Two Southern Nights
Jenny and I bracketed our trip to Belize (1, 2) with a couple overnight layovers in the South. As someone who had not explored much of the South (other that than 17h road trip to Atlanta for DECA in HS...), I saw the layovers as a novel way to soak up extra culture rather than a hassle (akin to our crazy layovers in Hawaii!).
Charming Charlotte
Our first layover was in Charlotte, North Carolina. We stayed at a nice cheap Airbnb in the suburbs (or at least, I hope it was the suburbs), where we were in walking distance from a few big box locales and a place called the Midnight Diner. Since it was indeed late-night when we arrived, we stopped at the diner for our first taste of southern comfort food.
This was my first time trying shrimp and grits and I loved it!! The one dish was so heavy that Jenny and I had to split it. And we weren't even able to finish, so we saved half for breakfast the next morning too. Ahh, American-sized portions. We also got milkshakes here for extra decadence. I liked how friendly all the people were. They had STRONG southern accents and all seemed to hang out at the diner for a good time. Kind of felt like Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe (from Archie Comics) come to life.
One thing that struck me about Charlotte was how fresh the air was. All the houses were these cute bungalows, and it was really calm. I imagine Charlotte could be a cute, quaint place to live (although a bit too small for me). Then again, we didn't explore much beyond the diner and a drug store called Harris Teeter (because we forgot to bring certain toiletries, lol).
Hoedown throwdown
After a lovely week in Belize, we touched down for a fun night in Dallas. You know what they say... everything's bigger in Texas! This was true of the city bounds itself—the urban sprawl was way too real, so we decided to rent a car on Turo (at this time, Jenny was a Turo superhost). However, Jenny's license was expired, so we used mine (despite my horrendous driving skills). The US government never needs to know what we did to solve that predicament. At any rate, it was fun to see the bright city come into view from our rental car. It reminded me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "In that moment, I swear we were infinite" and all.
It was shockingly cold when we arrived at 6:30 pm. I thought Texas was supposed to be temperate? We drove straight to the Pecan Lodge for Texas barbecue in the cute Deep Ellum area. It gave quaint distillery district/hipster vibes, and remains my favourite area of Dallas.
The bacon mac and cheese was decadent but delicious. I also enjoyed the ribs, but I was not the biggest fan of their "famous" brisket. It was way too smoky! We then went for rolled ice cream after, where a group of teens were straight-up JAMMING OUT to old-school female diva hits (think Halo, No One, If I Were a Boy; pretty much anything in my Who run the world? playlist), and I loved that for them.
This was back during the golden era of Airbnb. We booked a room in a house, so we got to know our Airbnb host personally. He had two dogs (one which was missing a LEG!!) and had a chicken coop (dw they were pets, not food... ostensibly, this man was vegan). Since we optimized for cost with this Airbnb, it was a bit sleepy where we stayed.
So we decided to head to a place called Cowboys Red River for a HOOOOEDOWN THROWDOWN!! It was a 30 minute drive away in an inconspicuous-looking big box suburb. I truly thought we accidentally routed ourselves to a Walmart by accident. But once we got inside, the place had immaculate vibes. There were legit cowboys in cowboy hats. Somehow, everyone knew these synchronized moves to songs like Cotton Eyed Joe. So picture this: we're soaking in the southern vibez with footloose-friendly music, when all of a sudden... THE DROP HITS, CONFETTI AND NAPKINS(?? idk either) EXPLODE INTO THE AIR, and Lil John's TURN DOWN FOR WHAT starts playing! Omg what a time. What an impeccable balance between country and rap. Yung Gravy (of Tampa Bay Bustdown and Welcome to Chilis fame) would be proud.
It was such a fun time that we only ended up getting a couple hours of sleep. These two nights in the south served everything I could've asked for.