This past weekend I felt the urge to do something a little out of the ordinary. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be adventurous and get some good food while in the process. So i decided to plan out a small road trip down to and through North Carolina in search of some great BBQ. The weather was looking pretty good, so I put a full tank of gas in the Challenger and made a playlist full of rocking tunes for the road. My friend Matt accompanied me on the trip as well, so that was cool.
We started by heading down to Goldsboro on the Eastern side of the state for 1st lunch, and from there headed west about 2.5 hours to Lexington for 2nd lunch. Then we headed back east again to Chapel Hill and UNC where we stopped at my sister's house for a few. Erika jumped in the car and came with us into Raleigh where we went to dinner at The Pit. It was a 90 minute wait, but we didn't let that deter us. We headed up the street to a bar for an hour or so to kill the time. Oh, and when we tried to park on the street for The Pit, a parking guy told us we couldn't park in that spot cause it was a bus lane. He said normally to park in his lot it is $5, but that we had an awesome car so he'd let us park for free! I love my car more and more!
From start to finish we drove 880 miles, in a day and a half. I was pretty exhausted, but it was well worth it. Oh, and there most definitely will be a round 2 at some point! On with the pictures!
First stop: Wilber's BBQ, Goldsboro NC
The hushpuppies were excellent!
Every table had a pitcher of sweet tea on it, bonus points for that!
Second stop: Lexington BBQ, Lexington NC
Once the waitresses found out about our BBQ tour, they insisted we see their award for 'best bbq in the carolina's' -- they actually pulled it off the wall and handed to us so we could be sure to read it all.
Chopped pork sandwich with BBQ slaw on top, paired with Cheerwine and hushpuppies - excellent!
Our waitress asked us if we'd ever had pork rinds. We both admitted 'no', to which she responded 'I'll go get you some.' It's basically the skin from the pig's shoulder deep fried, and served with dipping sauce which I presume was just grease or fat or something. Nevertheless, it was quite good, don't think I could eat more than one though.
Third stop: The Pit, Raleigh NC. I forgot my good camera in the car, so this is just an iPhone picture, but Matt and I split the chopped pork platter, and their signature ribs. I chose mac & cheese and slaw as my sides. The chopped pork was so juicy and delicious, and the ribs were some of the most flavorful and tender i've ever had in my life. So tender in fact that I accidentally bit through the bone once. Yea.
Before hitting the road to come home the following morning, we stopped at Bojangles for one last southern meal. Of course I got sweet tea with my biscuit. Breakfast of champions!
880 delicious BBQ miles later, we returned home, stuffed, exhausted, and victorious!
[ Wilber's BBQ ] [ Lexington BBQ ] [ The Pit ] [ Bojangles ]
Oh and and one point Matt and I had an EPIC rock out session to Lynyrd Skynyrd's live version of 'Free Bird' while blasting down the highway at a speed probably "above the limit." It was 10 minutes of pure America I won't soon forget! There's a phrase I recently heard describing the Challenger as a "rolling middle finger to the honda/bmw generation" and I feel as though we re-enacted that as best as humanly possible.
2 comments:
What an awesome road trip! You'll have to let us know when round 2 starts up! I can't believe you went to bojangles after all those awesome bbq places!
So where is the picture of your sister and Julie??!! I want in on the 2nd round!!! (Though I'm sure you consumed at least 4 times the amount of suggested daily calorie intake)!!
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