Road Trippin' with The Gent and Our First Date

Come along with us while we drive to Tunica and The Gent tells a story about when he met Thomas Jefferson. 

And on our way back, we tell the story of our first "date." 

Intro music by Coma-Media obtained from Royalty-free music on Pixabay.

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Transcript

Carol: 0:17

Well Hello, this is Carol with Carroll remarks podcast. Welcome, welcome. You may hear some background noise because the gent and I are on a road trip we are headed over to Tunica. And I do like to take the podcast on the road on the go. And we are on the road.

The Gent: 0:39

That's the gent. Ah, we're going to Tunica. We've been over here several times. But today since we are traveling on this road, snow filled road over to Tunica man, amazing. In Mississippi snow was everywhere. And at certain points on the road. They only had one lane paved or not. Well plowed. Yeah. So but it's better now.

Unknown: 1:06

Yeah, it's amazing how much snow is over here. You know, it'd been predicted that we're gonna get eight to 12 inches and then another three to five inches. And obviously, they got a lot of snow over here. Look, there's a deer. Yep, saw a deer there. But we were we had planned to come over that weekend, too. And that's the weekend we decided, well, we better not. And kind of glad we didn't because we would have been trapped over here. We would have been stuck probably would have come back on Tuesday. But apparently that was the day that they got all the snow and we would have probably been stuck there till yesterday. But I mean, some of the lines probably weren't clear until this morning. Yeah. So yeah, we may have even though we would have gotten back but it had taken us about 10 hours for three and a half hour road trip. Three. So gent Yeah, the gents. Since we are on a road trip, I thought I would just ask you some questions, and maybe have the topic be about road trips? And do you have any memorable road trips that you are willing to share? That I'm willing to share? Yes, that you are willing to share? That's not gonna make me mad. You know, there are so many little side trips, road trips, you know, that were taken to live. But I guess that they're really not really one particular that stands out. But they're just a lot of little episodes within road trips that really stand out. You know? Well, let me let me back up a little bit. You grew up on the coast. Georgia coast. Right. Correct. So you had all of Florida close by so you hit your high school days? You took several trips, I'm assuming, right? Yeah. You know, most of those trips, were family. Okay. They weren't really I think of a road trip. I think of Animal House. All the guys getting in the car loaded up with beer going to, you know, get in trouble. Well, I'm sure you had some high school to me. No, not really in high school. Because Oh, it was college. Yeah. Yeah. You know, not really in high school, because we were you were happy where you are. And you had so much activity going on that? You know, you if you road trips, you know, you kind of be disappointed. You're going somewhere. What about what about the early days in your golf profession? I know you did a lot of trips for that. But you flew that not necessarily drove? Well. Road Trip. I had one trip there was one trip that I went on. That was really interesting. And it was because of the gentlemen that are the gentlemen that I was with. They took us to or we went down to Sea Island, Georgia, which was my old growing up place. I grew up on St. Simons, but we flew down there. And as we were going out towards from from Atlanta to Brunswick. Mr. Chapman, one of the gentlemen I was with said, Don't worry about these storms, because Jefferson's a good pilot. And I thought, well, what are you talking about? He's a good pilot. He said, Well, he used to be a he was the first Air Force pilot that was taken into the Marines and was a Blue Angel pilot. Oh, wow. And I thought well, I guess he could fly this plane. Yeah. I said, Well, you know, how come we don't know this? He said, Well, it's not really something he talks about. And I thought well, yeah, and I you know, at that point in time, I felt very safe for the trip and apparently on the way back to we ended up with a lot of storms, but I felt very safe with it. But I it here's the story. And there was not much over the road trip story, but it's an interesting story. I'll tell this man his name was Thomas Jefferson Kitchener, he was Thomas Jefferson and he was a lieutenant in the Air Force. And he was a naval aviator taking in and he was flying Blue Angels and they were Doing some training in Hawaii. And there was a gentleman over there, that he knew that apparently he owed him some favors. So he said, you bring your family out to the airfield, I'll come over, and I'll do an air show for you. So he did. Now this was highly frowned upon by upper staff. But you know, he's, he snuck away. And he did say he was telling us he'd come by, and he flew low, low, and he did his wings and did all kinds of stuff. And so he said, his net last thing he was going to do was going to fly real low, wave his wings, and then just go ballistic, which means to take it go straight up until they can't see anymore. So I said he came in real low, and he saw everybody waving down there. And they were all you know, hello, hello. And he wagged his wings, and then looked ahead, as he looked ahead, he saw an air sock. Now air socks, of course, are on metal structures. He said, as soon as he could, he pulled back on the yoke as fast as he could to go up and miss it. And his whole instrument panel went red with warning. So he obviously it hit it, and he didn't know what was happening. So he starts to fly back to his base and realizes, you know, he has to have somebody some help, because he doesn't know if his gear goes down, or anything. He didn't how much damage is under the plane. So he calls like fly up there, they see the damage, they see that he can get his, his wheels down, he gets down on the ground. Soon as he's on the ground. There's a car to pick him up to take them to the commanding officer, who happened to be a friend of his thank goodness, and they gave him a choice. You can either lose your wings and continue on, or you can take an honorable discharge and still have your commission. So he said, I'll just take an honorable discharge. So he was immediately out of the Air Force. Wow. Okay, honorably, honorably. Now, here's the funny thing about this. one door closes one door opens. He came back to Alabama where he grew up and decided he wanted to continue his education. He was going to go to law school. So he enrolled at the University of Alabama law school. Well, we're circulated that we had this hotshot lawyer here at the University of Alabama law school, and the bear needed a pilot. So from that point on, Tom Jefferson flew the bear wherever he wanted to fly to. And he was a personal pilot. Yeah, there, Brian. Everybody. Well, yeah, I didn't when I first moved to Alabama, I did not know that's true. So he became the bears personal pilot. Wow. So it was very unique. So at that point, you know, after hearing that story, I thought, well, if anybody happens to the pilots of this plane, at least I know, we got, you know, at least I know, we got a pilot on here that can fly this thing. Yeah. And that bay for you know, a different view of a gentleman who I you know, had no idea the story was about, so that kind of snakes out here that made that you know, one of those little interesting things on a road trip that kind of made the road trip. Okay, so is that really Oh, do you consider that a road trip because you flew? What do you think of road trip? I think of driving. I consider that just a trip. That really wasn't already. But it was a good story. It was a phenomenal story. I love it. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson flew for the Blue Angels and then flew bear Brian. Luber Brian. What are life? Yeah. Is he still alive? You know of all those gentlemen, Mr. Boyd Harris, Mr. Buddy Chapman, and I think he's the only one that's still alive. But he was the one that everybody assumed would die. Probably not for her. But I haven't heard and I think he is still alive about if he had passed away. I probably would have heard about it. Does he still live in North Alabama? So do you think he is right now? He's got to be 90. He's gotta be Wow. But yeah, that was not going any further than that. Coming up on some slush.

