Fun Weekend - Part Three

Saturday morning we woke up and I wondered if we were actually going to Tennessee or not. Mr. Mister had mentioned something about possibly staying home, and honestly that suited me just fine. I really disliked the idea of driving all that way for one night. Even if the thought of going to Beale Street appealed to me.

One bummer about not going was that we had planned to stop and eat at Lambert's Cafe "The Only Home of Throwed Rolls" on the way down.



The phone rang, and it was Mr. Mister's mother. She wanted to know if we were coming down or not? Since he never really said "no, we aren't coming," I knew we were. He made hotel reservations, while I started getting dressed, and more annoyed at the thought of the upcoming drive ahead of me.

We left around noon, and the communication in the car was non-exsistant. Mr. Mister would try every so often to draw me out of my mood, but I wasn't having it. I was really good at staying annoyed! LOL Finally, I started responding with more than one word. We talked about different things, and after a while Mr. Mister pointed out a sign, showing us that we were getting closer to Lambert's Cafe. I started getting a little excited! Not only about eating at the place I had heard so much about, but because, once we got there, we would be at our halfway point in the not so fun driving part of our journey.

We arrived and looked at the parking lot. O MY GOSH! There were people EVERYWHERE!



I was thinking that we would just turn around and go to Wendy's or something. But we decided to check on the wait time. It was approximately 45 minutes. We chose to wait. As they kept calling names I began to think that we were going to end up sitting next to a bunch of strangers. They would call up 20 or so people at a time and take them all back to the tables together. After all, it was family style eating.
They called our name and I rushed so that we would be first in line, at least then we could grab the end of a table, and not be stuck in the middle somewhere. I was very happy when they sat us in a booth by ourselves. They took our drink order and we looked over the menu. I already knew what I was having. I had planned it several days before. The Chicken & Dumplings of course! Everyone that knows me, knows that is what I would be having! LOL
Our drinks came and I was surprised to see that they gave us HUGE mugs full of our beverage of choice. I'm talking 48oz sized mugs.



It was the best sweet tea! I don't know if it was because I was thirsty or what, but I couldn't stop drinking. After ordering, we kept looking around, checking the place out.



Suddenly, we were hearing "HOT ROLLS" "HOT ROLLS" being yelled above the sound of everyone talking. A boy was rolling a cart around full of rolls that had just come out of the oven. People were putting their hands up in the air waving that they wanted a roll. The boy would pick up a roll and throw it across the room at the waving hands. People were catching (some were dropping) hot rolls everywhere.




A girl was walking around saying "Sorghum?" to everyone. She stopped at our table and said "Don't ya'll want a hot roll?" She called the boy's name that was throwing the rolls, and Mr. Mister caught one right away. He threw another one to me, and I was thrilled that I didn't drop it on the floor! I opened the hot roll and buttered it up! The girl asked if I wanted sorghum on my roll. I told her that I didn't even know what sorghum was. She replied that it was molasses. I had never had molasses on a roll before, but decided to try it. YUMMY!



As we waited for our order, several employees were walking around with big silver bowls yelling "FRIED POTATOES" "FRIED OKRA" "BLACK EYED PEAS" and "MACARONI & TOMATOES." These were what they called "extras" and you could have as much of them as you wanted throughout your meal. Not that we needed any extras because, when our meal arrived there was enough food on the plate to feed several people. Mr. Mister had ordered the fried chicken. He had two pieces of chicken, a loaded baked potato, and green beans. I had the chicken & dumplings, green beans, and applesauce.



It was wonderful! I even made the comment that it was better than Cracker Barrel. Again, anyone who knows me, knows that Cracker Barrel is one of my favorite places to eat, so that was saying A LOT!
We walked out the door feeling VERY full, with a can of sorghum tucked under my arm, and plans to stop there again on the way home!

Back to the car, and on the road again for another 2 1/2 hours.

We finally made it to Mr. Mister's mother's house.

