Day 22 – The Drive Home

Our longest drive of the trip was the return home, which was about 600 miles and 9 hours of driving. It was a little difficult as we had rain most of the way and pretty heavy at times. That makes for a tiring drive but we made in home just about on schedule.

We drove a total of a little over 4,400 miles on this trip.  If you calculated the trip point-to-point, the miles would be about 3,800 but of course there is driving around in towns and sightseeing that really can't be estimated.

Day 21 – Fort Payne, AL, to Dandridge, TN

Lover's Leap at Rock City

We had a shorter driving day today.  First we drove to Lookout Mountain, which overlooks Chattanooga, TN.  It was a sunny day and a bit cool.  We toured Rock City.  It is a bit pricey but it has been a featured attraction in Tennessee since the 30s and advertised on many barns throughout the south so you kind of have to do it.  It is an interesting walk among boulders and with some narrow passages with names such as “Fat Man’s Squeeze”, over swinging bridges and through numerous tunnels and tight passages.  For me the main feature is Lover’s Leap (see photo) where they claim you can see 7 states.  To that I have to say, “Oh, really!”  I can’t definitely say no, but South Carolina and Kentucky are pretty far away.  Likewise even Virginia seems is pretty implausible from what I later read. It does however make a good story and the view is breathtaking. It was clear enough for us to see the Smokey Mountains and the definitely includes North Carolina.

After that we visited with my cousin John and his wife and had dinner in Knoxville with our nieces.  The dinner was very good and it was nice to see John again after many years.  

Day 20 – New Orleans to Fort Payne, AL

We dropped Steve and Megan off at the airport and then started the seven hour drive up to Fort Payne, AL, which we chose as a convenient stopping point.  There were only two things of note on the trip.  First was the 23-mile bridge across Lake Pontchartrain.  The lake is so wide that you can’t see the other side when you start the trip so it gives you an eerie feeling of driving off into nowhere.  The second thing was the CD of Creole String Beans that Steve bought for us.  We played the CD at least twice during the trip to supplement our books-on-tape and we still liked the music we heard at Jazz Fest.  The trip was uneventful except for some heavy rain around Birmingham.

Day 19 – Creole String Beans

Hall and Oates

No, that isn't something we ate. The Creole String Beans were the opening act we saw at Jazz Fest today.  I mention them because they were fantastic and made us realize that the headliners at the fest maybe aren't necessarily the best acts.  Some of the unknown bands on the smaller stages are just as good or better than the big acts.  Of course, Irma Thomas and Aaron Neville were great as promised.  The group with the most fans that we saw (on the second stage) was clearly Hall and Oates.  They were good and well received, but for us the 80s music was a bit dated.  Basically they were just okay for us.

Sun Gear Required

Jazz Fest isn't all music.  We shared a feast with Steve and Megan including Crawfish, Cochon de Lait po’ boys and Crawfish Monica. Absolutely delicious!!!  We also were able to walk a bit to look some of the crafts and a fry bread demonstration. We think we found the secret to taking it easy in the Big Easy.  We went early, drove and paid to park at one of the local schools who do it as a fund-raiser. That saved a lot of waiting for cabs and didn't require much walking.  We were out in no time.  We brought our chairs and parked them at the second stage and used them all day.  The weather was sunny and the mud was gone, so all in all it was a great experience for us.

Day 18 – “Talk-in' 'bout, Hey now ! Hey now ! Iko, Iko, un-day…”

…Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-n? - Jock-a-mo fee na-n?”

Jackson Square

We didn't go to Jazz Fest today and instead took a tour of New Orleans as we have never been here before.  Steve and Megan were our tour guides, which was great for us. We started the morning with beignets at Café Du Monde after a walk through Jackson Square (see photo). Beignets are fried dough with powdered sugar and they are commonly eaten for breakfast in New Orleans. After beignets we did some shopping in the French Market and then walked through the French Quarter. Steve and Megan picked up a muffaletta sandwich at Central Grocery and we ate it outside in the courtyard of our hotel. A muffuletta sandwich consisted of layers of cold cuts (ham, either salami or mortadella, provolone, mozzarella) and marinated olive salad on something like a focaccia roll sliced horizontally. The roll is unique and along with the olive salad is what really makes the sandwich. One sandwich fed five of us and I would rank that sandwich equal to any hoagie. 