Carol: 9:16

Oh, so before, before this, we were coming over, and they had just the one lane open and the other lane was kind of slushy. It wasn't iced over anything. But there's some slush piled on this truck with the trailer with a four wheeler came flying by. And there's a semi in front of us. But this truck goes flying by in the left lane in the slushy lane and start sliding every which way. The 18 Wheeler in front of us kind of pulled over to the right to let him swerve. But he got by him. He got by.

Unknown: 9:48

Got fine. Tell you what, though. That was one of those scary moments on the road. Yes. Oh, boy. Ready to watch somebody eat it? Yeah, yeah. But you know, I think one of the road trips that I had that I enjoyed the most was just when my dad would take us. He wouldn't. These were just individuals with you know, Tony would probably be in school and I'd be in school, but then we'd have like a I'd have a couple of days off site from when we were in different schools. And I might go down to where he worked down in Florida. And that was just a fascinating time for me because he was, he was a developer who develops the property down around Orlando. During the time when Disney World was young, I was gonna say Hinton's Disney. Yeah. And it was one of these things where it was before it was just this massive place. Yes. All you had really was the Magic Kingdom. And he used to take me in the morning. Is there anything there at the time? Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. He used to take me over and we would he would drop me off at the contemporary hotel. Well, he would drop down, he would go into the contemporary with me. We would go up to the, I don't know, foot floor it was but it was the monorail floor. We go up to the monorail floor and he'd buy me my day's worth of tickets. And I get on the monorail and I'd go to the Magic Kingdom. And I'd spend the day at the Magic Kingdom by myself. And then I would meet him back at the contemporary and like nine o'clock at night, and then we'd go back to the property he was developing. That's cool. And I mean, I got to know the ins and outs of Disneyworld. Yeah, as a kid, right, right. supervised for you. Oh, you know, anywhere from probably 10 to 10 to 12 and 1112. So you were down there a few years before me because I lived down there too. Yeah. And but it was before Epcot was built, but it was a little bit more built up by then when we went but they were still doing the ticket thing. Yeah, we had needed a ticket for every ride. And they would drop me in my house, my stepsister off, we would spend the day there. I mean, I got to know the schedule of the park. And it would be you know, I know when the parades were starting. And I knew that was the time to go to Space Mountain. Right. I know, the parade started at four, you know, at 345. Head to Space Mountain because I could get on that puppy in a matter of two minutes. And be done. You know, instead of sitting there waiting for an hour of 45 minutes from this point, not not for me, buddy. I got I got this figured out. So it was you know, interesting, and I probably there were probably people their employees there, they probably knew knew me. Because I was there so much. I would think it was interesting. It was a fun time. Forgive the GPS thing. Not that we need the GPS, but it's good. We use it for the traffic, I guess. Yes. Yes. For road conditions and all that kind of stuff. Just trying to stay aware and alert of where police are and all that kind of good stuff. Yes, yes. We've come up to a point where we've got we're behind plows now. Yeah. Which is okay. Yeah. Pretty good time. Yeah. Considering Yeah. Well, you know, I love getting in the car and going somewhere I can pick up in a minute and go so I'm I think I'm a gypsy sometimes. Yeah. I can live on the road. I think. Well, you tell me where where? You know, I've talked about me, you tell me. Oh, gosh. I don't know. I don't I don't know. I know that you You tell me. You used to tell me that you go on trips with your grandparents? Oh, yeah. Looking for artifacts and then go to like, antique store.

