Our RV Adventures

or I had to go to Tennessee to get some good Alabama BBQ.

One of the nice things about being here at Tom Sawyer RV Park is the view of the Mississippi River, and the barge traffic going by.

Of course the park itself is really nice with long sites, trees,and a picnic table.

But then 2/3’s of the park is under water as I mentioned yesterday. We even had to drive through about 6 inches of water to get to our site.

And here’s the road leading out to the other area.

But this flooding pales in comparison to what happened in May 2011.

Glad we missed that one.

As usual, our last day here in Memphis consisted of shopping and eating. So our first stop was the Tru-Value Hardware out by I-40. I was looking for three things, a new shower on-off valve, a selection of ATM fuses, and a new locking 1/2 inch hitch pin for our Blue Ox tow bar.

Jan wanted a new shower valve because the old one on our Oxygenics shower head had started leaking. And of course the fuses were for my problem with the 12V  receptacles on our dashboard that showed up as we were leaving Fort Smith yesterday. So while I was at it, I wanted to get a selection of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 amp fuses, all of the various sizes that are used in our coach.

And I needed a new hitch pin because the lock on one of mine had jammed and couldn’t be used anymore. At least it jammed while it was off the hitch, and not locked on.

I had already checked two Wal-Marts and a Lowe’s for the shower valve with no luck, and Tru-Value didn’t help here, either. But they did have the 10 and 15 amp fuses, but not the 5, 20, and 30 ones.

And they did have a selection of locking hitch pins, but only in 5/8” and not the 1/2” that I needed. I still have one of the original non-locking pins and I’ll use one of  those until I find something else, probably from Amazon.

Then it was off to have more Memphis BBQ. Last night we had eaten at Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous, a place in an alley in downtown Memphis.

We ate here on our visit before last, and loved it. But when we were here last time, it was a Sunday and Rendezvous was closed. So we ate there last night so we wouldn’t miss it this time.

Rendezvous is known for their ribs, and one taste shows why.

These ribs are different. They’re grilled over charcoal, not wood, and not slow smoked, or anything like that. They’re grilled 30 minutes on a side about 18 inches above a blazing charcoal fire.

This produces a delicious crust on the ribs that is then mopped with a mixture of vinegar, water, salt, and barbecue spices. Then before serving, the ribs are sprinkled with the secret Rendezvous seasoning.

I got the combo platter with ribs and their pulled pork, all juicy and delicious, while Jan just had ribs.

But another real standout here are their beans. They’re almost as good as the ribs. They have a delicate burnt caramel taste that I’ve never encountered before, but it adds such a flavor bonus, it’s hard to describe.

As far as today goes, we were going through the Best BBQ Places in Memphis’ lists trying to find a good place to eat this afternoon. But one problem we ran into was, like Rendezvous, many of the high-rated places are closed on Sunday.

But looking over several lists, I came across a name I was really familiar with – Jim & Nick’s BBQ. I’ve eaten at their original Birmingham AL location a number of times back in the 90’s, and knew they had started to spread out in Alabama, but I didn’t know they had gone further. In fact they’re now in 7 states as far west as Colorado.

So off we went to Jim & Nick’s out in Cordova, a Memphis suburb about 30 minutes away on the east side of  the city. And it was well worth the trip.

We started off with their Sausage Plate, with a link of their home-made sausage, served with pimento cheese and BBQ sauce. So good that Jan, who doesn’t really care for sausage, loved this.

Then they brought out a basket of their Cheese Biscuits which we devoured pretty quickly. They’re delicious, and so well-loved, they even sell the mix so you can make your own at home.

Jan got their Pig on a Bun pulled pork sandwich topped with cole slaw, while I again went with a Combo Plate with Ribs and Pulled Pork.

And it was like I was back in Alabama again, with the spare ribs and the pork, all slathered in their sauce, especially their Hot Habanero sauce. Like being back home.

Earlier, I had mentioned to our waitress Joy, that I had eaten at their original location a number of times, and she apparently mentioned this to the manager, Todd Mulder. So Todd came by our table and spent about 30 minutes talking BBQ with us. Everything they serve is made from scratch, and they even own their own hog farms so they can control the quality of the meat.