Bourbon Street on Saturday Night

In the afternoon we took a streetcar ride uptown, just like in the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which is set in New Orleans. We did some more window shopping on Magazine Street, which is a trendy neighborhood with a lot of boutique stores and restaurants. We then had dinner at Jacques Imo's Café, which brings me back to the opening lyrics.  The restaurant name was likely inspired by a play on the lyrics to “Iko Iko”, a traditional New Orleans song. Jacques Imo’s is billed as Creole comfort food and it certainly didn't disappoint from our appetizers of Alligator Cheesecake and Gumbo right thought our main courses. That may have been the best meal we had on the entire trip!

To top the evening, we walked along Bourbon Street with Steve and Megan who were headed to hear Allan Toussaint (“Southern Nights” and many other songs) in concert. We got to see the quaint New Orleans of gas lamps and wrought iron railings and also the seedy New Orleans all in one walk.

Day 17 – “Riding on the City of New Orleans…”

Willie Nelson at Jazz Fest

We drove into the “City of New Orleans” this morning from Baton Rouge to meet Steve, Megan and Megan’s parents, Claude and Judy, for lunch at Commander’s Palace. Commander’s Palace is one of the top restaurants in New Orleans and the food and service were beyond excellent. In addition, they have twenty-five cent martinis!

We checked into the Doubletree on Canal Street and immediately head off to Jazz Fest by cab. Although there was no rain today, the fields were pretty much a muddy mess from yesterday and impassible in spots without boots, which we didn't have. The mud wasn't a big problem other than making it hard to navigate between the stages. We watched in order – Marc Broussard, Maroon 5, Jimmy Cliff and Willie Nelson. The last three acts overlapped a little so we mainly watched Willie close the show. To add some local flavor, he sang “City of New Orleans” and “Jambalaya” in addition to his hits. Willie turned 80 a couple of days ago, but he can still really sing and play as always.

Second Line Band

Jazz Fest is also a big local party and there are a lot of “second line” acts everywhere, such as the one in the photo we saw while waiting for a cab back to the hotel. I’m not sure I totally understand the term “second line”, but from what I read, it technically refers to a group of brass players in a New Orleans funeral procession who follow along without a permit and thus not part of the official parade. In general terms I think it just refers to a group of “unofficial” brass jazz players who perform for tips. However don’t let the “unofficial” part fool you. These guys are really, really good!

Kermit Ruffins

We had a real down-home meal at Mother’s before heading back out to a club to see Kermit Ruffins. Kermit is a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans and he was obviously very influenced by Louis Armstrong. Kermit is a local character known for cooking barbecue at his shows (not this one, but he does own some restaurants here) and for being on the HBO show Treme. Jazz Fest ends at 7, giving you time to have dinner and then go out to see anther show. Steve and Megan did it every night but us old folks just did Kermit.

Day 16 – “Busted Flat in Baton Rouge…”

Melrose Plantation

Today we traveled from Lafayette, LA, to Natchez, MS, and then down to Baton Rouge, LA. The weather wasn't the best today as it was overcast and we drove through bursts of heavy rain off and on for much of the way, but it really didn't hold us back much. Our main stop, Natchez, is a small but historic Mississippi River town with many magnificent antebellum homes (see photos). In the years leading up to the Civil War, Natchez was a main stopping point for Mississippi River traffic and also the home town to group of cotton plantation owners.  

Stanton Hall

One interesting thing that we learned was that quite a few of the plantation owners were actually from the north and had plantations across several states. As a consequence the town was split when it came to a succession vote as they knew war would be bad for business. The homes in Natchez are very well preserved as the town was surrendered when the northern troops came so it didn't suffer the damage that towns like Vicksburg did.

In the evening, we did some touring of Baton Rouge.  We drove through the LSU campus, which is very large with a surprising amount of lakes. As far as I’m concerned, however, I’m going to remember Baton Rouge for the catfish Po’ Boy that gave me a bout of food poisoning.  

Day 15 – “On the Road Again…”

Today was basically a travel day, going from San Antonio to Lafayette, LA in about 9 hours with a couple hours of stops along the way. The first stop was in Sequin, TX, to see the world’s largest (fake) pecan. The Sequin area is actually famous in Texas for their pecans so we bought some just down the road.

Next we stopped in Beaumont, TX, to visit the replica of a Texas oil boom town from 1901. Spindletop was the largest oil deposit ever found to date and both the Gulf Oil and Texaco companies were formed to process the oil from that field.

Janis Joplin's Car (Port Arthur, TX)

Next stop was the Gulf Coast Museum in Port Arthur, TX.  Port Arthur is the hometown of several famous people, but we know it best for Janis Joplin, who was born and raised there. The museum has a small exhibit including her car (see photo). One curious thing that I liked is that they had displays for G.W. Bailey and Bubba Smith who were born in the Gulf Coast area, but what they chose to display was their uniforms from the “Police Academy” films.  Go figure.

