route for southern bbq roadtrip
 

hi again everyone-
first of all, i want to thank everyone for all their great bbq suggestions. just to recap, my sister and i are taking a southern roadtrip in february. this time i am hoping to get some suggestions on the route we should take. we are hoping to avoid really big interstates, we would like to get a real feeling for the places that we are driving through, but we dont want to be driving for 10 hours a day, so if the interstate is sometimes necessary thats ok. im hoping you might let us know about small towns along the way, fun sights to see, worlds largest balls of twine, historic landmarks, all that good stuff. i'll write down where we're going and then hopefully you can suggest a route. all ideas are absolutely appreciated as we have only ever been to new orleans never anywhere else on the list:
san antonio to austin
austin to houston
houston to new orleans
new orleans to atlanta
atlanta to savannah
savannah to charleston

thanks again!

so...does everyone just recommend that we mapquest the trip?

jogee -- Go to Wal*Mart and get the Rand McNally Road Atlas they offer for $5.97. Then you can pick and choose the various roads between your points of interest... May I suggest you stay off the Interstate Highways if time is not a critical factor. If you belong to aa Auto Club like AAA get maps of the individual states and also the Tour Books they offer. Those are great in assisting the novice traveler on a road trip with places to see, stay and even eat...

this might be blasphemy for "true" road-trippers... of which I am an honorary member - but I just caved and bought a car GPS unit. I'd been thinking about a future trip to France and thought it'd be nice to have a good route managing unit for the rental car. Happens I got a unit (LG740 - $275 at Circuit City) with NO maps available for Europe at present, but a great talking routing engine that'll keep you off the superslab AND get you to a zillion points-of-interest in the US. You could just get a cheap-oh TomTom One on ebay between now & the trip and keep it on the dash as insurance. I like getting lost - I just don't care much for staying lost. :-)

For San Antonio to Austin, you can take hwy 281 out of San Antonio to Hwy 290 east into Austin. Its longer than the interstate but might be more what you are looking far.

I hate to say this but the interstate is absolutely the best way to get from Atlanta to Savannah.

Hard to call it a legit bbq trip if you are skipping NC & Memphis...How much time do you have, that IS a lot of driving.

True SAnParis.

Lexington BBQ is the very best.

Wow. You're living my dream. A BBQ tour of the South. Because I live in the east, I'd start in North Carolina and go west to Texas, and maybe even overflow into New Mexico for the heck of it.

I've got a copy of "Spirit" magazine (Southwest Airlines magazine) with an article about BBQ joints in the south that I've been meaning to dig out and write down. Here's the places featured in the article:

Louie Mueller BBQ in Taylor, TX
Cooper's Pit Bar-B-Q in Mason, TX
Kreuz Market Lockhart, TX
City Market in Luling, TX
Aurthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City
L.C.'s BBQ in Kansas City
Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, AL
Lexington Barbeque
Sonny Brian's Smokehouse in Dallas, TX

I've also got a book (though not handy) called something like "Guide to North Carolina Barbeque" which lists and discusses many, many places to eat.

Dottie Griffin's "Celebrating Barbeque" gives a great discussion of how the sauces change from North Carolina to Texas.

Don't forget Memphis,

Dan
familyroadtrippers.blogspot.com

You can't possibly do a "BBQ tour" without going to Memphis. Instead of Savannah, go New Orleans > Memphis, then Memphis > Atlanta, before heading up to SC/NC. I would also say you need to visit NC, but I can understand wanting to go to Charleston, even if it's not for BBQ.

Yeah, the original list manages to miss every BBQ mecca, one includes Austin as part of
Lockhart, which it isn't.

SAnparis is right - If you miss TN (dry, with smoked pork) and NC bbq (vinegar-herby pulled pork) styles (very different from each other), you've missed a big part of the "bbq spectrum." If all you want is variations on tomato-base, beef, peppery and maybe some booze in the sauce, your itinerary is fine.

I believe there is a book on "best BBQ in the US" -- maybe more than one. Check the food section as well as the travel section of your bookstore/website.

See Lonely Planet's "Blues and BBQ"
http://tinyurl.com/25ur7q

I was just reading in this month's National Geographic Traveler that the Southern Foodways Alliance http://www.southernfoodways.com/ has put together a tour of Texas BBQ joints. The blurb said it might take a little bit of digging to find the info on their website.

thanks everyone for your suggestions. while i appreciate them, we have a limited time to take this trip and these are the places we want to see. not only for the bbq but also for the sights. we will have to do memphis and north carolina another time. what i was really looking for was the routes that we should drive if anyone has any ideas.

I don't have any good suggestions for routes, but I do have a BBQ joint to recommend. When you are driving from New Orleans to Atlanta, on I-10 East about two hours out of NO, stop at Exit 57 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi to eat The Shed. It's right off the interstate. Downtown Ocean Springs is also an adorable little town to visit, with a lot of art galleries and antique stores, etc.

www.theshedbbq.com

The routes you should take are dependent on if you are planning to take some slight detours along the way to hit BBQ joints in small towns (which I thnk are the best.) For example if you are planning on stopping in Dripping Springs at the Salt Lick than you'd take a different route from San Antonio to Austin than I'd normally recommend.

Can you cheat? Instead of going to the different joints, why don't you go to a BBQ festival and have them come to you? I'm sure you can find several to hit in a weekend.

If you want roadtrip ideas, go to www.lightninrv.com and then go to "Rentals" in the menu on the left. Once there, scroll down to our "Special Events Calendar" for a list of hundreds of events going on all over the country...but don't just look at it for the exact time period that you're going out. The places listed are great to go to, even if the event is not going on.

Then go to "Travel Links". There you will find "The World's Wackiest Tourist Attractions" and the "World's Largest Roadside Attractions" (will tell you where that ball of twine is) and much more.

Take a look at our Roadfood link as well...you can search for some great BBQ ideas all over the country.

Please don't forget N. Ms. and Memphis in your barbeque tour. You seem to be hitting the big places and forgetting Mom and Pop. Also, if you get off the interstate you can see/visit a lot of blues history. My suggestion is go from N.O. to Memphis then across to Atlanta. Just saw where you would not come up this way. So sorry, if you change you mind please let us know.

Mudbug