Month: May 2018

Unfortunately our trip must come to a premature end. Rae Elster, Patrice’s mother, died last night at her home. Followers of this blog who knew Rae, are aware of what a special woman she was. Those of you who did not know her missed a very special person. She will be sorely missed by everyone. She was 91.

Patrice and I are ending our trip today and returning home.

Today was the final day of judging. This was the big day.  This was the day when all the champions would be crowned.  Judging categories are Ribs, Shoulder and Whole Hog. On arrival to the judge’s tent Patrice and I were assigned to judge Shoulder. I don’t really care about the category. What I like is going onsite (where you go to meet the competitors) rather than blind judging (when you just receive boxes of product).  It is when you really get to taste the flavor of the competition.  You cannot begin to imagine how important this is for the people who participate unless you are an onsite judge.

As you pass the various tents on your way to your assigned tent, all competitors are on the lookout because they don’t know which passerby might be their judge.  When you arrive at the tent to which you are assigned  you are typically greeted by the captain of the team (not necessarily the head cook).  The first team I met was an experienced team but still seemed very nervous when talking to me.  For example their greeter introduced himself and forgot my name 3 times (not a problem for me).  He introduced me to his team, Billy Bob, Billy Ray, Billy Joe and Daisy (yes, they are from the South) and then escorted me over to their cooker and explained their cooking method.  Then Billy Ray (or was it Billy Bob?) brought the pork over to a small table which was set with a table cloth, napkin (with a napkin ring), plate, but no silverware (any judge who uses any cutlery is immediately labeled as an “Idiot”.   Also on the table was a glass of water and a sorbet to, in Daisy’s words, help cleanse the palate before trying the meat.  Billy Ray then started to pull pork off the bone hoping to satiate my appetite so I would not even bother going to the other booths.  When I was done tasting they handed me a moist hot towel to clean my hands.  Then as I left I received, the always embarrassing, round of applause accompanied by the chant, “Thank you Judge Robert! Thank you Judge Robert!.

Then it was on to my second team.  They too tried to kill me with kindness.  Again they seemed like they were nervous.  I am the one who should be nervous.  They are just in a silly barbecue contest.  I am the Jew who will burn in hell for eating all this pork plus I have to face my vegetarian niece and try to explain my actions.   Team #2 was a much larger team and I can’t remember all their names.  They did have a nice touch by serving me (in additional to some amazing pork) some of “Aunt Phoebe’s” lemon tart as a little dessert.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them I am a chocolate lover and lemon is just not my thing.

I then visited my third and final team.  Here I met Sam, David and his wife Sarah.  This had my worried.  Had my rabbi sent this trio to kill me?  I have never seen a team with less than a small army (rather than a team of only 3) and these names definitely had me freaked out (these were not southern BBQ type names).  I was offered some pork but before I tasted any I insisted they eat some first.  Much to my amazement the pork was spectacular.  This team was also unique in that instead of giving me a moist towel to wash off they gave me a dipping bowl.  I said, “Wow feels just like Passover”.  My joke was followed by complete silence.  I realized this was the wrong crowd for that joke but at least I knew it wasn’t an Israeli death squad sent to eliminate an infidel.

The festival is now over and it is time to move on.  It has been a rough few days in Memphis due to all the heat.  But I will be up and ready to go in the morning.

 

Many of you know my dear niece Leslie.  A sweeter human being has never existed on Earth.  I credit her with saving my mother’s life.  It is a long story and I won’t bore you with the details but just take my word for it she is amazing and I love her dearly.  The problem here is that she is a vegetarian and a real animal lover.  What I saw today blew my mind and would tremendously upset her.  So my warning to her is to NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER.

Today was a day of more judging.  We arrived at the judging area early so I decided to take a stroll around the park.  The competitors for the Whole Hog competition had just had their meat inspected and they were working hard getting things ready for tomorrow’s competition.  At the first tent I was greeted with this sight:

The next booth I reached was from Mexico. I could hear Spanish being spoken as I approached and was excited and hoped that I could practice my language skills.  But as I got closer I realized that the Mexicans had two ringers in their midst.  The two workers in the middle of the picture below were doing most of the work and did not sound like they came from south of the border.

After my little tour I returned to the tent where Patrice and I judged poultry.  When I first sit at the judging table I like to exchange greetings with the other judges.  The judge sitting across from me said his name was Julian.  I told him that I have a grandson named Julian.  He seemed pleased when he said, “I don’t meet many Julians”.  I asked where he was from and he said “D.C.” at which point the judge to my right said, “You’re from the Swamp”.  Julian seemed confused.  I explained to him “We are in Trump Country”.  Julian smiled and said, “Oh”.