We ended the night with a nice Cajun seafood dinner in Lafayette, LA.  Lafayette is in the center of Cajun country but for us was just a convenient stopping point.

Day 14 – “And the Mission Bells Were Ringing…”

San Fernando Cathedral

Today we took a tour bus to see San Antonio.  The tour started with visits to two Spanish missions, Mission San José and Mission Concepción.  Both had fallen into disrepair after the Spanish pulled out in the late 1700s but both are now restored and run by the National Park Service.  Next we stopped at San Fernando Cathedral, which is in the center of San Antonio and then to a third mission, Mission San Antonio de Valero (better known as the Alamo).  It was from San Fernando Cathedral tower that Santa Anna raised the red flag signaling that “no quarter” would be given to the defenders of the Alamo.

Riverwalk

We made one more stop at a sunken Japanese garden before returning to the Riverwalk for our boat ride and dinner.  The Riverwalk area was started as a flood control project in the 20s but now has grown into a “must see” tourist attraction.  I don't think there is anything else quite like it in the U.S.  The Riverwalk has several miles of walking paths and a large number of restaurants and hotels lining both sides. San Antonio is currently expanding the area to reach down to Mission park, adding several additional miles of trails.

Riverwalk boat

One thing we have learned on this trip is that Texas history, like most history in general, is made up of a lot of legends and not so much fact.  We heard the history of the Alamo from two tour guides today and earlier from a book on tape and all three are slightly different in the details.  Apparently people back in those days liked to embellish the truth so much that no one knows the real story now.  The lives and deaths of Crockett, Bowie and Travis are pretty much a mixture of unknowns and conflicting myths and legends.  Still, all in all, it makes for a very compelling story.

Day 13 – “And rose, my rose of San Antone”

"Remember the Alamo"

Today was an R&R day for us, relatively speaking.  We had a 90 minute drive from Austin to San Antonio, got to the hotel early and we did our wash in the afternoon, as planned.  San Antonio is the furthest point on our trip and we have driven about 2300 miles so far.  

Our hotel is very centrally located and only two blocks from the Riverwalk, so we ate Mexican there and took a walk.  We also took a quick walk to see the Alamo (see photo), but our planned Riverwalk cruise in the evening was cancelled by lightening in the area.  Not a problem as we can do it tomorrow.

Day 12 – “Lone Star State of Mind”

Austin City Limits

Today we spent a relaxing Sunday with Steve, who was down with Megan for a wedding yesterday and he was able to work from the Austin office on Monday, giving us the whole day together so we got to spend what was probably a typical Austin weekend day.  We drove out to Travis Lake to see the lake, then walked up to Mount Bonnell to get a good view of Austin (see photo) and the Colorado river which runs through town.  The river and surrounding area is a recreation center for the people of Austin and being a sunny day, everyone was taking advantage of the weather and there were a lot of kayaks out floating down the river.  We then went down to South Congress to do a bit of shopping  in the unique and more than slightly quirky stores there. 

Jeanne and John in a "Lone Star State of Mind"

We had dinner at The Salt Lick, which is roughly 20 miles outside of town.  It is “the” spot for barbecue in Austin but is quite different from la Barbecue where we ate yesterday.  While la Barbecue feels like eating in someone’s backyard, The Salt Lick is a Texas-sized restaurant with huge parking lot and maybe a thousand diners.  It was naturally more of an assembly line operation but the food was still very good.

Bats at Congress Avenue Bridge

To close the evening and keeping in the theme of “Keep Austin Weird”, we went to watch the bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge.  Every evening large crowds gather on the bridge at sunset to watch the millions of bats who hang under the bridge in the daytime take off for their evening flight to who knows where.  When they leave, they actually form a thin black cloud that you can see in the distance heading east from the bridge and thankfully away from the spectators.  It would have been really exciting if they went the other direction.

Day 11 – “The Eyes of Texas…

Beef Brisket with Chipotle Slaw

…Are Upon You” is the University of Texas fight song and we reached the halfway point of our trip in Austin, home to the University of Texas.  The unofficial slogan of Austin is “Keep Austin Weird” and we didn’t see anything to dispute that.  It seems to be a town full of young people and old hippies, not exactly the combo you think of when you think of Texas. 