And as it turns out, he and his wife love Gulf Shores, AL where I grew up, and where we’re going to be in a couple of weeks, that we spent some more time talking about our favorite places there.

Todd’s a really nice guy, and you can tell he’s really passionate about his job, and it shows in the food and service at his place.

And thanks for the great service, Joy.

While we were eating, Jan asked me which ribs I liked best, Rendezvous’ or Jim & Nicks. I told her I really liked them both. It’s like apples and oranges, Even though they’re both ribs, they’re so different, it’s more of a contrast than a comparison.

But maybe if I ate at both places a few dozen more times, I might be able to decide. Or maybe not.

Tomorrow we’ve got a short 80 mile run east to the Cherokee Landing Thousand Trails park near Middleton, TN,. But strangely enough, to get from Memphis, TN to Middleton, TN, we have to go through Mississippi.

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Thought for the Day:

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. – Milton Friedman

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Today turned out to be kind of a comedy of errors as we traveled to West Memphis, AR and Tom Sawyer RV Park. We had planned to leave about 9:00 but things started going wrong pretty early.

As I was setting up, I found the fuse had blown that powers the 12V sockets on the dashboard. So this meant that my Brake Buddy Alert Receiver and the small inverter that runs my computer weren’t working. So I went to the drawer where my 20amp fuses are supposed to be, and NO fuses at all, much less 20’s. So I can plug my laptop into the house power since we’ll be running the genset to keep things cool, but I’ll have to do without my Brake Buddy Alert.

By now it was about 10 after 9am, not too late, so I cranked up and started bringing the levelers up. While Jan was running the slide in, I turned the AC’s off and started up the genset, and since we were still on shore power, the transfer switch did its thing and we were now gen power. Then after the genset had warmed up a bit, I turned the AC’s back on.

By now the levelers should have been up, but when I checked the panel, it showed them still down. So it was outside to see what the problem was.

And boy, was it a problem.

When I backed into our site, there was one of those concrete parking lot barriers at the back of the site to keep you from going back too far. So to be sure that we had room in front of the rig to park the truck, I put my rear wheels right against the barrier and let my levelers come down right behind the barriers, clearing the barrier by over an inch.

But somehow there was enough movement in the rig during the two nights we were there that one of the leveler pads ended up under the edge of the barrier. So when I brought up the levelers, it actually picked up the concrete barrier on one side.

I didn’t know they had that much power. Down, yes. But not up.

This was what was keeping the levelers from coming all the way up. So now I had to let the levelers back down, and then crawl under the rear of the rig and maneuver that honking big piece of concrete off the pad. Getting that done, I was happy to see that my levelers now came up just fine. So after all that, by the time I got us hooked up to the truck, it was now 9:40. But at least we were on the way.

But at this point, I decided I miss Arizona. Even though it was only about 85 degrees outside, with the humidity, my shirt was now soaking wet. 10% humidity would be nice.

The trip was pretty smooth until we were about 50 miles outside West Memphis and then the road went to crap. And that included the rest areas As we were pulling out of one, there was about a 6 inch drop in the pavement just as we got on the entrance ramp back onto I-40, that shook us down to our fillings.

And as I found a few minutes later, it also popped open one of our bay doors, as I was quickly informed by passerby’s.  So I had to pull over on the shoulder to close the bay door. Luckily nothing had fallen out.

Then about 5 more miles down the road, there was another big pothole that I couldn’t dodge. And this one caused the genset to shut off. It started right back up, but with our transfer switch problem, and no shore power, it wouldn’t switch over.

So again I had to pulled over, go back and lift the bed, and manually switch the transfer switch over to the genset. I’ll be glad when we’re in one place long enough to get this replaced.

We finally pulled into the Tom Sawyer RV Park a little after 3pm. I’m really glad we had reservations, because 2/3’s of the park is under water due to all the rain. In fact there was a cardboard sign taped to the big sign out on the highway that said. “No Vacancy. If you don’t have a reservation, don’t bother.”

I’ll finish up tomorrow with our great visit to Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous, one of the best BBQ places in Memphis.

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Thought for the Day:

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box. – Italian Proverb

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