Regular Joe's Guide

Latest visit: Jan 2026 First visit: Jul 1977 I recently spoke of traveling by the methodology of "Planned Randomness". Within that framework there are occasional destination spots. Highland Super Submarine Sandwich Shop was one such place. I wanted to be there by lunch, so that was another reason I selected Tupelo over Oxford while in Mississippi.  That first visit is not a typo. And I have a story to go with it. It was one I wanted to tell back in 2015, my other visit, but for whatever reason I could not get the energy to document that trip. So I'm taking care of that now. I often talk about my dad in these pages because I grew up traveling with him on business. He was the old fashioned "traveling salesman". He'd pop in the car on Sunday night or Monday morning, and work his territory through the week and come home on Thursday night or Friday afternoon. Almost every week, except for when he worked the DFW area. During the summers, while out of school, I wou...

First visit: Jan 2026 Leaving Alabama, we continued northwest into Mississippi. I have quite a bit of familiarity with the state, since it was part of my dad's territory growing up. Mrs. RJG has only been once (Jackson), on a trip we took in 2016, that I unfortunately did not document. This also represents her first night in the state, yet another goal that is ongoing (not that she cares about it really, just crazy ol' me). The timing was such that Tupelo made more sense than Oxford, which was my original plan. Besides Ole Miss was playing that night in the NCAA football semi finals (of all nights, we had to be there). Guessing the restaurants would have been packed with fans. Tupelo is most famous as the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Having had barbecue for lunch, why not go for a second round of Thai food? Nao Thai popped up and looked good, so let's go there. The atmosphere is awesome, the restaurant is filled with antiques. Perfect lighting. Very homey feeling. As for th...

First visit: Jan 2026 In case you're wondering the method to my madness, the way we prefer to travel is what I term "Planned Randomness". It's a basic framework, then the various details emerge as we go. For example, I obviously have to plan the air travel, the first night hotel, and the rental car. From there, it's let's see where we are, what do we want to accomplish, where are we going to eat, and where are we going to spend the night. Fortunately for us, I have tons of airlines miles and hotel points from years as a road warrior in business, so everything is essentially free on that front. And given the time of year we're traveling, the deals are especially good. Our daily activity revolves around thrift shops, rather than typical tourist pursuits, as we both love to dig for treasures. Her specialty is vintage clothes, mine is physical media and games. Having a rental SUV makes it easy to haul it all back home, even though there was a full record colle...

First visit: Jan 2026 With the record collection now secured, we continued journeying west and selected the Montgomery area as our place to hunker down for the evening. I'd only been to the capital of Alabama once before, interestingly on a record buying trip way back in 1992. Yep, over 35 years ago, while still a single lad. Mrs. RJG has never been, and she's getting closer to checking off all the capitals, a feat I completed personally in 2012 (Olympia, WA). And I've never spent a night here, so that's another checklist I'm working on. We all know Mrs. RJG has to get in some Thai food on any given trip, and I figured why not accomplish that early. It's also good for our digestive systems. Thai Naka looked like the best bet of the few options available. Oh, and look at that, they have Singha available. Did that cold beer taste good! The restaurant is nice, very spacious, with good lighting, though probably could have been more intimate. As for the meal, I'v...

First visit: Jan 2026 (Fairburn) Mrs. RJG and I are on our first road trip of the year! Very early as it turns out, and an unusual thing to do in the potential snowy dead of winter. However, the long term forecast looked good on this particular week, so we found a window of opportunity and took it. The impetus of the trip was to acquire a record collection from a fellow music traveler in Alabama. So we flew to Atlanta, rented an SUV, and headed back to Colorado Springs. Eight states, seven days, and six nights. The first night we arrived close to midnight (10 our time), so no opportunity to dine out. In fact we had made ham sandwiches before leaving and enjoyed them in the hotel room. So we begin our food journey on Day #2, as we left our airport hotel location and headed southwest towards Alabama to scoop up the collection. We settled on That Burger Spot #6, a local chain that currently has seven locations in Atlanta, mostly to the south. They are of the "modern variety" whe...