Getting back to my mom (who is now 102 years old) I called her tonight.  I like to check in with her on regular basis.  She asked where we were.  I told her Memphis and then asked if she received the trip itinerary that I mailed her.  She said yes, so I asked “Then why did you ask?  You already knew where we were.”   To which she replied, “I wanted to check to see if you knew”.

Dinner was a blast.  We went out with our friends Gary and Smooch to a restaurant called Tsunami [928 Cooper St, Memphis, TN 38104] located in a upscale area called Cooper Young.  We read about the area in American Ways magazine (the American Airlines inflight magazine).   The food was great.  We ordered lots of appetizers (tapas style eating) but many of the dishes came in orders of 5.  I asked the group, “Why is it when they have a party of 4 they just don’t give you 4 or 8 pieces so the diners can divide the portions equally?”   When we ordered the next appetizer we asked the waitress if we could get 8 shrimp instead of 5.  At first she said yes but then came back and said the chef could only make us one or two orders of 5 shrimp.  We decided on the the single order and then I went on a tirade talking to the group about the educational system in our country and how I see young people on a regular basis who cannot do simple math.  I finally settled down and we finished our meal.  When the server brought our bill.  She asked if we wanted her to divide the check in half to which I said, “No, in fifths”.

Tomorrow we have the judging finals.

Today was our first day of judging. This is a lightly attended day since it involves sauces and wings. Neither command much interest except from diehards like us.

We connected with some old friends like Lance from Tastin’ ‘Round Town (www.tastinroundtown.com). We can blame him for this craziness since it was his BBQ tour in 2015 that got us infected with the Memphis in May BBQ bug.

We also had some time to explore the booths. The contestants frequently like to have catchy names like “Boars Night Out”, “The Pig and the Pigulum”, “Nice Rack”, “Aporkalypse Now”, “Born in the Que SA” and “Love Meat Tender” to name just a few.  There are over 200 booths competing in the three main categories of Whole Hog, Shoulder, and Ribs.   There are two phases of the competition “Blind” and “On Site”.  The blind competition will occur tomorrow when product will be presented to judges in styrofoam boxes that are numbered.  Each box will be judged by 4 judges.  The second phase will occur on Saturday when judges will go to booths and meet the team and taste their product.  Each judge will go to 3 teams and each team will have 3 separate judges visit them.  On site judging provides us with a great opportunity to taste some amazing BBQ but it is the cultural experience that I enjoy most.  More about that on Saturday.

Today Patrice and I did blind judging of sauce and wings.  Just to give you an idea of how arbitrary this can be, at my table one of the judges and I decided wings #2 were the best that we tasted.  A judge sitting across from me thought #2 was the worse of the lot.

There are a lot of people out at the festival so it is easy to get separated if you are not careful.  I made sure I didn’t lose Patrice by having her wear a shirt that described her perfectly (see below)

When we were leaving the fair to return to the hotel is started to rain.  At first there were fine droplets but soon after we had to run for cover.  Luckily they had room for us at the Metro PCS booth where they had phone chargers set up for the fair attendees.  So in spite of having to wait for the rain to clear we at least had an opportunity to charge our phones.  The rain let up for a bit so we hustled home while we had a chance.

After having those wings I thought I wouldn’t need to eat again until Saturday at the earliest but when dinner came around I was ready to go.  Gary and Smooch picked out a place called Flight [39 S. Main St, Memphis, TN 38103] and the place was spectacular.  They specialized in fine dining but portions can be ordered in small sizes called Flights.  So if you can’t decide if you want the Scallops, Soft Shell Crab or Shrimp you can have all 3.  They do that with their wines, appetizers, entrees and desserts.  The food was spectacular.

Until tomorrow when the real BBQ judging begins.

Yes, the food is unhealthy (but delicious), the weather unbearable, and the politics are much different than back home but the one thing I really love here is to listen to people talk. As you might recall on our trip to Canada I was very suspicious of our location because it took about 4 days before I heard anyone say “eh”. Well there’s no doubt where we are today. Leaving our room a member of the housekeeping staff greeted us with a friendly good morning and a directive “Y’all have a good breakfast “.  Then at our favorite morning diner, Blue Plate Cafe [113 Court Ave, Memphis, TN 38103], the server (oops, I forgot we are in Tennessee) I mean waitress asked if we were ready to order or “y’all need a few more minutes?”

After another great breakfast we headed do the Cotton Museum.  Patrice liked it but I would recommend a pass.  After the museum we went back to the hotel for something that should be a part of every vacation.  We both had massages.