We talked for a while, catching up on things, and then we hopped into Mr. Mister's sister's (say that quick three times!) car, and headed toward Memphis so that we could check into our hotel, and "party" on Beale Street.

The weather was GREAT, and it brought everyone out. It was like being on Spring break or something. (Elmo REALLY enjoyed dancing with the girl in the picture. He danced in the street for at least 20 minutes)



After several drinks, and "Big Ass Beers," we were really starting to enjoy ourselves. (Thank goodness our hotel was within walking distance!)



As we walked up and down Beale Street, we saw an artist (Wolf Simone,) sitting and painting pictures. It was awesome to see what he created just by using a few tools and several cans of spray paint. The painting he did in front of us, turned out to be a collage of Memphis attractions, turned into a cityscape, with planets above. It was VERY cool!



We decided to stop at Pat O'brien's for something to eat. When we walked in, there was a fountain with water and fire coming out of it. It was GORGEOUS! The whole area looked like an outdoor cafe, but it was indoors. We sat there for over an hour just talking and having a good time. The atmosphere was perfect!



There was different kinds of music coming from every bar, alley, and available spot along the street. We stopped and listened at many different places, but this blues band was one of our favorites.



Mr. Brother-In-Law was really getting his groove on while he listened to them play!



It was HILARIOUS! We were all cracking up watching him dance!

Unfortunately, we found the band too late, and only got to hear a couple of songs before they started packing things up for the night.

So, we wandered some more. We saw all kinds of interesting things! There were people dancing, people drinking, people doing flips down the road. We even got to watch the police, that were on horseback, arrest someone and take them away!

But the thing that really caught my interest, was seeing some of the girls walking down the street wearing outfits they had NO BUSINESS wearing. I began taking pictures of all of them. My plan was to put them up on my blog to show people what they "should not" wear out in public. But, I have decided not to offend anyone reading this blog by showing them on here. LOL!

Finally, at around 1:30 am, we headed back to the hotel. I was exhausted, but had a really, REALLY good time! (Yes, Mr. Mister has been rubbing that fact into my face ever since!)

BUT, I still was not enthused about the drive all the way back home!

Did someone mention stopping at Lambert's Cafe again??????????

Fun Weekend - Part Two

Friday night we went to a murder mystery dinner at Bissell Mansion.



It was Mayhem in Mayberry! (The following information, in bold text, was taken from the Bissell Mansion website. The photographs of characters were taken by me.)

Welcome to the 10th annual Mayberry-fest. Everyone is looking forward to the highlight of this event - the Miss Mayberry contest. Sheriff Andy Trailer is the judge, so the contestants will do their best to "influence" Andy. In fact, Andy has received threatening phone calls, letters, and telegrams from fans of all the contestants. Making the wrong choice could be hazardous to Andy's health.



Not to worry! Deputy Blarney Fife is the head of security and the first alternate judge in the event Sheriff Andy can't perform this duty. If anything happens to Blarney, this year's second alternative judge is Jethro Boding from Beverly Hills (via Arkansas).

The contestants will be judged on beauty, poise, cookin' skills and the new category this year - hog callin'. Will the next Miss Mayberry be the vivacious Dazey Doof from Hazzard County? Or the beautiful hillbilly, Elly May Klumpett? Or will it be the lovely Lois Lame from Smallville? Don't count out the charming Paris Hoosier from Hoosierville. She's the main reason the train stops at Petticoat Junction!

They forgot to mention Miss Piggy as one of the contestants.

When we arrived at Bissell Mansion we were assigned characters.

I was "Paula McGoy." I was a member of the fake McGoys. I had two brothers and a sister, and we were all shepherds. We formed a little band, and called ourselves the Real McGoys. But, we discovered that there was another family with that name, and that they were in a blood fued with the Hatefields. We didn't want any part of that, so we changed our name to the "Bleatles." We used sheep as our chorus, and according to the crictics, our music was "Baaahd." I played the washboard!

