Christmas Eve - Got the Car

We got the car today, a GMC Yukon (see pics below). Should be plenty of room for my mom and I and the two dogs. Perhaps the rent-a-car guy was giving me a line of crap, but he said this Yukon was the nicest Yukon they had in the Southern California fleet. Not sure how true that is, but it is decked out with leather seats, wood trim, automatic everything, reverse sensors, XM Radio, dual climate control, etc. My favorite is that you can start the car and get it heated with the key remote; a very useful feature considering some of the cities we're visiting are getting single digit weather (Kansas City was 6 degrees on Tuesday).


We do have luggage, snacks, sleeping bags, dog food and a bunch of other stuff, but we took out the third row of seats so it's still spacious.

Review System - The Five S's

Four days and counting...

As requested, we'll be reviewing and rating each BBQ restaurant. We'll rate five main categories - the Five S's: Sauce, Sides, Slabs, Steaks and Sandwiches. We are rating food only, so ambiance and service will not be taken into account.

Sauce - includes BBQ and hot sauce
Sides - includes mac & cheese, cole slaw, beans, mashed potatoes, salads, etc.
Slabs - includes pork and beef ribs
Steaks - Brisket and other cuts of meat
Sandwiches - includes pulled pork, chicken and steak sandwiches

Each of the above categories will be rated between 1 and 5:
* 1 - Barely edible
* 2 - Standard
* 3 - Good
* 4 - Very Good
* 5 - Outstanding on every level

Unfortunately, my Mom and I won't be able to order everything at each place, but we'll do our best to review a well-rounded menu selection. If you have other reviewing recommendations, please let me know.

Videos Keep on Coming - Jason Mraz "I'm Yours"

As you can tell I like visuals. You can probably also tell these videos don't have much to do with BBQ, but they have everything to do with Traveling. As much as this trip is about tasting America's BBQ cuisine and bonding with my Mom, it's also about traveling, exploring and seeing places we've never seen. These videos (see others below) encourage and inspire travel and that's why I'm sharing them with you.

Jason Mraz - "I'm Yours"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QedgzsjouXU

Another cool travel video - "Where the Hell is Matt"

Most of you probably saw this considering it has more than 14 million views on YouTube, but it's still one of my favorites. It's the "Where the Hell is Matt" video where he dances in numerous cities around the world. It makes me want to travel.

I'm going to do something like this where I do the same thing at each BBQ joint, but I'm still figuring out what I can do...let me know if you have recommendations?


http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=0xDNn_yhhen

For the LA Locals...Baby Blues BBQ

For the LA locals who need a BBQ fix check out Baby Blues in Venice (on Lincoln, just south of Rose) . Ribs are amazing as is the pulled pork. My favorite is the Mac&Cheese.

Here's a YouTube video of BABY BLUES BBQ on the Food Network.

Itinerary - 14 Days, 13 Nights and 10 Cities

Here's the basic itinerary (we have a more detailed list for each city with hotels, restaurants and points of interest). We leave Christmas Day and return Jan. 7, so 14 days and 13 nights. The hours in parenthesis is the estimated drive time. Longest drive is nine hours which is the first leg from Los Angeles to Gallup, NM.

We're staying a couple days in the main destination cities - Santa Fe, Kansas City, Memphis and Austin. The rest are short visits.

* Thu, Dec. 25 – Los Angeles to Gallup, NM (9hrs)

* Fri, Dec. 26 – Gallup to Santa Fe (3 hrs)

* Sat, Dec. 27 – All day in Santa Fe

* Sun, Dec. 28 – Santa Fe to Oklahoma City (8hrs)

* Mon, Dec. 29 – Oklahoma City to Kansas City (5hrs)

* Tue, Dec. 30 – All day in Kansas City

* Wed, Dec. 31 – Kansas City to Memphis (8hrs)

* Thu, Jan. 1 – All day in Memphis

* Fri, Jan. 2 – Memphis to Dallas (7hrs)

* Sat, Jan. 3 – Dallas to Austin (3hrs)

* Sun, Jan. 4 – All day in Austin

* Mon, Jan. 5 Austin to El Paso (8hrs)

* Tue, Jan. 6 – El Paso to Phoenix (6hrs)

* Wed, Jan. 7 - Phoenix to Los Angeles (6hrs)

Here's the first BBQ joint we're hitting - Rod's Steak House in Williams, AZ, about 35 minutes outside Flagstaff. We'll be stopping there on our way to our first city, Gallup, NM.

http://www.rods-steakhouse.com

Louis Vuitton Commercial About Traveling

In my Travel channel viewing I saw this commercial by Luis Vuitton which pulls on the heart strings a bit and gets you pumped up to travel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5xCGZuvhWI

Introducing Zena & Zuma...the dogs

Here's Zena and Zuma. They're both boxers; Zena is the brindle on top and Zuma is the fawn on the bottom. They're both huge, Zena is 80lbs and Zuma is around 60lbs. We're packing up enough dog food for 15 days so with the regular food plus the left over beef bones, they will be well fed.

These two young ladies have been treated like royalty their whole lives...they sit on the couch, sleep on the beds, sit in the front seat...they get treated better than us kids. They love riding in the car and this road trip will be a slice of heaven for them.

Entry 2 - The Plan

Once Mom and I committed to taking the trip it was time to come up with a plan. One of my favorite parts about traveling is the preparation and research you do before the trip. A trip might only be a couple weeks long, but if you put in weeks or even months of research and planning it extends the trip and makes it that much more fun and fulfilling.

First was to pick the dates. We settled on the Christmas and New Year's break - Dec. 25- Jan. 7. Second, was to pick the major destination cities. We live in Los Angeles so driving to the midwest was a trek. None the less, we knew we had to hit Kansas City and Memphis as those are two of the best known BBQ cities (North Carolina is a bit far and all those TV shows say they have so much BBQ it warrants its own trip). Because of time restraints we decided Memphis was as far east as we could go.

We'll be hitting (start in Los Angeles):
* Santa Fe
* Amarillo
* Oklahoma City
* Wichita
* Kansas City
* St. Louis
* Memphis
* Little Rock
* Dallas
* Austin
* El Paso
* Phoenix

I mapped it out so you can see the route we'll be taking.

Entry 1 - Mission Statement: USA BBQ Road Trip

The USA BBQ Road Trip started as an idea about a year ago after watching too much Food Network and Travel Channel. Various shows debated over which cities had the best BBQ and although the culinary experts of TV have quality opinions, I had to see for myself. The plan was to fly into Kansas City and sample BBQ across America's heartland - Memphis, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Austin, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Mexico and more. It was just an idea; no date was set and no definite plans had been made. However, in August 2008 my Dad, who was a shining light in all of our lives, unexpectedly past away in his sleep. It was a tremendous loss to our family and it changed things forever.

In an attempt to get away and get some freedom, I mentioned the BBQ trip to my Mom and she loved it. However, she said, "We're not flying. Let's make it a road trip...and we can bring the dogs." I agreed and from there Matt and Mom's USA BBQ Road Trip was born.