Carol: 13:43

No, my grandparents. My mom Mom Popol. They did. You know he worked for the steel mill for a long time. And then they got laid off whatever got too old to work, whatever. So he started in woodworking. And back in the day, you could go to malls, member malls, and they would have like right before Christmas, they would have all these vendors and artists come in and set up. That's what they did during the summer. And they took some the great kids with them. They wouldn't take all of us at once because that would be too much. But they would take a couple of us at a time and go with them during the summertime. We went to Paducah, Kentucky. We I mean, we were all over the place and we took a camper. So we would stay sometimes right there in the parking lot. It was fun as most of the times though, they would find a kayo a campground. Oh, yeah. And we would stay there. And that was a that was a fun time. And I really honestly think they're the ones that got me to liking travel. Although I remember one time we were traveling at night and oh my gosh, it was so scary. And that we were in a van, pulling our camper with my mom and Baba. Papa was driving Of course and mum was upfront. She has you know, her thermos of black coffee form and everything. But the headlights kept going out.

Unknown: 14:54

And he just kept driving. They would come on and they'd go off on a cone and they go off. We were like not on a major highway either. It was so scary. I remember that. I was literary wasn't a Terminator, and he could see everything maybe see everything clearly. Maybe. Anyway, that was Those were some good times. Yeah. That sounds cool. And then I also remember when I was in the Navy, I would just take off, you know, I have the weekend and I get my car, just go home and visit family. unannounced. I just show up. surprise them. Now that I'm an adult, I realized this probably wasn't a good idea to surprise somebody. And do my laundry. Right, right, right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like it was a long, long trips, though. Yeah. Well, we've taken this is where, as Carol said, We're on our way to Tunica. And this has become kind of our little quick get away, because the way our hours and work have set up, we can kind of get away and it's only about three and a half hours. Four hours away. Yep. And we can go over and get lost for a day and then just come on back.

Carol: 16:05

Yep. And then we have this three and a half hours there and back in the car together. Exactly. Love it. Love it. Because our you know, my hours that gets shipped you work first. Kind of another shift. But you work during the day, you know, early, early hours. So we kind of pass midday each other. I'm out the door. I'm out the door and you're coming in.

Unknown: 17:41

That was close. The guy behind me decided he didn't want to write on my button. Yeah. All right. Well, I guess that's enough. That's probably long enough. For now. Well, it's been enjoyable. Yeah, we may come back on our way back. Maybe? Absolutely. Maybe we'll see. I will not do it. While we're there. We might I'll definitely do one while I'm there. Oh, okay. I like it. So stand by don't go anywhere.

Carol: 18:05

Hey, I'm back. I just wanted to pop in real quick and insert this buzzsprout promo. I'm sure I've told you how much I love buzzsprout. It is the podcasting hosting platform I use for this podcast. Now if you have something to say and you want to try podcasting, please give buzzsprout a try because they are awesome. buzzsprout is hands down the easiest and best way to launch, promote and track your podcast. Your show can be online and listed in all of the major podcast directories like apple, Spotify, Google, I heart, radio, and more. Within minutes of finishing your first recording, creating a podcast isn't hard when you have the right partners. And buzzsprout is passionate about helping you succeed. So here's how we can help each other. If you follow the link in the show notes. It lets buzzsprout know that we sent you and it gets you a $20 amazon gift card when you sign up for a paid plan. And it also helps support our show. It's that simple. Alright, let's get creating. And now back to the show.

