Hi, my name is Mojo.
 |
| Pictured Here at Dragon Con Dressed As Richie Tenenbaum |
Some people call me something else, but that's not relevant here. I live my life by metrics. Whether or not it's a good thing, or ultimately healthy I measure my personal success in life by the things that I've done, and to some extent at least the things that I own. In some ways I do it to make sure I keep moving, keep exploring new things, keep trying new things, and maybe find something along the way I wasn't expecting. Instead of just going on about me, I'm gonna dive right in.
One of my goals in life is to visit all 50 US states. I have one friend who has done it, my brother has expressed interest in doing it, but most people I know shrug it off as something that they might do, but not something they expect to do. At the start of this year I had been to thirty-three states I started my year off with a week and a half road trip that took me to six more. For the rest of this year my energy, money, and travel is going to be focused on doing something significantly more intense. I am going to attempt to go to all 50 states this calendar year. As of today I have been to Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and California, in that order. That covers the state I live in, the state I work in and the two vacations I've taken so far this year. A couple things to keep in mind: driving through a state counts, but airports do not, even if you land at them.
I don't completely know why I'm going to do this, other than maybe, because it's there, and because I am able to? I have the energy, will and am able to, so I'm going to try. Maybe next year I'll focus on Canada, or Europe, or South America, but for now i'm going to attempt to finish one of my primary US based goals. Along the way I'll work on a few more personal goals and hopefully find something out there in the country that is undiscovered to me. I'm slowly working my way into photography and this will allow me to explore that as well as work on my goals of seeing every baseball team in their home stadium and every visit every US National Park.
But for now let's talk about the beginning January 1st - January 2nd, 2016.
One major reason I travel is for Comic Cons. In fact, other than to visit my grandparents, I have no taken a vacation in the last 3 years that did not include a comic con (I should probably see someone about that, but right now I'm to busy writing about it). January of this year was Wizard World New Orleans so I decided that I should visit all the states in the South that I had yet to visit. My journey started at noon on January 1st in Laurel, Maryland. I stopped at my parents house in Virginia on the way to grab some stuff before continuing on. I'm not going to talk about Virginia or Maryland much today as those are the two states that I currently spend most of my time in, and I'll get back to them later.
For now let's talk about Tennessee. Around 7 PM on January 1st I rolled into Tennessee and drove to Nashville where I was to stay the first night. When I travel, I have no problem staying in small or old hotels as long as they are clean, and in Nashville the one I stayed in was cheap and had everything I needed. It was also next a Waffle House, which to that date I don't believe I had been to, so I went. I ordered a waffle, which was perfectly fine and hash browns with cheese, which were perfectly awful. I was not aware they were just going to melt a slice of processed cheese on top, or I would have gotten them without the cheese, but anyway. I digress.
The plan for January 2nd, was to get up early in the morning go into Nashville for breakfast, wander around a bit and then get BBQ for lunch before moving on to Memphis for dinner.
For breakfast I went to Biscuit Love Brunch and got hot chicken on a biscuit and a Mimosa.
 |
| Biscuit Love Brunch - Hot Chicken on a Biscuit |
To say it was divine would be an understatement. I personally detest mustard, which can be seen to be slathered on top, but it just added the right flavor profile to a fantastic breakfast. It is absolutely some place I'd consider going again, even considering that I've only been Nashville the one time and I'm sure there are countless wonderful places to go.
After breakfast I had a few hours to kill so I thought I'd go downtown and wander for a few hours and just check things out. Fortunate enough, it turns out, what I didn't know is that in downtown Nashville there is a Johnny Cash museum, which was a seriously cool place to check out. Inside was a collection of his personal items and music memorabilia ranging from all of his gold and platinum records to movie posters.
They even had some signed guitars and what appeared to be a Valentine's Day gift from Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash.
 |
| Inscribed Heart from Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash |
The museum was not overly large, partially because as great of a musician and presumably great of a man as Johnny Cash was, he was just one man. Also, it was a private collection that was either donated or loaned for the sake of the museum, so that also limited the size.
After the museum I wandered around the town for a bit to a few different shops. Nashville reminded me a little bit like a hybrid of Austin and boardwalk. It had lots of signs I'm guessing are lit up at night, and many tourist shops that sell allegedly Tennessee items along with a multitude of candy shops, but at the same time is a bastion of music, specifically country music. So along with all the tourist shop are a handful of shops that sell cowboy boots. I went into a few just to kill time and was surprised by how expensive they turned ended up being. I knew they were going to be expensive, just not as expensive as the ones I saw at those shops.
Everyone I met in Nashville was wonderfully nice and everyone at every place I went to was also wonderfully kind and accommodating. Eventually I found myself waiting outside the barbecue place I had wanted to go to, Jack's. That's where this part of my way went down hill quite a bit. They didn't open their doors until nearly an hour after they were supposed to and then did not have everything that was on their menu. What I did try was so unmemorable that I for the life of me could not tell you what meat I ended up getting or the sides. Needless to say I left unsatisfied.
From Jack's I went to Jackalope Brewery.
I would one day like to have tried over 5000 beers, so that I can then set my goal to 5000 beers, and I find the most efficient way to do that is to travel to every city I can and visit every brewery I can while I'm there. For Nashville it was Jackalope. The beer was fine, but did not stand out for me, which is something I've found as more and more time passes. There are plenty of decent breweries out there, but few that really do a good job at standing out.
After the brewery I made my way towards Memphis. Unbeknownst to me that day was the day of a bowl game in Memphis, and the BBQ place, that I was headed to was nearby. Thankfully, I got there after the game started and before the game left. In my short time I was there I got a wonderful impression of Memphis and Memphians and I am sure to go back when I am able.
My only destination was Central BBQ.
A place that I had intended upon going, that was confirmed as a good place to go by a coworker of mine. While waiting in line I ended up chatting with a married couple and because of the type of seating that Central BBQ has, they invited me to sit and eat with them. I had a rib plate with a few other meats including sausage, but compared to those ribs, the everything else on the plate was superfluous.
 |
| Ribs, Pulled Pork, Mac and cheese, and Baked Beans at Central BBQ |
The meal itself was exactly what I was hoping for and expecting and was everything that the food at Jack's was not. I left Memphis quite satisfied with my meal and moved on from there to Arkansas, which I'll leave as a story for another day.
I leave you today with this. In August I plan on taking the most intense road trip of my life. Below can be seen the rough outline for it, it's something I'll explain in greater detail next time I write but for now I'll leave you with the map.
 |
| Road trip: August 2016 |
Current State Count: 39
Current State Count for the year: 14