After that I played Uber driver and picked up our friend Gary and his friend Smooch (not a typo and no, she is not from the South).  We dined at the Barbecue Shop [1782 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104] a place first introduced to us by Lance on our BBQ Food Tour in 2015 .   This place is famous for their BBQ Spaghetti (yes spaghetti).  We needed to get our BBQ palates ready for the judging which will be starting soon.

Here are the musicians from yesterday’s quiz.  This time with their names included.

Today was suppose to be just a travel day as we took the long drive from Dallas to Memphis.  Sunday when we had dinner with our friends Kathy and Sam they asked if we were going to stop at the Clinton Presidential Library.  I was embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t even considered it.  How could I plan to see the George W. Bush Library and not even consider Clinton?

Little Rock is about 320 miles from Dallas.  I looked at the Clinton Library website and saw that they had tours with the last being at 1:30 PM.  Getting there by that time would take some real effort on Patrice’s part.  You have to remember that we are still on California time and that would mean we would have to be on the road by about 8:00 AM.  We did manage to get in the car, ready to go, at 8:25 AM and we were making great time on the road.  We had to bypass some sites.  For example we saw sign from the highway that read  “Dr. John’s Lingerie” but we decided we would have to wait until next time for that one.  We did stop in Hope, Arkansas (Bill Clinton’s birthplace) to get gas but decided we didn’t have time to see the monument to commemorate Clinton’s site of origin.  We rolled into the Library parking lot at a trace after 1:00 PM in plenty of time to make the tour.  Of course the docent called in sick and the tour was cancelled.  Instead we toured by ourselves.

The Clinton Library was much like the Bush Library in that it was freezing inside.  This time I came prepared with my jacket.  They had the Presidential limousine which I liked seeing and a short presentation about the Secret Service.  Like Bush there were lots of puff pieces making this President the greatest of all time.  The most interesting thing I saw were personal letters from a variety of well known people and Clinton’s replies.  It showed a side of these individuals that you often don’t get to see when they are showing their public faces.  Letter writers included Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Paul Newman, former NYC mayor John V. Lindsay, the Dalai Lama, Katherine Graham, John Kennedy Jr., Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers)  and a variety of others.

The museum had a special exhibit discussing music in politics.  This included a 13 minute film that showed a number of very famous musicians performing at benefits to raise money for a variety of worthy causes.  There was a display of Elvis Presley in the military and showed pictures of a number of other celebrities from their military days.  Can you identify these three musicians in uniform?  One I think is easy but can you name all three?  I will show the photos with their names tomorrow.

Before we left Little Rock I had to go see Central High School.  For those of you not up to date on your US History this was the site where 9 Black teenagers attempted to integrate an all White high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Governor Orval Faubus attempted to block their entry in September of 1957.  President Eisenhower sent federal troops and later federalized the Arkansas National Guard to ensure that the students would be registered and could safely attend the school.   In 1971 my friend, Greg, and I traveled about the USA in a van.  One thing we both wanted to do was travel through the deep south.  We both had relatively long hair at the time and neither of our parents thought this was a great idea.  I wasn’t always as smart as I am today and Greg wasn’t too bright either so we went and had a FANTASTIC time.  To this day it remains one of my favorite trips of all time.

Today’s trip from Little Rock to Memphis gave us a little laugh and excitement.   On our way to the Clinton Library we saw a warning sign, “Road Dangerous When Underwater”.  Shortly after taking the picture of Central HS we found out what they meant when we were caught in a heavy rain storm.  It was interesting in that after lunch we experienced the sudden onset of some very strong winds while walking to our car.   Soon after starting to drive we saw some lightening.  Then the rains came.  They were extremely heavy and prevented us from driving faster than 30 mph on the highway.  After about 30 minutes they cleared and we were on our way.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Memphis but don’t forget to try to name the musicians above.

 

 

Today we headed over to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.  This is the 5th Presidential Library we have visited.  On previous road trips we have gone to the libraries of JFK, LBJ and Jimmy Carter.   We also have gone to the Reagan library which is close to our home.  This visit we were joined by Patrice’s cousin, Paula and her husband Tim.  I had heard that the “George W” library only had one book and it was a coloring book.  I am here to bear witness that that is NOT true.   Actually there are two books (see below).

After the Library we headed over to “Cafe 43” to have lunch.  George W was the 43rd President so they call it Cafe 43.  Isn’t that cute?  Of course he was number 43 only if you count Grover Cleveland as our 22nd AND 24th President (Our 23rd President, Benjamin Harrison, served two terms between Cleveland’s two terms).