Unknown: 19:18

And we are back. This will be our last segment. We are headed back home to Alabama. We are about 20 miles out of Corinth. Am I pronouncing that correct? That is correct. Do you want to talk about our first date? air quotes? Oh, we never dated? That's right. We did we never dated and that might be a another episode for another time. But you invited me to go have lunch with you. That is right. And we drove all the way to Corinth, Mississippi from Huntsville, Alabama, to have lunch. That's about a two hour drive. And of course, you know, we already knew each other. Yeah. But it gave us a chance to be you know, we knew we knew each other in a social setting, right, so to speak. And it gave us a chance to be confined with each other. Find out the scary inner workings, which we didn't quite discover until a few years later. But yeah. But it kind of opened that avenue up so to speak. Yes. So do you consider that our first date? Whenever That's right, we never that was my thing that we were we were just friends. We were friends doing stuff together. We just went and had lunch. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, technically you would. People would call it a date but we never dated. Well the name of the restaurant. The reason we went to Corinth Mississippi is called aips grill and they are known for they are known for their tender lowing biscuits. Best What did you say the best in the world best in the world? Absolutely. He takes up pork tenderloin and cooks it in the oven. And they bake the biscuits in the morning and their biggest business course they've got the you have to look at a grill online. It's got like you go look online, you'll find it you'll find it everywhere because it's been so written about but you know the counter is like 12 to 15 seats. They do a booming lunch business. But remember the first time or second time we went over we found out that their biggest businesses, their catering biscuits to businesses, the hospital hospitals and all that morning, mornings. Yeah. And their pork tenderloin biscuit is their biggest seller. But we went there for lunch, no breakfast and now from what I remember it was 1717 minute they're not tables. They're not booth. They're barstools. You walk in and it's like right there. There's no room to walk around. In the seat is right there. And if you go to the bathroom, people have to get up from where they're sitting. Yeah. allow you to go to the bathroom. Yeah. And the bathroom is so tiny. But cool. Yes. And then what it was like a generational thing with them. I mean, he was actually aid. He's there. Well, what it was even his wife. What's his last time? Yeah, we do. Anyway, even his wife have been working it for 50 years, maybe 4550 years. But when we went there on our lunch, their son had just moved back. And they were and they just had their baby. Yes. And they just moved back from Florida or something. But he was going to come back and work the business with that. And since then, and that's been 15 years ago, at least 15 years ago, all three of them have been working behind that counter. Yeah. So it's definitely a family affair. And one time recently, when we came over to nikken, on our way back on a Monday, we were going to stop and get lunch or whatever, but then they they closed down the restaurant because of his brother's passing. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, it's some it's funny, cuz they had told us that they take two weeks of vacation. They don't. They're open. They're open five days a week. They are not open on weekends. And they take two weeks of vacation per year. They let everybody know that they're closing down, they're going and it's funny that twice that we've come back, they've been close that close it up, because either somebody was having an operation and was sick. Or they were, you know, had, unfortunately had this death from the family. Right. But when they close like they close. Yeah. So I you know, it's just a family owned business. They have no other employees. Yeah. Anyway, it's a great place. But the one of the reasons we came back was because they also have a ribeye steak sandwich. It's to die for it is, you know, it's not this huge, huge, huge meal. But it's cooked right on the grill right there in front of you. It's fresh, it's hot, and it just gets to die for them. They have no dishes, he puts down a piece of wax piece of paper wax pops it right down on their wax paper and a bell jar. Yeah. Soy you're drinking sweet tea and eaten and going and they do have one other little trade they do. They make these big chocolate chip cookies. And when you get one, they put it on the grill and heat it up for you and it kind of toasted on the bottom and gets the chocolate chips gooey again. And it's so good. Yeah. Yeah. To going we're gonna stop back one time and actually take pictures again or something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, you can go online and look at HS grill and you'll see all kinds of pictures and you'll see what we're talking about. If you're going through chords and you just look to the left or look to the right when you're going by there. You will not stop and you will not even think twice about it because all you see is a grille and what looks like a junkyard. Sure does. You know that's not the place to start, but it is the place to start. I tell you what, I'll try to snap a picture of it as we go past it and then I'll put it on my Instagram account. There you go. Carol remarks. There we are. Alright, so that's we're gonna end it for now. You guys have a good week and we will talk to you later. Have a nice day.