"Honey, what are dumplings?"

Jody looked at me and laughed when I asked him that last night at Cracker Barrel. I was looking at the menu, in my continued quest to eat only Southern food while on my vacation, and I stumbled on the Cracker Barrel Sampler, which has Chicken and Dumplings, Meat Loaf and Ham on it. I had heard of Chicken and Dumplings but had no clue what it was. In my mind, all I could picture were Won Tons.
"Really? You don't know what dumplings are?"
"No. What are they?"
Jody tried to explain dumplings to me though I don't remember what he said. So I decided to order the sampler and then the waitress let me pick 3 sides to go with it. One of the options was fried okra, which, since I had never had it before and it is a Southern thing, I had to get. They were kinda like fried zucchini, so I liked them.
Earlier that day I had Sonic. Even though we have a couple Sonic's in Cali, none of them are near my house, and the last time I had been to one was the day after the Superbowl on the way home from Lara and Jim's. I was happy to get my Grape Cream Thingie that I had been wanting for months.
On my first night there, we went to the Waffle House for dinner. Apparently they have those on every corner out here. Yes, they serve waffles, and yes, I had one with my meal. In truth, they give you a lot of food and it was pretty cheap. I only ate half of my waffle. And in keeping with my "I've never eaten it before so I'm gonna get it" theme, I ordered grits. They kinda tasted like soggy tortillas and they had the texture of oatmeal or really really soggy rice. I put butter on them, though I think I may have put too much on. They weren't bad.

I've done more than eat of course. Yesterday we went to the Mall. Nothing to different from the Malls in Cali, but we came across this machine with Bull Horns on it. It was like one of those "Test Your Strength" machines they have in restaurants sometimes. The idea was you were supposed to grab the horns, push them together as hard as you could and hold them for about 10 seconds and it would measure your strength in terms of Bull Rider Lingo. Jody went first and even with a lingering boo-boo on his left shoulder got Bull Wrestler, which was 1 below Professional Bull Rider, the highest you can get. I was impressed, but at the same time, in my head, the same voice that convinced me to try to arm wrestle boys when I was in elementary school said to me "Yeah, he is a guy and yeah, he has muscular arms, but I weight train. I should be able to do this pretty well too." so I handed Jody my jacket and my purse, popped in a quarter and grabbed the horns and pushed them together as hard as I could. I was working my traps, my biceps, my triceps , my pecs, every major muscle group in my upper arms and upper body. In my head, I could hear my trainer Jeff's voice pushing me on. I was in pain by the time I stopped. I thought I must have done really well.
I got "City Slicker" which is 5 below Professional Bull Rider. Then the machine taunted me by saying something to me about milking a cow, which made Jody laugh. I mumbled an expletive at the machine before lacing my arm through Jody's and walking away.
On the drive back we got a few minutes of snow. I stuck my arm out the window of the car and felt it, as well as seeing it in the headlights in front of the car. It lasted for a few minutes, then stopped. It is supposed to snow on New Years, but we'll see.