At lunch we were joined by Tim and Paula’s lovely daughter, Allison.  I sat next to Allison at lunch and immediately liked her.  Yes, you guessed it, I liked her because she laughed at all my stupid jokes.  By the way, Paula is Patrice’s first cousin once removed and Allison is Patrice’s second cousin.  If you want an explanation of the various types of cousins, you are reading the wrong blog.  For that information you have to subscribe to the “Robert Reiss Genealogy” blog.

When we got back to the hotel it was time for a little work out.  We both hit the hotel gym for about 30 minutes of cardio before heading out to meet our daughter-in-law’s brother, Marc.  We affectionately call him Uncle Marc and when he lived in LA I used to call him my son, since he filled in very nicely for my David who no longer lives in Los Angeles.

Marc picked us up at the hotel and took us to a great restaurant called “The Rustic” [3656 Howell St, Dallas, TX 75204; (214) 730-0596].  The food was great as was the decor.  But even greater was the fact that the air conditioning was not set at “Arctic Circle”.  We had a great meal and caught up on old times.  After dinner Marc took us to see his newly purchased home.  That made us both sad and happy.  We are certainly happy that he has found a place he enjoys living but we miss having him in LA.  

Tomorrow we head to Memphis for the BBQ portion of this trip.  We are going to try to make it to Little Rock on our way so we can visit the Clinton Library.   I don’t think we will be going to all the Presidential Libraries after we finish with all the MLB parks.  It is one thing for me to convince Patrice to go to Cleveland and Cincinnati but asking her to go to West Branch, Iowa and Abilene, Kansas might be too much for our marriage to survive.

 

Today Patrice earned her keep. Followers of this blog know that some of our best adventures have been discovered by Patrice. Today she added to the list of wonderful things she has discovered for us to do.

This morning we went to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.  You probably know this place by its previous name, The Texas School Book Depository.  The building from where it has been said that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and assassinated President John F. Kennedy is now a museum.  The exhibit is mostly housed on the sixth floor where taking photographs is prohibited.  You can see the area from where Oswald allegedly took aim at the President.  There are also a series of displays showing video and audio recordings of the events leading up to the assassination, the event itself and the aftermath.

People younger than us have learned about the assassination but having lived through it makes this museum much more riveting.   Everyone my age knows exactly where they were when JFK was assassinated.  I can still hear my junior high school physical education coach (Mr. Criss) leaning his head into the coaches office and saying, “It’s true, he’s been shot”.  Then I asked Mr. Badran (another coach), “Who was shot?” and he said “The President”.   Then about an hour later I was in the hall with my friend Gerry and we heard on a radio that the President had died.

Reliving the event at the museum brought back many memories not only of the assassination.  I remembered the 1960 Democratic Convention being at the Los Angeles Sports Arena just a few miles from our apartment.  I remembered hearing the then President-elect saying after the election results came in, “We are now going to get ready for a new administration and a new baby”.  Hearing him say those words again made me tear up.  I know, I know, that’s nothing new for me.

Of great interest was seeing how close the President’s limousine came to the Depository and then turned in front of the Depository and as it proceeded away the area where he was shot.  I have heard a lot of conspiracy theorists ask a lot of questions but one thing I do not recall hearing is why Oswald waited until the limo turned and was going away from him.  Why didn’t he shoot when the limo had turned on to Houston Street and was heading directly toward him?  That and many other questions will never be answered.

After a very emotional and tearful morning at the Sixth Floor Museum we had a wonderful dinner with our friends Sam and Kathy.  We know this wonderful couple from when they lived in Hermosa Beach many years ago.  They moved to Texas because Kathy wanted to be closer to her family in Texas (Erica please read the previous sentence at least 10 times).   When they lived in Hermosa, Sam and I enjoyed Indian Guides with our sons Michael and David.  What could be better than two Jewish guys in a Christian father and son organization?  After Sam and Kathy moved we lost touch.   I tried in the past to find them but Dallas is a big city.  Last year I decided to use Facebook and much to my surprise I found that Sam had a FB profile.  It was clear that Sam was not very active on FB but I found Sam’s son Michael and he got me connected with his dad.

We had a great time tonight reliving old times.  We also talked about parenthood (after all today is Mother’s Day), Texas, travel and all sorts of topics.  Sam made a wonderful dinner (sorry I forgot to take a picture) and we decided our next meeting would be much sooner than our last hiatus of 26 years.

Tomorrow more friends, family, and sightseeing.

This morning we checked out of the heavenly JW Marriott Downtown Houston and headed to the Houston Space Center (aka Johnson Space Center).

