DO'S AND DON'TS SO FAR

(For the next few days or so, I'll be driving from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Some highlights...)
1. Davenport's Pizza (Birmingham, AL)-I really never understood what it was that made Davenport's so good. The ingredients and methods of manufacture seem pretty standard, at first, and obvious when you watch the cooks. There are no sun dried tomatoes; no imported cheeses; no wood grilled chicken. And then recently I realized the secret: the tactic of lathering the pizza with sauce and ingredients before covering the top with deli size slices of mozzarella, creating, in effect, two separate and distinct layers of experience. The pies are cut into small rectangular pieces allowing you to eat some pieces in the whole, and others layer by layer.
2. Vicksburg Welcome Center-Sitting on the gateway to the West with a towering view of the Mississippi and an old bridge that looks like it could have taken cannon fire from Union ships.
3. Ft. Worth Weather-Driving into Ft. Worth around 7, with the city having just experienced a week straight of rain, we found a cloud that seemed 10 miles in length, stretching across the sky with a bottom layer defined by a gray-purple hue and a top layer that looked like snow spilling over a New England log house. Lightning flashed intermittently. I felt like something was lumbering above me about to engulf my car. Pretty soon it rained, a lot.
4. Route 66-I spent about 10 minutes on it. Satisfied. For now.
5. Rudy's BBQ (Denton, TX)-Dry rubbed, oak-fired, Texas barbecue. The spicy chopped sandwich, garnished with fresh onions and spicy, pickled peppers and carrots on the side, was a slightly charred, smoky, ode to everything you imagine good barbecue to be. The green beans salad was slightly frozen, and the corn cob perhaps a bit overcooked but, again, the sandwich is worth the trio alone.
6. Crow Collection of Asian Art-In downtown Dallas. Nice little museum with a great gift shop. The highlight was a temporary exhibit of female Buddhas via various media. The 1000 paper cranes that hung from the mezzanine were nice as well.
7. Dealey Plaza-Kind of eerie actually, even at 2 in the afternoon. The conspiracy guy that gave me a 10 minute, well-researched and evenly paced audio-visual sales pitch on the multiple killer theory only added to the mood. The major DON'T, though, arrived in the form of three, sun-dress attired sorority types who took turns preening and posing, smiles blaring, in a manner that might make even a Hilton sister frown, as their friend took photos of them standing on the X that marks the spot of the spot on the road where the first shot hit JFK. It was amazing.
8. Teppo-Yakitori/Sushi in a Dallas club/record store/restaurant neighborhood. Watch out for the spicy Japanese mustard that comes with the yakitori. Make sure you sit on the automated, Japanese style, toilets. And try the beef tongue.