What Austin has is a lively food and music scene, centered around Sixth Street and it has more live music bars on one street than any place I have been to.  In the evening, we went to Esther’s comedy club on Sixth for distinctly Texas take on Saturday Night Live humor.  The Five Flags over Texas skit with Rick Perry talking about Texas succeeding from the Union and splitting it into five parts was hilarious. The show’s magician was also great, especially when he shot a dog from a cannon through a plate glass window into the street (you had to be there).

Gray-tailed Grackle

We came across two unique things in Austin.  One is barbecued beef brisket (see photo).  Austin is famous for it and we ate at la Barbecue (formerly JMueller) which is a Mecca of BBQ.  It is basically a food truck surrounded by picnic tables and BBQ smoking equipment.  It has a real down home feel, complete with free beer and live music.  That sandwich was definitely one of the best I have ever eaten.  I’m going to be dreaming of it for a while.

Another unique thing is the black bird in the picture.  It is a gray-tailed Grackle and they are all around Austin.  We have never seen one like that before and it is a really loud bird that seems to be a cross between a crow and a road runner.  Very strange looking.

Day 10 – “Mammas Don't Let Your Babies…”

“…Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” We spent the day in Fort Worth, a quintessential Texas cowtown.  For 20 years after the end of the civil war, herds of cattle were driven up the old Chisholm Trail through Fort Worth to Abilene, Kansas, where they were shipped by rail back east for processing.  Those cattle drives gave birth to the cowboy in America and when the railroad came to Fort Worth and the cattle drives ended, Fort Worth remained a key meat processing center.

Fort Worth is about a 50 minute drive from our hotel, and we passed by the George Bush Presidential Library (no security today), Six Flags Over Texas, Cowboys Stadium and the Rangers ballpark, the last three all in Arlington.  Fort Worth is a modern city these days and we started with a visit to the Kimbell Museum. The Kimbell is a small museum but it has a surprisingly good collection. 

Texas Longhorns

In the afternoon we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards.  The stockyard was a sprawling area of cattle, hog and sheep pens and meat processing plants, but today is a tourist area with lots of stores, restaurants and Billy Bob’s, the world’s largest bar.  It also has the world’s first indoor rodeo.  We witnessed a longhorn cattle drive down the main street of the stockyard and stayed for the evening rodeo.  The rodeo is always great fun. The team roping event is amazing.  One cowboy ropes the head and a second ropes the “heels”.  That really doesn’t even seem possible.  The cash scramble is also fun.  They send a bunch of young kids from the audience to take a ribbon from a heifer’s tail for a cash prize.  Of course a heifer can easily drag a single kid so it isn't as easy as it seems.

Day 8 – "I still believe in a place called Hope." – Bill Clinton

Little Rock Central High School

Today we had a bit of long drive. We started in Memphis in the rain and mid-40’s and got to Dallas with clear skies and 70 degrees. The trip took us about 10 hours, but we made a couple of touring stops along the way, plus we detoured into Oklahoma for about an hour.  Two reasons for the side trip.  The main reason was that Jeanne had never been to Oklahoma.  The second was that we got to cross the Red River, twice.  The Red River is quite pretty with scenic bends, kind of meandering along.  It was, however, not in the least red.

We stopped at two National Park Service sites while in Arkansas.  The first was Central High School in Little Rock (see photo).  In the fall of 1957 Central High (see photo) was the center of desegregation violence when nine African-American high school students tried to attend the previously all-white high school.  In the end, President Eisenhower was compelled to use federal troops to restore order and allow the school to be integrated.  This was the beginning of the end for segregation in America, thank goodness.  Central High, by the way, is still a functioning high school.

Bill Clinton's bed in Hope, Arkansas

Our second stop was much a lighter one.  We stopped in Hope, Arkansas, to tour Bill Clinton’s boyhood home.  He actually lived in that house until he was four and I found that we had one thing in common besides being about the same age.  He was also a big Hopalong Cassidy fan (TV series in the mid-50’s) as a boy.  I didn't have the bedspread that he had, but we both had the same photo of Hopalong Cassiday with his horse.

Day 9 – “All My Ex’s Live in Texas”

Southfork Ranch

Well maybe all the ex’s don’t live in Texas, but 4 ex-presidents were in Dallas today along with President Obama to dedicate the Bush Presidential Library at SMU. Our invitation was lost in the mail so we tried to drive by for a look, but no luck. Too much security.

We started the day with a tour of Southfork Ranch, famous from the TV show “Dallas”. Yeah, we know it is a bit hokey but it’s still a Dallas icon even though it is really in Parker, Texas. Exteriors of the show were shot there, but everything else was done in a studio in California.  

