Following the AL-34 road westwards, the willows and pines give way to an old iron bridge.
Suddenly, a vast, sweeping panorama of the Coosa River opens up for miles in every direction, the water a flat mirror of the clear sky.
This is Alabama and the American South at its most stunningly beautiful, but there’s no time to slack off.
My destination is a small shack about ten kilometers from the road, famous for its grilled pork sandwiches.
Butts To Go, outside of Pell City, is high on my list of essential visits during a 2,200-mile barbecue road trip through the South, passing through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Andrew Harries embarks on a 2,200-mile barbecue road trip across the southern United States that includes Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina (above)
The right car is essential for any big tour, and my V8 Mustang is just the job: ’70s cop looks, a rag top, and a roaring exhaust like a Delta bluesman after a night of playing in a club. smoky club.
I travel alone (with the permission of my indulgent wife), so there are no arguments about maps, music, or the calories I consume while eating in the South.
My trip begins in Atlanta, Georgia, where the quiet Darwin Hotel is my base for a couple of days.
Atlanta is a big city, but easy to explore by bike or on foot thanks to the 22-mile car-free loop of the abandoned Beltline railroad line.
There are many shops, cafes and restaurants along its route, stunning public works of art and vast parks.
I walk to Grant Park for dinner at Das BBQ, where giant iron smokers sit like steam trains, stripped of their wheels but still smoking from their chimneys. The beef brisket is divine.
Andrew’s journey begins in Atlanta, above, where he stays at the “relaxed Darwin Hotel” for several days.
Barbecue is an essential part of Southern life, as celebrity chef Dwayne ‘Big Daddy’ Thompson explains when I visit his restaurant in Bessemer, Alabama, later in the trip: ‘Barbecue is the original soul food and cooking to Slow heat allows the ingredients to cook while your diners do the same.’
From Atlanta, I take I-20 to Birmingham, Alabama, a city central to the Southern civil rights movement.
After a day exploring, I meet three veterans of the Children’s Crusade of 1963, protests that helped trigger the end of segregation in the United States.
Paulette Roby, Terry Collins and Nadine Smith have extraordinary stories to tell, none more so than Nadine.
In May 1963, she left high school to join child protesters marching on City Hall and was arrested while police beat her classmates.
She was detained for five days and when she was finally allowed to make a phone call, instead of begging to be let out, she asked her parents for clean underwear and a toothbrush. She was just 13 years old.
“We are still facing the same battles, it’s just that the scenarios have changed,” adds Terry.
Barbecue is an essential part of Southern life, Andrew writes. Pictured: A chef prepares a dish at the Houston World Championship Rodeo and Livestock Show Bar-B-Que contest in February.
Every black American I talk to about politics during the trip expresses concern that a second victory for Donald Trump would set back the civil rights movement.
I don’t look at a Trump bumper sticker (“even my dog hates Biden”) until I’m driving across the plains from Birmingham to Florence, Alabama.
Nearly every home proudly flies the Stars and Stripes, but there is little sign of support for Donald.
In Florence, my base is the Gunrunner, a super modern boutique hotel with a popular rooftop bar.
After a tour of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in the town of Muscle Shoals, where a host of stars from Aretha Franklin to Rod Stewart have recorded, it’s time to hit the road again.
The rain is coming down hard and I drive through endless miles of harvested corn fields on my way to Tupelo, Mississippi, and the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
The museum is in a great location and is not as kitsch as Graceland.
I stop for lunch at the nearby Johnnie’s Drive-In. Treat yourself like a king by ordering Elvis’ favorite: a crust burger with all the fixings.
The road trip includes a drive through the Smoky Mountains into North Carolina. Pictured: Highway I-40 in North Carolina leading to Asheville through the Appalachian Mountains
Cruising down US-61 toward Clarksdale, Mississippi, for the city’s annual Sunflower River Blues Festival, I see a sign for Oxford and decide to detour for a pilgrimage to the hometown of my favorite author, the late Larry Brown.
I want to see the firehouse where Brown worked as a firefighter before becoming a celebrated Southern writer.
In his memoir On Fire, Brown writes about cooking steak and chicken outside the station where he stayed when he was on duty. And sure enough, the team was in the back, preparing the lunch they invited me to share.
The hospitality and kindness shown by these men is typical of the people I know. The people of the south are famous for their generosity, good manners and good humor; Despite traveling alone, I never felt alone.
Later, I arrive at the Travelers Hotel in Clarksdale, a beautifully restored former railroad workers’ flophouse. And what’s on a coffee table in the hallway? A book of short stories by Larry Brown. What do you think of serendipity?
Clarksdale has a gritty authenticity befitting its status as the southern blues capital. I spend a wild night at Ground Zero, a music club owned by movie star Morgan Freeman, followed by a hangover-curing Sunday brunch at the Bluesberry Cafe, listening to Lucious Spiller’s live Naked Soul.
After a quick visit to the brilliant BB King museum in Indianola and a glorious drive along the straight roads of the Mississippi Delta, I set the sat nav to Memphis, Tennessee, for three days of raw politics and rock music.
I’m staying at the Arrive Hotel, just steps from the National Civil Rights Museum.
Built on the same site as the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1964, the museum is a powerful experience, ending with the solemnity of room 306 and the balcony he stood on when it sounded. the fatal shot. .
Across the street is the window from which James Earl Ray fired his gun. Later that day, I drive to Chattanooga, before making a stop in Sevierville, Dolly Parton’s hometown in Tennessee.
I have a dinner date at Appalachian, one of the best restaurants in the South, and I’ve barely finished my entree when a group of diners ask me to join them.
The next day I fuel up (a full tank costs around £35) for the best ride of the trip: through the Smoky Mountains and into North Carolina.
Andrew enjoys “three days of raw politics and rockin’ music” in Memphis (above), Tennessee
After stops in Asheville and Lexington, I drive to the state capital, Raleigh, and the super-hip Longleaf Hotel just outside of downtown. It’s a 1950s motel that has been given a 21st century renovation.
For my last dinner, I make a pilgrimage to Sam Jones BBQ.
He continues the legacy of his grandfather, whose restaurant opened in 1947 and was declared one of the best barbecue joints in the United States by National Geographic magazine.
‘Where are you from?’ asks a woman dining with four friends in the booth next door, and before long we’re all at the bar.
That’s how it is in the South: you never know what pleasures are along the way.