Day: May 19, 2019

Memphis in May BBQ Festival 2019 Day #4 “Heading Home?” May 19, 2019

by reissmd, posted in Memphis, Uncategorized

When I last left you we had just received an email from American Airlines that our flight home had been canceled. We called immediately and then waited 40 minutes for a call back. When we finally connected our options were to return home on Monday or leave immediately for a flight to Dallas, spend the night at DFW, and take our scheduled flight home in the morning. Suddenly being retired seemed more attractive. But I am not retired and I’m scheduled to see a lot of patients on Monday so we packed quickly and asked the front desk to call a cab.

We gave goodbye hugs and kisses to our babies (much too short in the case of Erica who is returning from Memphis to Madrid). Then we hustled downstairs. We told the doorman we were expecting a cab and he said that taxis rarely make it to the hotel. He asked if we ever heard of Uber or Lyft. I guess overeating on BBQ and not shaving for a couple days makes me look like I come from the Ozarks.

Patrice called for a Lyft and was informed that Daniela and her silver Prius would be arriving in 5 minutes. Twenty minutes later and after 3 phone calls Patrice and I hustled around the corner in a pouring rain to meet up with our driver. By the way, the taxi never showed up.

According to Google maps we would arrive at Memphis Airport as our flight was boarding. When we got to the airport there was only one agent and she sounded as if she was trying to solve a difficult problem. Luckily a supervisor came to deal with the problem traveler but unfortunately we were too late to check our bags and had to take them to the gate. This meant I had to sacrifice a bottle of water that I was hoping to help quench my thirst when we arrived in Dallas (BBQ can make a person very thirsty). We were the only passengers at security and they discovered that Patrice had a jar of BBQ sauce (a gift from one of the BBQ teams) and said she had to give it up. TSA took a jar of BBQ sauce from a grandma heading home to Los Angeles. Is this part of the master plan to Make America Great Again?

Since TSA was busy interrogating Patrice I told her I’d run ahead to make sure the plane didn’t leave without us. I wasn’t completely sure which way to go but two kind airport employees assured me I was headed in the right direction. When our gate finally came into focus I saw the ramp agent closing the boarding door. I yelled out “Wait!” He turned his head, looked at me, and calmly said, “Take your time, the plane isn’t here yet”. The plane isn’t here yet? Then where are all the passengers? “This is it”, he replied directing my gaze to 3 other people waiting to board.

Gate agent and the 3 passengers in front of us (hard to see the passengers)
Part of my head and all the empty seats behind us.

While waiting for the flight to take off I made arrangements for a hotel near DFW while Patrice (and later I) received this message from the American Airlines app.

Needless to say this got us concerned. Upon arrival to DFW we were exhausted and found a cab to take us to the hotel. We called American Airlines from the cab and received a recorded message saying we would get a call back in MORE THAN TWO HOURS. We decided to get some sleep and deal with this in the morning.

The next day we got an early start and headed to DFW. There we found loads of people trying to check in. Luckily we checked in online and only needed to get boarding passes and luggage tags. While I waited on line, Patrice went to an automated kiosk and successfully got what we needed and we were on our way to the plane. Then we saw this:

Fortunately we have TSA Precheck (my renewal finally arrived, after two months, just prior to our trip to Australia).

The flight home was a little delayed but we arrived relatively close to the scheduled arrival time. We then went to baggage claim only to find out, after waiting about 45 minutes, that our baggage was put on a later flight. Apparently they have had so many cancelled flights they couldn’t fit all the bags onto this one. I wasn’t happy about that but I could understand. What I didn’t understand was why weren’t we told that immediately? I didn’t need to wait for that long only to learn I needed to come back later tonight to pick up my luggage. Don’t these people realize I’m a busy man? Don’t they realize I have things to do? Don’t they realize that ON WEDNESDAY WE LEAVE FOR AFRICA?

Memphis in May BBQ Festival 2019 Day #3 “I Can’t Believe I Ate the Whole Thing!” May 18, 2019

by reissmd, posted in Memphis, Uncategorized

Last night we had a wonderful dinner at Flight. We ate there last year with our friend’s Gary and Smooch and couldn’t wait to go back. The restaurant offers either samples of dishes (which they call a flight) or you can have a main course if you prefer. Of course we had both.

L to R: Iceberg wedge; Mozzarella and strawberries; Harvest salad
Full order of 3 soft shell crabs.
L to R: Soft shell crab, lobster and filet mignon; duck
L to R: Scallop Benedict; Shrimp and grits; Lobster gnocchi
L to R: Chicken and waffles; Stuffed quail; Lamb rib eye.

We also had two flights of desserts any one of which would have been enough for all five of us. Instead we shared 6! I thought I took pictures but I guess I was in too much of a hurry to sample lava cake, chocolate chip cake, brownie ala mode, apple cobbler, bananas Foster and pecan pie.

Here we are before eating.

L to R: Erica, Patrice, Robert, Lindsay and Robby.

Today was the finals of the BBQ judging. On arrival Patrice found out that she was going to do “on site” judging of shoulder while I didn’t have a morning assignment. I lamented to Patrice and our friend, John, that I was hoping to get a shoulder assignment but maybe next year would be my lucky year. Shortly before the shoulder judging was about to begin, John was frantically waving for me to join him at the judge’s desk. Apparently a judge was a no show and they asked if I could fill in. I happily accepted.

With the “on site” judging you go to the team’s cooking area. The head cook introduces you to the team, shows you their cooker and explains their methods. Finally you get to sit down and enjoy BBQ that you never see in any restaurant in Los Angeles. I couldn’t help myself. The “worst” of the three entries was spectacular.

I returned to the judge’s tent at noon, knowing that at 1:30 I would be judging ribs. I learned this would be “blind” judging where I would be presented with 6 boxes and if something didn’t taste great I could bypass it. Lucky for me there were two that stood out and I had only small tastes of the other 4.

After all the judging was completed we went to visit some of the contestants we had judged. As always they greeted us like royalty. They offered us more food but I couldn’t eat another bite. In fact I had to go back to the hotel to cool off and digest what I had eaten.

Patrice caught a shot of me back at the hotel.

I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.

Tomorrow we head for home. Not a moment too soon. I t I spent another day in this town I think I’d explode.

We just got an email from American Airlines that our flight tomorrow morning has been cancelled. Could be an interesting 24 hours.