Dealey Plaza from Texas School Book Deposit

Next we drove downtown to another Dallas icon, the Texas School Book Depository. Sorry, but after being there I don’t see how the shots could have come from the grassy knoll. The angle is very bad. That said, the shots from the 6th floor wouldn't have been that easy either, especially the last one (see photo). They even have x's in the road where Kennedy was hit so you can judge for yourself. Looks like it will just have to remain a mystery. Side comment – we just realized that we are also on kind of an unplanned “assassination tour”.  Now we might have to visit the state capitol in Baton Rouge (Huey Long in case you were wondering).

We toured the Dallas Art Museum in the afternoon. It has very strange floor plan and a wide range of art objects but as we judge largely by their collection of impressionists, not that great. It was free. Tex-Mex for dinner with sopapillas for dessert. We haven’t had sopapillas for years and years. They are so good!

Day 7 – Memphis Soul

Sun Studio

I’m not exactly sure what Memphis Soul is but I’m pretty sure we experienced it today through both music and food. Our day started with two music related tours. The first was the Sun Records studio on Union Street, kind of at the edge of the downtown area. Sun Records was at its peak in the mid-50s and is the place where Elvis was discovered and did his first recordings. They also recorded Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, plus a lot of blues and Rock-a-Billy musicians. It was really pretty cool to stand in the actual recording studio where so many of the hits of the 50s were recorded. Our next stop was Stax Records, home to a lot of soul recording artists such as Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes and many, many others. The tour was interesting but I think we preferred the Sun tour a little more because it was a little more in our time-frame.  

Isaac Hayes' Gold Plated Cadillac at Stax Records

Lunch today was at Gus’s downtown to sample their spicy chicken. The chicken was not as spicy as other places we have been, but for me it was the perfect blend. Absolutely delicious, tender and juicy.  After some time back at the hotel, we went to Charles Vergos' Rendezvous for dinner and to try their famous barbecue ribs. Rendezvous is one of the classic rib joints in Memphis and is pretty much hidden down an alley across from the Peabody Hotel.  Those were without a doubt the best dry rub ribs I have every tasted.  Even Jeanne, who isn’t a big fan of ribs, loved them. To top the evening, we went to the Orpheum Theater for a play. The Orpheum is one of the few remaining grand old theaters from the 20s. It an amazing place to see a play and we were very lucky to be in town when the touring company of “Memphis” was playing.

Day 6 – "Walking in Memphis"

Lorraine Motel In Memphis

We drove 4 hours to Memphis, checked-in early and had lunch at Corky’s on Poplar.  They were conveniently near our hotel and known for pulled pork which we both enjoyed.  After lunch, we went to the National Civil Rights museum which turned out to be very interesting.  The centerpiece is the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.  You get to stand on the balcony on the exact spot where he was shot and also look into his room, which was left exactly as it was on that day, complete with newspapers on the bed and cigarettes in the ashtray.  Part of the museum is across the street and includes exhibits in the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed under an assumed name.  You can look through the window where he fired the fatal shot and very much visualize the scene (see photo – white wreath is were Dr. King was standing and his room is to the left, with the curtains open).  All in all it was pretty shocking but it is still part of our history.  

Next we drove downtown to watch the ducks’ parade at the Peabody Hotel. Crowded and a bit overrated, but it is one of the iconic things that Memphis is known for and you kind of have to do it.  In the evening we went walking on Beale Street and to B.B. King’s restaurant for some food and listen to blues.  The house band (B.B. King’s All Stars) was playing and they were great.  They even played some of the famous “Memphis soul” music with a couple of Sam and Dave numbers.

Day 3-5 – Mt. Juliet

Three days spent with the family.

Day 2 – Drive to Nashville, TN

Gran and Jeanne

We did the second leg of the trip from Philadelphia to Nashville (actually Mount Juliet) in a little under 6 hours, including a stop at the Russell Stover candy outlet outside of Knoxville where we bought this super-sized Mother’s Day gift.  Truthfully there is a lot more box than there is candy!

Day 1 – Drive to Wytheville, VA

Big Pencil!!!

We packed the car and left around 9 am for our approximately 450 mile drive to Wytheville, VA, which took about 7 hours.  The drive was uneventful and we have made it many times, but we had a nice German meal for dinner in Wytheville at the Matterhorn Restaurant.  We took a drive around Wytheville after dinner where we ran across this office supply store with the giant pencil in the center of town.