Shealy's Bar-b-que

Last weekend the family and I went to Shealy's. We were planning on going with some friends during the week but I found out I was going to be out of town so we decided to go before I left. We normally avoid going on a Friday or Saturday night because it is usually a little easier on the less busy nights. When we got there the line was out the door and to the edge of the building. Fortunately, the line actually moves quickly. A lot of poeple in line talked to the baby too.

With the baby, we have to sit down before getting any food. What...wait even longer!?!?! So we sat in our usual room with the really good waitress. She usually keeps my tea between 3/4 and full, which is an amazing task.

The buffet included everything I really like. There was the usual green beans, lima beans, and cream style corn, and my favorite item that is not always on the buffet, the macaroni and cheese. I am not a normal to mac-n-cheese but Shealy's is different. Of course I got a little que and fried chicken. I usually get a gizzard to snack on while I am finding my seat.

As usual, the vegetables were seasoned well and tasted better than home-made. I gave the peanut some lima beans to try. She ate some, but since she had already had her dinner she wasnt much for eating. She played with them though.

I feel a need to describe the barbeque since I am so into eating it. Honestly, I dont think about the barbeque at Shealy's because it is not what I go there to eat. But, to be consistent with my other posts, here it is. The barbeque has a mustard based sauce that is added before it is served. The mustard yellow disguises the meat so that it is not obvious if it has that great smoke induced red color. The mustard sauce is also strong and one cant taste any smoke flavor. From the appearance of the building too, I would assume that they do not use a real wood oven/grill. But, the mustard based sauce is sweet and tangy, and has a great taste. So, the point is liking the sauce and going for the sauce. The meat is almost meaningless. Shealy's does chop their pork so there are some undesirable pieces of meat included. Overall, it is good for a change.

Shug’s Smokehouse Grill & Tavern

Well I am visiting my mom in good old Hartsville, South Carolina and I wanted to go to Shug’s. Check them out online at http://www.shugssmokehouse.com/. My mom doesn’t like this place because when they first opened they would give you roasted peanuts and you either piled the shells on the table or threw them on the floor. This did not rest well with my moms sensibilities. So, I don’t get to eat there often. But this time I had the evening free and could eat at all the restaurants that my mom doesn’t usually like to go to. Shug’s location was also very convenient to where I was at and where I was going.

I have read a couple of reviews of this restaurant and have wanted to give the ribs a try. Luckily for me they had a rib and pulled pork combo, so I was able to get it all. I also ordered the sautéed asparagus and a baked potato. Recently I have had some really exceptional grilled asparagus and thought that maybe these would be wonderful. I was wonderfully wrong. They weren’t bad though. The baked potato was actually really good and really hot.

I tried the pulled pork first. It had a really sweet, and slightly mustard taste. After eating a little more I was convinced that it also had a slight vinegar taste too. It did not have any apparent sauce on it but it was tasty enough without it. The drawback, for me at least, was the lack of a smoky taste. The meat did not have any of that smoke induced redness in it at all. By the time I finished the meat I was kind of tired of the taste and added some of the sauce from the ribs.

The ribs had a dry rub followed with a mopping of wet sauce that was cooked to a glaze. Sticky sticky sticky. The sauce was very sweet. I believe that part of the dry rub is brown sugar. It was very good way to start off the ribs. The meat was tender enough but was not falling off the bone. It too did not have a smoky taste nor was the meat infused with the smoky redness. By the time I got to the end of the rack though the sweetness had almost made me tired of eating the ribs.

I would not recommend the ribs or bbq from Shug’s “Smokehouse”. I am not sure why smokehouse is in the name. Stick with the steak.

Mountains and Caves

The next trip that my wife and I took was for our first anniversary. We decided to take a driving tour that included stays in Hendersonville, Pigeon Forge, Chattanooga, and Scottsboro. Our trip began with the drive to Hendersonville. We avoided the interstate and took the trip through Greenwood, Ware Shoals, and Greenville. It was nice to not feel like we were on a deadline to get somewhere. We got to the Hotel in Hendersonville and checked in. The next day, we enjoyed the small downtown area of Hendersonville and went to an apple orchard. At the apple orchard, they had a maize maze. That’s what I like to call them. It was pretty interesting and pretty large. It was threatening rain so we were kind of in a hurry to get through. The pattern was a little predictable but with a few twists to keep it interesting. The apples were good too.

The next day we uprooted and drove towards Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. We again took the scenic route that brought us to Sylva, NC. We stopped at Lulu’s Café on Main Street. I am not sure what else we ordered, but we planned to share a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup, the soup of the day. The waiter informed us that we would each want our own bowl of soup. We ignored the waiter’s advice and ended up regretting it. It was very good. We were fighting over the bowl of soup. Legendary. We walked around Sylva a little and found it to be a really interesting little town.

Next, we hit a roadblock. The road between Cherokee and Gatlinburg had been closed. This forced us to drive back to I-40 and take US Highway 321. We found very little traffic on 321, which was a nice break. Suddenly, just in front of the car, a bear strolls out of the woods. We pass just a few feet from him as he starts to cross the road. I stopped the car to get a better look at him. My wife, horrified that I had stopped, rolled up the windows in the car. Seriously? I did find a little humor in that. But the bear was not interested in us and was quickly getting away.

We spent the next couple of days in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. We roamed around Gatlinburg and took the sky lift up the mountain to see the birds eye view of Gatlinburg. I guess I wasn’t ready for Gatlinburg to be so touristy, so we were a little let down. The next day we took a tour of the Old Mill. That was quite interesting. I was surprised at how much processing equipment went along with the big rock (a.k.a. millstone). We also toured Boyds Bear Country. Snooze.

Well it was time to pack up again and head to Chattanooga. We again took the scenic route and stopped at Tuckaleechee Caverns. I had been to the Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin before but this was my wife’s first trip underground. It was a little corny but there was history of the cave and general information about cave formations. I guess my wife must have liked it because the next stop on the way to Chattanooga was the Lost Sea, another cavern. This one is a little different in that it does not have a natural entrance. Truly untouched. It also boasts the second largest known underground lake, and at the end of the tour there is a boat ride on the lake.

Back above ground we made our way to Chattanooga. We explored downtown a little but then decided to go to Ruby Falls and Rock City. How could you not visit Rock City with all of the barns around telling you to do so? We were not aware that Ruby Falls was a cave tour also. Seriously, it is named Ruby Falls and we had no idea. So we took the third cave tour in two days. But it was interesting too, and wasn’t too long. Rock City was pretty impressive too. I was awe struck.

We concluded the trip with a visit to my dad, who lived in Scottsboro, Alabama. We went to the Unclaimed Baggage store and wondered why this place had such fame. Our local Goodwill has similar stuff. Maybe it was picked over when we went. One other event happened while we were driving all over. We left just after a hurricane hit the south. What we didn’t know is that gas was going to become really scarce in a hurry. By the time we got to Scottsboro, most of Atlanta and the surrounding areas were out of gas. Luckily my dad loaned us a 7 gallon gas tank and with the full tank of gas leaving Scottsboro we had just enough gas to get home. It was kind of a scary thought of running out of gas and not being able to get anymore.