Mr. Mister was "Ernest T. Bazz." He was considered the greatest fisherman in Mayberry. He was a big star on the Fly Fishing Network (FFN). His show, "Hoping They Bite", was the top-rated show on the network. He invented the perfect fishing fly. He had trouble remembering names and called everyone "Vern."

We were supposed to stay in character, and walk around (while appetizers were being served) talking with all of the other people from "Mayberry." The contestants in the Miss Mayberry contest were asking everyone to vote for them, and talking trash about the other contestants.

A little later, we were asked to take seats at our assigned tables, so that the "performance" could begin.

We were seated with Opie (John), Aint Martha (Leigh), Howard Spade (Billy), and Miss Piggy (Maggie).



As I mentioned before, Miss Piggy was a contestant in the Miss Mayberry contest. She had to compete in all of the categories, and it really looked like she was going to be the person who murdered Sheriff Andy Trailer.

Even I, suspected her. I thought she poisoned the Sheriff with her meatloaf. She told the Sheriff that her special ingredient was Kermit the Frog! So my thoughts were that Kermit had salmonella and therefore the Sheriff died from salmonella poisoning after tasting her meatloaf during the cookin' contest!

But in the end, it was Elly May Klumpett, that murdered Sheriff Andy Trailer with her road kill pizza. She had been trying for years to win the Miss Mayberry contest, and this was the last year that she could participate because she was getting too old. She thought she would have a better chance with Deputy Blarney Fife as the judge.

Turns out, our Miss Piggy was the winner, and became the new Miss Mayberry! Congratulations Miss Piggy! Kiss Kiss Hugs Hugs to you!

Mr. Mister and I, had a great time!



The group of people at our table were a lot of fun!

We were really happy that we weren't seated with Dazey Doof because she had a stone faced woman with her that never cracked a smile. She walked in saying that she was there lookin' for a man! (I don't think she found one! LOL).

Fun Weekend - Part One

We decided to take several days off, and spent Thursday (our anniversary) hanging out together. We ran around town, and even went to the antique store, where I bought a new pretty!



We ate dinner at the Olive Garden. YUMMY! Their Alfredo dipping sauce and bread sticks are delicious! I even played footsie with Mr. Mister under the table. (It was a ploy, so that I could have his mint at the end of the meal!)

Then we headed over to Dave & Busters. A grown man's dream! We played a lot of games! Look at us! Aren't we cool?



Did you know that you can get "car sick" while "pretending" to drive cars really fast? I found that out the hard way! YEP! I'm one cool chickie!

Mr. Mister should have been a pro basketball player! Just look at that form!



We won't discuss my form while trying to throw a basketball! NOPE! Not going there!

I did kick his butt on the horse races and in football though! (It doesn't matter that he beat me in most of the other games we played) I showed him who the BOSS was!

He was so upset he had to drown his sorrows!



I enthusiastically celebrated my wins with this!



By the end of the night, we had over 1400 points in tickets that could be redeemed for cool prizes! I asked Mr. Mister if he wanted to spend our new found fortune on the nose hair clippers shaped like a finger (so that it would look like he was picking his nose!) and he said NO! What fun is he?

Summerfest!

We went to "Summerfest" in Belleville last night, and had so much fun!

We danced to some GREAT Reggae music. The band is call Jah Roots. We even purchased their cd to add to our growing collection.



There were some Brazilian dancers there. I LOVE how colorful their costumes were! Of course, the guys all LOVED how short her skirt was!



And a real live fire breathing dragon! Check him out! (His name is Tommy Riddle and he calls himself the "Superfly Fire Guy").



But, I have to say that the guys performing extreme stunts on motorcycles took home the "Kathy is Impressed" prize! (Won't they be overjoyed to know that? LOL) They were part of a group called Streetfighterz and they blew us away!

This is Dan Farley. Ricardo made this cool collage using three of the pictures I took.



This is Guru.