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I was running a little bit behind, and I got a little more behind today. I was supposed to start today in Little Rock and get to Biloxi, MS, but I ended up going from Jackson, TN to McComb, MS and went through Little Rock on the way (well actually way out of the way, but I needed to pick up Arkansas).

My first order of business was to find somewhere to have breakfast in Tennessee, so I decided to have Foodio54 give me a recommendation for Memphis and it sent me to Bryant’s. When I got in the place seemed to be in complete chaos, so I let a few people go in front of me as I checked out the menu. They had a lot of odd things, but the pork tenderloin, egg and cheese sandwich caught my eye. That seemed really bizarre, but I had a hunch that it would be good. In terms of a presentation I’d give Bryant’s an F, the sandwich looked like something I could make myself (and I can hardly heat up hot pockets), however the sandwich itself was amazing. It was extremely filling and even though it was a bit unusual combination it seemed to fit well together.

After eating in Memphis, I started to drive to Little Rock and got a recommendation for Flying Fish. Before I got there I got a call from the David Letterman people asking if I still wanted the ticket I had requested earlier. To get the ticket I would have to call another number and answer a trivia question. In high school I watched David Letterman religiously, but the truth of the matter is that I haven’t watched him in some time. I wasn’t sure how well I would fare on trivia, so I pulled into a rest area pulled out my iPhone and started to study up for the big test. After about 15 minutes of Googling I decided that unless it was something really obscure I had enough notes so I called the number I was given. The woman asked me “What color is the announcer, Alan Kalter’s, hair?” It’s red, I think I would have gotten that without studying but I am now scheduled to see the Late Show on Tuesday. I had also tried to get Conan tickets but they basically told me there was no way (and you can’t even get them on eBay apparently).

In Little Rock I was happy to find a free parking lot very close by and made my way into the restaurant. It was a pretty casual place and I decided to try the catfish. Typically I would prefer fish to be cooked in some way other than being baked (otherwise it typically just seems like McDonald’s to me), and I accidently picked the fried catfish. This was actually not bad and didn’t seem as much like McDonald’s as I feared, they also provided a few hush puppies which I absolutely love.

After eating catfish I made my way south into Louisiana and then because of the direction of the freeways I made my way into Mississippi. The original plan called for eating in New Orleans, Biloxi, and Mobile one after the other and that seemed like too much food in too short of a period of time. So to fix this problem I decided to eat in Jackson, MS to leave a little time between meals tomorrow. In Jackson, Foodio54 sent me to Haru Japanese Restaurant. I do love sushi although given the huge amount of variety I wasn’t sure what to get so I asked the waitress for recommendations. She suggested the salmon and the “dynamite” rolls, which were made of crab. Both were fantastic, the dynamite rolls had a sweet sauce on top which was very good. After leaving the restaurant something very odd happened. I turned down a road and I saw what appeared to be a narrow road with a police car with someone pulled over, so I decided I’ll just go around so I backed up and turned back on the road. Then it turned out that instead of having someone pulled over there were three police cars doing what looked to me like donuts, and as soon as I backed up they all turned on their flashing lights and it seemed like I was about to be pulled over. Instead they pulled up next to me at a stop light, starred at me, and then sped off… totally bizarre.

Tags: Big Road Trip