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.