Big Chicken

I had lunch at the Big Chicken yesterday. This means I dined on Kentucky FRIED Chicken (original recipe) at one of Atlanta's best-known (at least in Atlanta) landmarks, the Big Chicken. The Big Chicken refers to a large chicken-shaped sign that towers over the restaurant on Cobb Parkway in Marietta. The sign is so well-known that locals use it as a point of reference: "Turn left at the Big Chicken," or "Go two miles beyond the Big Chicken." (Just as Parisians probably say, "Hang a left at the Eiffel Tower and you're there." ) A few years back the sign was ripped apart by strong, tornadic-like winds. There was talk of taking the remnants down. A hue and cry ensued and KFC received more than 10,000 letters, phone calls and emails urging the company to restore the Big Chicken to its former glory. They did (to the tune of $300,000) and gained immeasurable goodwill in the process. Strange, but in all the years of hearing about the Big Chicken and passing by the Big Chicken, it never dawned on me that you could actually stop at the Big Chicken and eat there. (Sorta like passing the Eiffel Tower and not realizing you can travel to the top; I suppose also there's a restaurant there). So yesterday I did. There is a display inside of various newspaper stories about the restoration of the BC as well as information about the location and how the BC came to be. Which came first: the restaurant or the chicken? There are also schoolkids' drawings of the BC. Inside, the restaurant boasts two posts or support pillars which, carrying through on the theme, are made to look like chicken legs. Outside, the chicken's beak opens and closes! So I enjoyed my first visit to the Big Chicken and look forward to many more! I even bought a souvenir Big Chicken coffee cup.

Nashville Cats

We're in Nashville, waiting to attend the Grand Ole Opry. I first heard the Opry as a boy on my dad's radios. He was always tuned to a country station (back when country was more country and less cross-over). He also liked bluegrass and gospel and I guess I owe my appreciation of that music to him, though at the time I cringed at it because it seemed too country and not as sophisticated as the do-wop and rock 'n' roll I was listening to. Ricky Skaggs is on the show tonight and I'm looking forward to hearing him. Also Jimmy Dickens, who was around when I was a kid (unless this is a son or grandson). He was known as Little Jimmy Dickens because of his small size. We enjoyed our stay at Mammoth Cave, Ky., and took two two-hour tours of the cave. The cave covers more than 350 miles (maybe more unexplored) so there are several tours that take you to different areas. We enjoyed both tours and found the park to be a pleasant place to visit. Because of school holidays, there were lots of children and we enjoyed seeing them and sharing their enthusiasm. We'd like to bring our grands to visit the cave some day.

Bluegrass Night

We are halfway through our roadtrip through parts of Appalachian North Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. We spent the night in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and had dinner at the very "eclectic" (or is it "eccentric") Cranberry Thistle cafe last night, one of only two places to eat within walking distance of our hotel, the Eureka Inn. The cafe greets you with a sign suggesting you "Relax, You're on Jonesborough Time." We took the sign at its word and so sat for about 20-30 minutes without anyone acknowledging our presence before I went to the register and asked the woman there if we were supposed to order at the counter or what? She got up and hobbled on her cane to the back and produced the one-and-only server who came to our table and cheerfully asked "You here for coffee and dessert?" "No, we came for dinner." "I'm sorry but the kitchen closes at 7 " (it was 10 past, we had arrived about quarter till. Then ensued a discussion about how she had just been over in our area and "hadn't seen us" but I later surmised that since we were the only non-locals in the place, we were probably invisible to us for she had passed by us not once but several times. Anyway, she said they would be glad to reopen the kitchen and serve us dinner and proceeded to take our orders etc. All the while, in the background, from a back room of the restaurant came the soothing strains of bluegrass tunes, most of which I had never heard before, and occasionally some fellow in jeans would amble by, instrument in hand, and join the group. For the next 45 minutes or so we sat and enjoyed the concert coming from the back room. Turns out it was local musicians who get together every Wednesday night to jam. It was a real treat and worth the wait.

Jonesborough is the oldest town in Tennessee and home to a major Storytelling Festival every summer. The town features lots of old, historic buildings and a Storytelling Center. In the summer they close off the main street downtown on certain days for music events. It was also home to some of the first pro-abolition, anti-slavery newspapers in the U.S. Andrew Jackson was once a lawyer here and Washington County was the first in the U.S. named after President George Washington. It and two other counties were originally part of North Carolina but seceded and formed the State of Franklin, which was eventually absorbed into the territory that became Tennessee.