recommended, Scottsboro.  It's a really small town.  But it's famous for being the home of the Unclaimed Baggage Center and when we asked an employee there for a restaurant recommendation, she sent us to a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint with the best potato salad I've ever had in my whole life.  I'm not even a huge fan of potato salad, but I would like to wake up in a vat of that stuff every day.

Then we saw an armadillo.  It was dead on the side of the road, but it was still a highlight of Steve's life and he maintains that he would like to buy a farm in Alabama.  I wasn't quite as enthralled with Alabama, but I'm willing to go along with Steve's farm plan if it means I can have some more potato salad.