We're almost home, but....

...we're going to keep posting the rest of our trip until we reach the end. We're busy putting kilometres on the car in order to get home, so check back in about a week :-)

New Orleans...NOLA as they like to call it

Our camping in New Orleans ended up being the worst we have had during our trip. It was the closest we could get to downtown, but it was still a 15 minute drive to get to the French Quarter. It was a big white gravel lot that had no trees; this was not only unattractive, it also led to some extremely hot, sunny wake up calls. As an added bonus we were locked behind a gate from 5pm on since prostitutes and drunk people wandered the major street outside the park. It was to this delightful scene that we brought Bryce after picking him up at midnight on our first day in New Orleans. I don't think he was too impressed. It grew on us a little though over the few days we were there, as there was a nice pool and hot tub which came in handy during the few hours we had to relax while we were in the city.

Aside from our accommodations, New Orleans was a great city! It really had a nice vibe to it and the locals were really keen to talk to us and give us suggestions on what we should see. Through talking to people we had fantastic Po-Boys (Which seem to basically be like a big sandwich made from French Bread-the filling of choice was battered, fried shrimp with melted cheese and roast beef gravy), had a great walk in a swamp, and caught some really good live music along Frenchman Street which evidently is where the locals go to party.

The Three Amigos, together again. In the background is Jackson Square.

I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself. Our first activity in New Orleans, fairly early the morning after we picked up Bryce, was to do a great National Park-led tour of the French Quarter which explained the history of the city, starting way back with the native peoples in the region and bringing us up through the Spanish, French, and finally American influence. With that bit of history under our belt we visited an exhibit on Hurricane Katrina which brought back our memories of the news coverage of the event while at the same time giving more of the details behind the news. There was also an excellent exhibit on how and why all the levies failed in the city which led to all the flooding. On a lighter note there was also an excellent exhibit on Mardis Gras, the parades, and the krewes (krewes seem to be like crews, with more pageantry) that run them. I had to hurry through that exhibit a bit as I had spent too much time with the levies so I can't report much other than how seriously they take the ridiculousness of the event. Over the top costumes, floats, invitations, etc.

They were moving some of the parade floats around while we were.

One of the great costumes up for viewing at the Mardi Gras Exhibit.

We wandered the streets a bit then headed back to camp for a bit of a rest before heading back out for the evening. It was really hot down there and it was nice, if not necessary, to escape the weather now and again. That evening we headed back into town for what the Lonely Planet indicated was the best Po-Boy restaurant in town. Unfortunately it was closed, but, like I mentioned earlier, thanks to friendly advice we were able to find a place which really might have had the best sandwiches in town. They were amazing. Better than you would think a sandwich could be. Also, being on that end of town we were able to check out St. Charles Avenue, a beautiful and famous tree and wonderful-old-home lined street. At this point we attempted to round out the day with a visit to one of the city's above ground cemeteries but they all seemed to lock up early. Before heading to bed we had a few beers and I had a cigar (I forgot to note earlier that we checked out a cigar store where men were hand making cigars in the shop. It was funny, evidently it was Cuban tobacco seed, grown in the Dominican Republic, and then made in America. It was a good cigar for all of that.) while we sat in the hot tub. A pretty good start to our time with Bryce.

Me, eating a Po-Boy. It seems like Bryce is cheering me on a little bit, but I think he was actually just enthused about how good they were.

The next day began with another fact filled adventure when we sat in for a Creole cooking course. The course might have been the best (non-free) bang-for-your-buck activity we have done on this trip. It was two hours long during which an engaging grandmother told stories, and the history of New Orleans while making several regional dishes. The dishes included gumbo, jambalaya, bread pudding, and pralines. They were all delicious. We also got a local beer while we ate lunch.

The three of us with our little cooking instructor.

