Here I am, roughly two and a half weeks into my stay in sunny Florida, and no updates in a while. I've barely started this thing and I'm already starting to fall into complacent dormancy. I guess I'll have to force it a little to kind of kick-start the old memory banks.
It was starting to get late by the time I came through to my Uncle Frank's neighborhood. I wasn't sure what to look for as I had never been to this house (the last time I was down to visit him he lived in a small apartment) or seen pictures of it for that matter. But his love of horse racing sold him out as I could tell by a jockey statue in his front yard. When I got inside he
showed me to my room, which had a large and comfortable bed that I was beyond stoked for, and we had a couple beers and some pizza from a place up the road. I recharged with two of my main staples and relaxed by watching some movies on TNT or TBS or some nondescript channel that did late night showings of movies that no one really remembers that aren't that old or good after he had gone to bed. He had to go out and take care of some business during the early hours and planned on showing me a night on the town towards the evening. I slept good and hard that night.
The next day I got up and did some reading, watched some TV, and just generally enjoyed the comforts of his place and the fact that I didn't have to go anywhere far in the immediate future. I didn't get out of my pajama pants until at least 2 o'clock in which I decided I should make a run to the nearest convenience store to get some grub and coffee. I picked up a Hot Pocket that tasted vaguely reminiscent of how a wet dog smells, some coffee that was burnt as it was watered down at the same time. I showered just in time for my uncle to get back. We left almost immediately and hit the ground running.
Atlanta, he described to me (totally accurate mind you), was a shot city. Everyone that drinks takes immense amounts of shots. I'm sort of out of practice in this medium as any swill will do it for me and beers are cheap and delicious. Our first stop was this bar near little five points called
Vortex. He said he needed a burger and I agreed, and this place had been rated the best burger joint in town multiple years running. I was impressed upon our arrival just by the appearance of the place. The doorway was inside the mouth of a giant skull with neon eyes and the whole outside was painted up. When I saw the burger and beer list I knew I was in heaven. I drank Smithwick's and ate a burger the size of my head and rejoiced.
Having took some time to digest in Vortex, we had a few more beers and moved on. My uncle entertained me with stories of what my family was like when he was a kid, how he ended up in the south, and all sorts of things. A lot of it was news to me which was great, because I never really heard a lot of it before. My great grandparents had a restaurant (DeGregory as opposed to DeGregorio to make it easier from what he said) in Saratoga Springs on Beekman Street that had a lot of Italian celebrities come through at some point because of its proximity to the race track. We went to a few more bars, taking shots of Jagermeister the whole time. Now, keep in mind, I'm six feet tall and roughly 240lbs so I'm no light weight, but keeping up with my uncle and his various friends was a very difficult task. At this one tavern that had a giant broadsword over the bar I thought I was going to boot for a second but I kept it down. No time for that business, we had more stops to make.
We ended at Ralph's Tavern which my uncle owns a chunk of as an investor. It was a nice place with a decent sized bar and a lot of space. I'd like to recall more details but everything kind of went hazy at this point. I met some more of Uncle Frank's friends, had more shots of Jager, and had a buddy burger. Those things are great for drinking because they're not big enough to stuff you, but big enough to be satisfying when the drunk munchies kick in. We had more drinks and called it a night.
I had the intentions of leaving the very next day but my hangover proved way too strong for that to happen. Not even close. That day was meant for rest, and rest I did. The following day, I took off on the longest drive since Ballston Spa to Pittsburgh. Got up early, feeling refreshed, and kept on southbound.
It was starting to get late by the time I came through to my Uncle Frank's neighborhood. I wasn't sure what to look for as I had never been to this house (the last time I was down to visit him he lived in a small apartment) or seen pictures of it for that matter. But his love of horse racing sold him out as I could tell by a jockey statue in his front yard. When I got inside he
showed me to my room, which had a large and comfortable bed that I was beyond stoked for, and we had a couple beers and some pizza from a place up the road. I recharged with two of my main staples and relaxed by watching some movies on TNT or TBS or some nondescript channel that did late night showings of movies that no one really remembers that aren't that old or good after he had gone to bed. He had to go out and take care of some business during the early hours and planned on showing me a night on the town towards the evening. I slept good and hard that night.The next day I got up and did some reading, watched some TV, and just generally enjoyed the comforts of his place and the fact that I didn't have to go anywhere far in the immediate future. I didn't get out of my pajama pants until at least 2 o'clock in which I decided I should make a run to the nearest convenience store to get some grub and coffee. I picked up a Hot Pocket that tasted vaguely reminiscent of how a wet dog smells, some coffee that was burnt as it was watered down at the same time. I showered just in time for my uncle to get back. We left almost immediately and hit the ground running.
Atlanta, he described to me (totally accurate mind you), was a shot city. Everyone that drinks takes immense amounts of shots. I'm sort of out of practice in this medium as any swill will do it for me and beers are cheap and delicious. Our first stop was this bar near little five points called
Vortex. He said he needed a burger and I agreed, and this place had been rated the best burger joint in town multiple years running. I was impressed upon our arrival just by the appearance of the place. The doorway was inside the mouth of a giant skull with neon eyes and the whole outside was painted up. When I saw the burger and beer list I knew I was in heaven. I drank Smithwick's and ate a burger the size of my head and rejoiced.Having took some time to digest in Vortex, we had a few more beers and moved on. My uncle entertained me with stories of what my family was like when he was a kid, how he ended up in the south, and all sorts of things. A lot of it was news to me which was great, because I never really heard a lot of it before. My great grandparents had a restaurant (DeGregory as opposed to DeGregorio to make it easier from what he said) in Saratoga Springs on Beekman Street that had a lot of Italian celebrities come through at some point because of its proximity to the race track. We went to a few more bars, taking shots of Jagermeister the whole time. Now, keep in mind, I'm six feet tall and roughly 240lbs so I'm no light weight, but keeping up with my uncle and his various friends was a very difficult task. At this one tavern that had a giant broadsword over the bar I thought I was going to boot for a second but I kept it down. No time for that business, we had more stops to make.
We ended at Ralph's Tavern which my uncle owns a chunk of as an investor. It was a nice place with a decent sized bar and a lot of space. I'd like to recall more details but everything kind of went hazy at this point. I met some more of Uncle Frank's friends, had more shots of Jager, and had a buddy burger. Those things are great for drinking because they're not big enough to stuff you, but big enough to be satisfying when the drunk munchies kick in. We had more drinks and called it a night.I had the intentions of leaving the very next day but my hangover proved way too strong for that to happen. Not even close. That day was meant for rest, and rest I did. The following day, I took off on the longest drive since Ballston Spa to Pittsburgh. Got up early, feeling refreshed, and kept on southbound.
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