Road Trip: From Arkansas to Woodstock & Beyond - Day 1

 My buddy and I recently completed an epic road trip. First stop was for BBQ at "Tom's Barbeque" in Memphis, Tennessee. I heard it was on Guy Fieri's show "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives" and was featured in his book "Road Trip." It also appeared in an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on TV. Gotta be good, right? Wrong. Terribly wrong.

The order window in Tom's BBQ

Turns out, Guy was there 11 years ago and the TV show was from 10 years ago. The restaurant has changed ownership and should now be listed number 1 on the Worst Barbeque In America. It looked like it has been at least 10 years since the place was cleaned. As we walked up to the order window, the lady behind the counter stared at us like we had just kicked her dog. The phone rang while we were ordering, she turned away, answered it, and ignored us for 5 minutes with us still standing there in mid-order. An older gentleman came over and said he would take our orders. After ordering, we went to the other counter to pay and the woman said, "over 55 dollars." I said, "Sorry?" since all I ordered was a plate lunch. She looked at me scowling and screamed, "I wasn't talking to you!" She then continued to talk to somebody I couldn't see behind her. 

Bad, just bad

When we finally got our food, my sliced beef brisket was a large dollop of chopped beef swimming in some kind of awful-tasting sauce. The beans tasted like they had been made several days ago and left out on the stove. The potato salad had no taste whatsoever. We asked if we could have some salt and pepper and were told nothing is available. My buddy's corn-on-the-cob was an old, dried-up, shriveled-up ear. He bought a canned coke and said that was the best part of the meal. We ended up leaving a lot on our plates. Not a good way to start a road trip. Our considered advice is to stay away from Tom's Barbeque in Memphis - far, far away! We headed on down the road to Brownsville, TN.

After escaping the horrid experience at Tom's BBQ (I'd just as soon bite a bug as eat there again!), we drove 64 miles to Brownsville, Tennessee. Located amongst the cypress groves where Bald Eagles nest, I have to say we didn't find a lot there. So why stop? Like a lot of road trip addicts, I love road kitsch, offbeat Americana, roadside attractions, and Brownsville has a great one - Billy Tripps Mindfield.

In 1989, Billy Tripp began work on his life’s project: the "Mindfield," an immense steel structure just a couple of blocks from the town’s main square. Using salvaged metal, Tripp constructed the largest outdoor sculpture in Tennessee. The sculpture is about an acre large and, at the tallest point, 125 feet high. Tripp has stated that the Mindfield represents his emotions, personal growth, as well as his significant life events. In 2002, after the death of his father, Tripp added one of the largest additions to the sculpture, a water tower from a closed factory in Kentucky.

Tripp's Mindfield

Currently, Tripp continues to work on the sculpture, building pieces in his shop behind the structure and then adding them. In a published interview, he said, “I see it as a conversation with myself, but it doesn’t bother me that it can be overheard by other people." Tripp has also written a book, The Mindfield Years: Volume 1, and is currently working on a second volume. Like the sculpture, the book is autobiographical and runs 725 pages long. Upon his death, he intends to be interred within the sculpture. “It will be my cemetery,” he has said. “It’s my grave marker.”

After seeing it up close, I can see my mind and Billy Tripp's do not work in the same way. His work is certainly interesting, but it may be a good thing that his wife is a psychiatrist.

We stayed just long enough to stare at it while trying to figure out how a mind can conceive of such a thing. We were both quiet for a while, lost in our own thoughts. Thinking about it was putting a strain on our minds so, giving it up, we got back on the road. It was near sundown as we headed toward Jackson, Tennessee, our next destination and we still needed a place to stop and rest our weary heads for the night.

After visiting Billy Tripp's Mindfield, we headed to Jackson, Tennessee for some road trip food goodies at "Woodstock Bake Shop" which had come highly recommended. But it was getting late and looking on down the road, there were not many hotels so we pulled into a decent-looking Comfort Inn along the way. In our experience, Comfort Inns are usually ok, but not anything to write home about. Surprisingly, this one turned out to be really nice - very clean, new furniture, very comfortable beds, and even large, fluffy towels. Not much in the breakfast department, but that was due to Covid, not a shortcoming of the hotel.

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