Athens The Friendly City

Today we drove to Athens to meet one of my pen pals of two and a half years.
We drove here from Knoxville which was about a bit over an hour drive and checked into an overnight motel, dumped our stuff then drove to Cracker Barrel for some lunch as we had woken up too later for breakfast yet again!
When you walk into this place, you have to go through their store of absolutely everything wonderful. By this I mean there are a hundred and one things to look at ranging from old school candies and chocolates to toys and household goodies.
I didn’t get much time to have a look around because I was so hungry so off we slid into the restaurant area.
Off the menu, I chose the Cracker Barrel sampler which consisted of chicken ‘n’ dumplins, meatloaf and country ham. With this I got three sets of sides including mac and cheese, fried apples and whole kernel corn.

When it came out, it was another story. I couldn’t tell the difference between the chicken ‘n’ dumplins and meatloaf or if there were even two dishes on my plate as it only looked like one along with the ham.
With the corn, I was expecting a cob of corn but the kernels did me just fine.
The ham was okay but was rather tough which was probably the result of overcooking it.
The mac and cheese was okay and the fried apples, I left for my husband to eat.

He ordered the chicken pot pie in which he continued to chant, “chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie” the whole time he was waiting for it to come out (this is a reference from Family Guy for those of you who aren’t familiar with it).
He liked his meal but found it quite large for him to finish.

We headed off to the car rental place after this but had to kill time as our car hadn’t arrived when we got there.
We went into some cheap stores within the vicinity until our car was ready then we headed back to our motel.
We had a quick cat nap then drove to Applebee’s to meet my pen pal, Ashley.
I’ never been to Applebee’s before but I have to say that it is now one of my faves! The food here was so damn good and the service was great.
My pen pal was just as lovely and fun loving in real life as she is in her letters and she had brought along her best friend, Susana with her who is also one of the loveliest people you could ever meet.
We spent two hours gossiping and talking about the differences in the American and Australian culture while eating baby back ribs, Bourbon Street chicken, fried mozzarella sticks and chicken pasta.

For dessert, we had a chocolate brownie and chocolate fudge ice cream shot.

Then we went and saw the Christmas tree. This was a highlight for me as I love seeing all sorts of Christmas decorations and I love that Tennessee get into the Christmas spirit!

After that we drove to Susana’s house where she made us some deep fried oreos and funnel cake as we don’t have that kind of stuff back home. They were amazing! We couldn’t stop eating.

It was hard to believe that these were made by deep frying pancake and waffle mix!

I’m definitely making these back home. We had so much fun here, I think this is one of my favourite places in the States! Hope you guys enjoyed this post and get to visit one day.

Frankiie xX