Road Trippin

My weekend adventures included a road trip in addition to my  marathon. I was up bright and early Friday morning to hit the road. I was joined by Natali on this journey. It was smooth sailing as we hit the roads before the morning rush. We stopped for a late breakfast in BFE Illinois when we stopped for gas. I think a road trips and late night drunken munchies are probably the only time it is acceptable to go to Denny's.

We continued on our journey and made a slight detour on our way down to Little Rock. We decided we wanted to get some good food and stopped off in Memphis for a late lunch. We went to a place called Charlie Vergos Rendezvous which was located in the basement of a building with an entrance in an alley. The looks didn't matter because you could smell the food a block away. We had some amazing ribs. They were served with just a dry rub on them and no sauce. They had so much flavor the sauce wasn't needed. There was some sauce on the table which I used sparingly just to kick up the flavor a bit more. After being stuffed silly we finished the trek to Little Rock.

I stayed on my own in Little Rock while Natali joined her friends who flew down. While my hotel was on the "wrong side" of I30 it was still a short walk to the main entertainment district. I wandered around a bit after visiting the expo, but it wasn't large so it didn't take long which helped spare the legs a bit. I had to check out Gus's World Famous Chicken after checking out Yelp. The fried chicken definitely lived up to the hype. It had the right crispness to it as well as a slight heat to the breading. They also had a tasty slaw on the side.

After getting cleaned up after the race on Sunday I headed to the local watering hole that everyone had recommended. The Flying Saucer featured a number of fine craft beers on tap and in bottle. The special was pints of local beer for $3.50. I quenched my thirst on a few Arkansas beers. I also met a fellow Maniac and discussed various races.

On the way back to Chicago we stopped off at a Waffle House knockoff called Huddle House. Service was a big slow but the food was ok. This time our detour was into St. Louis where we headed to Pappy's Smokehouse. I guess we lucked out since there was no line when we got in there, but a long one formed shortly after. Once again the ribs were amazing. I could only eat half a slab but they had carry out boxes so I brought the rest home for dinner. The BBQ stops nearly made the road trip worth it. The rush hour traffic when we got back to Chicago made things miserable.

On Tuesday I woke to realize that I should never spend 13 hours on a road trip the day after a marathon. I've never been in as bad of shape as I was post race. I was waddling around the office. I'm glad I was able to get some good BBQ, but I think the next time I have to go somewhere that far away I'll just book the flight.