Matthew's World

We had made arrangements to meet Heather’s nephew, Matthew, for dinner. The campground was PURPORTEDLY 20 minutes from his house. Alas, Matthew informs us that by area and populations, Charlotte metropolitan area is larger than Atlanta, and if you don’t know about Atlanta traffic, then just take our word for it … DON’T PLAN TO VISIT YOUR NEPHEW IN CHARLOTTE AT RUSH HOUR!

Ahem. Please forgive us. Both Gordon and I are from a small city, and are unused to the vissicitudes of travel through large metropolitan areas, so we tend to get a bit unbalanced.

However, though it took an hour to get to Matthews, it was worth it! We loved seeing where he lived, and he took us to a local watering hole for dinner called Pinky’s Westside Grill. If you watch “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network, you may have heard of it. Pinky’s is a small, local eatery that has been around forever, with a down-home menu with unusual twists.

Having just watched Jurassic World at the dollar theater in Marietta, Gordon was attracted by the Pteradactyl burger. Matthew had the Ding Dong Chicken sandwich: chicken with peanut butter, sriracha hot sauce and honey cilantro slaw (!). Heather’s first glance at the menu landed on the “Southern Dog” and she could never quite get off it: topped with mustard, chili, swaw and onion. Gordon and Matthew had local beers which were lovely. Being designated driver, Heather rewarded herself with a side of red potato salad, which she swears is absolutely world class. Made with sour cream if she’s not mistaken, prompting the Wilson Nicoll memorial, “Why, at BONES you would pay $25.00 for that potato salad!” (Dollar amount appropriately inflated for passage of time.)

After dinner, we went back to Matthews to watch his stand-up comedy performance at Charlotte’s well-known Comedy Zone. The performance was the culmination of a comedy class taught by Comedy Zone empresarios. In the words of the emprisarios, “He killed!” Polished, funny, engaging. Our nephew!

After a wonderful evening, we drove back to our cozy geezer-mobile in SEVENTEEN MINUTES without traffic.Read more