As I type
this, I just realized that the I-75 Clemente Jersey Flea Market incident
actually took place in Chattanooga on Day 15 on our way out of town, not the
day before. So just take that story and drop it in right here… I guess the
memories get blurred the further away in time I write about them. Fail.
From the
land of bogus jerseys, we set out for the aforementioned Googled bookstore
merely hoping to pick up a book or two.
If Day 14
was Flea Market Day, then Day 15 was McKay Day. No, not our Judge friend from
the Bluegrass State, but the most remarkable used bookstore on God’s green
earth! As became standard practice wherever we were, I consulted The Google for
used bookstores in the area. As mentioned in a previous post, to this point, Mr.
K’s in Asheville, NC and Book Warehouse in Pigeon Forge, TN were tied for the pinnacle of used bookitude, in my humble opinion. That title was quickly
transferred to McKay in Chattanooga. Holy crap people, it’s a sight that must be seen to be
believed.
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| Did I lie? |
As you can tell by the photo, this place is ridiculous. Their website
does not tell fibs when it boasts that “We are a fast-paced, high-volume,
one-of-a-kind shopping destination…” Agreed. They also have locations in
Knoxville and Nashville. It didn’t come up on The Google when we were closer to
Knoxville, or we probably would have hit all three locations in the great
Volunteer State. However, we hit the Chattanooga location and would visit the
Nashville store in a few hours when we rolled into town.
If for no other reason, McKay is a great place to start a collection of
any genre of book. I probably got 20 baseball books and not one cost more than
$4, with most in the $2 range. In Nashville, I got one for $.05, one for $.65
and 13 for a mere $1.50 each. Again, the place was ridiculous in the awe and joy that
it brought. They’ve really got it down to a science and if we are even
within 100 miles of any location again, we will definitely be making a side
trip.
Once we packed our new boxes (plural) of books into the car, we made
our way to the hotel where we met a 17 year-old guy who doubles as a bellman
for the Sheraton and a batboy for the Nashville Sounds. It was about this time
that a woman, obviously skilled in the science of meteorology, told Julia that
she really thought the thunderstorms predicted for the rest of the day would
pass. It was also about this time that the very same thunderstorms predicted
for the rest of the day began and did not stop until around 8 p.m. I
think you can see where this might be headed…
Due to an earlier rainout in Nashville (like in Chattanooga) our game
became a double header. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, that double header never occurred due to the rain that the Weather Channel scholar told us was going to
miss us. Thanks again for jinxing us, lady.
 |
| Can't really play in that, huh? |
So there’s really not much to share from Greer Stadium other than the
photos. What came after, however, is worthy of mentioning.
Once again, we consulted The Google for dining establishments and were
enticed by a Thai place near LP Field where the Titans of the NFL play. Due to an
overcrowded parking lot thanks to the club next to the Thai place, we couldn’t
even get near the place. Thanks to The Google, we found another place
called Suzy Wong’s House of Yum. How can one not go to a place with a name like that? So off to Suzy Wong’s
we went, but not before looking to the east and seeing this bad boy.
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| And yum it was |
Mind you, we had no prior knowledge of Suzy Wong’s, but as it turns
out, the place rocked it. Since we didn’t have a reservation, (yep, it was that
kinda place), we sat in the back by the bar, but it turned out to be a great spot. They offered valet parking and once inside, we felt a bit
underdressed in our baseball game garb, but nobody seemed to notice or care.
Our waiter guided us as to what to order and while we waited, a
waitress came up and asked if we had been helped yet and then talked to us for
about ten minutes asking about the game, where we were from, and our trip, etc. She
was the one who dropped the knowledge on us that Suzy Wong’s was the latest
creation from Chef Arnold Myint from Season 7 of Top Chef. That still didn’t
mean much to me since I’ve never watched 30 seconds of the show, but Julia knew
of it and even without being a fan, it was still impressive.
Then came the food and, Holy God, was it delish. We started with Moo Shu
Chicken Tacos, which is really all we needed to know how good the place was.
Lord, were those tasty. I would have been happy with several orders of those
little nuggets of joy from above, but then our entrees came. Yummy stuff fo’
sho’ – see how I dropped “yum” in there? Get it? Yummy? House of Yum? Once
again, my cleverness knows no bounds.
Once we were fattened by the House of Yum’s fare, we headed back to the
hotel to let the depression of our last night of the 2012 Baseball and National
Park Road Trip take hold.
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