The Center was built on land donated by Rice University and dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962 in a very famous and often quoted speech. I have to admit I didn’t know about the speech but had to be told about it by my son, David.  In 2003 I was visiting David at college and Texas had just beaten Rice 48-7 and I muttered aloud, “Why does Rice play Texas in football?”  David looked at me and said “John Kennedy asked the same question”.  Go to the following link to hear a portion of the speech at the dedication of the Space Center. It’s worth a few minutes of your time and you will find out why Rice plays Texas.  This is only a 2 minute excerpt of a marvelous speech.

The space center was spectacular. They had exhibits that appealed to all ages. There were great videos, some of which made me teary eyed (Patrice here: Robert teary eyed? some surprise….. NOT).

The highlight of the visit was “Lunch With an Astronaut”.  For a modest fee you can have lunch (along with about 30 other visitors) with a former astronaut.  We ate with Dr. John-David Bartoe who flew on a Space Shuttle mission in 1985.  Dr. Bartoe spoke for about 10-15 about his experience and then answered a great number of questions.  He also posed for pictures with every guest.  He was a great speaker with lots of fascinating information and an excellent sense of humor.  After that we visited a number of the exhibits including the Space Shuttle Independence atop its Boeing 747 transport vehicle.   This is a must see experience if you find yourself in Houston.

After the Space Center it was off to Dallas.   On our way we stopped off for dinner at Uncle Bob’s (that is not me, I am Uncle Robert), a BBQ place just off Interstate 45 about 45 miles north of Houston.   The food was good but does not compare to what we have had in Memphis.  We will give Dallas a chance to show us that Texas can compete with Memphis BBQ.

 

Today we were up early to catch our plane to Houston.  We were early but the plane was delayed.  Apparently one of the pilots was late.   I make a rule to never fly without a pilot up front.  I got a gander at the pilots upfront and it looked like we had a 50 year old crew.  Each looked about 25 years old.  One was a female which made my daughter-in-law pleased.  Male or female I don’t really care.  I just care about landing on the plane’s tires at the intended landing strip.  Luckily things worked out fine in the air.  Things on land were a little more difficult.

We picked up our rental car without any problems.  We opted to not rent a GPS equipped car since our cell phone maps have worked just fine all over the world (including Ireland where we were warned we might have problems).   We got out of the airport without any problems but quickly saw a traffic jam.  Our phone directed us out of harms way to a wide open lane toward our hotel.  What it failed to tell us was that it was a toll road that required a car equipped with a toll payment system.  Our car has Florida plates and does not have the needed Texas toll paying device.  I kept the car to the right side of the road waiting to see a toll booth but instead I saw a sign saying “EZ Tag payment only, no cash”.  At this point I knew we were in trouble.  I realized this would be costly but then I saw a sign that said “Warning Violators Will Be Prosecuted”.  I read the sign aloud to Patrice who seemed unmoved.  Then in a louder and higher pitch I said, “This is a state with the death penalty and they like to use it!”   She still seemed unimpressed when she said, “I am not the one who took us this way”.   Is this my wife?

We survived the toll road and the police have not contacted me as yet.  My mood was quickly changed when we entered the hotel.  We are staying in the JW Marriott Houston Downtown and this place is amazing.  I was immediately reminded of the JW Marriott in Austin which I think was the best room we have had in any hotel.  Well maybe the Hilton on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls had it beat.   Doesn’t really matter, you get the point, I could spend the rest of life in this place.  At least if I didn’t have to go outside.

Like I said, I could live here as long as I didn’t have to go outside.  Today was a gorgeous day in Houston.  By Los Angeles standards it was a day in hell.  Sorry but humidity is my kryptonite.   After a shower and a quick bite to eat we headed to the stadium.  Minute Maid Park is the home of the Astros and a beautiful stadium.  The staff were great and actually knew where we needed to go to get our tickets.  I don’t think I mentioned that at the Oakland game on Wednesday no one (I am not exaggerating) knew where I had to go to get our tickets.  I guess I did exaggerate, I did finally found one person who did know my tickets could be found.  She said, “This is not the right place, give me your ID and I will get them for you”.

We had great seats and enjoyed the game except the Astros who slugged the A’s into submission on Wednesday only got one hit and lost 1-0.   The good news is that I have now been to 16 stadiums and only have 14 left to go.  Some side notes, we sat next to one of the Astro player’s dad who flew in from Pennsylvania to see his boy play.  Unfortunately the kid struck out in a pinch hitting role.  We also sat two rows in front of “Manny” from Modern Family.  Apparently he is a big Astro fan.