After that we made our way to another national park in the region. This one was in a proper swamp instead of the city. Half the park was closed as a man had gone missing off the boardwalk the previous day (amazingly he survived four days in the swamp!). From what the ranger indicated, copperhead snakes were generally found only in the part of the park which was closed so we weren't that heart broken and we still had a few kilometers of trail to work with. The intro sign indicated that things we might see on the trail were basically turtles, snakes, and alligators. The edges of the path were heavily grown in with low bushes, so our hearts were all racing as we walked mostly single file, down the middle of the path waiting for something to lunge out at us. Nothing did. We did see many, many snakes though and eventually even some young alligators. It was a cool walk and was neat to see all the animals.

Some of the cool creatures we saw in the swamp. We only got one blurry photo of the snakes, but we saw alot of them too.

From the swamp we made our way back down town. We were heading towards a city park for some free live music when we came across Antoine's Restaurant. It looked really neat from the outside and after some humming and hawing we decided to go in and check out the display cases. The bartender saw us come in and invited us on a tour of the place. It was then that we learned how famous it was and got to check out the many dining rooms in the restaurant, several intended for select groups (like Mardi Gras parade Krewes). Aside from just being a cool restaurant there was also alot of history stored in the people themselves, evidently some of the waiters had been there for generations, as had the patrons they served. After the tour we made our way to the park for the music, which sounded good. After awhile though Bryce was reasonably burning out and we went in hunt of coffee. This didn't seem available anywhere, beer yes, coffee no. We settled on some Coke and headed back to camp.

We decided that night would be our big night out in New Orleans. Unfortunately cabbing back to the campsite would have been too expensive so Meg volunteered to be the nights dd. I think probably she regretted that in the end. Our first act of the night was of course a stroll down infamous Bourbon Street. We had walked in and out of Bourbon Street a few times, and I have to say even at 10 am some of the bars and their patrons were starting to ramp up. By the evening the whole street was going crazy. It was great! A really fun, party atmosphere, with people walking down the street with giant cups of beer or large musical-note-shaped plastic glasses filled with some alcoholic drink, probably a hurricane. Speaking of the hurricane, that was our second drink of the night (the first of course being a quick beer as soon as hit the strip). The hurricane is a local favorite and we stopped by the bar which invented them and each had one. We had heard a saying surrounding the drink which I can't remember fully, but went something along the lines of "Drink one and you're feeling no pain, drink two and you forget everything..." (I think drink three probably involved dying or ending up in jail). Anyway, the saying was bang on, it was a smooth tasting drink with alot of alcohol and it started our evening well. While we had the cocktail we also had a chance to talk to a couple of local guys who were hanging out at the bar. They were really nice fellows and one of them, Chef Joe, gave us his number so we could give him a shout when we were upstate a bit (where they lived).

From there the night got a little vague honestly enough. I think we popped by another bar along Bourbon and then headed over to Frenchmens street, we had been told this was the street that the locals party at. At first the street seemed a little quiet, but we soon found the busier area and checked out a few bars with some really good live music. At the end of the night things get really fuzzy as we were hanging out with a fellow and he bought us a few whiskey and cokes. Meg reports that the last thing we did before heading home was crash a somewhat private after party at a Bourbon street bar in order to go to the washroom.

We weren't feeling great the next morning as we slowly, very slowly, packed up the tent, gathered our belongings and left the gravel lot behind. It was about 1pm by the time we got on the road and somewhat appropriately since I was feeling half dead we headed for a graveyard to check it out while it was open. The graveyard was pretty neat with many of the mausoleums dating back centuries. We had an animated, though fact free, discussion on what happened to each of the bodies as the next one was added in. We then checked out another Po-Boy shop (good, but not as good as the first one) and decided to check out a jazz talk held, again, by the national parks system (they are well set up in New Orleans with national parks). The talk was excellent, covering the history of jazz through slavery and share cropping and religion, but including live songs along the way by really excellent musicians. It was an audience participation kind of music and we had to do our best to clap along with time to the music (as if we were chopping wood evidently, and if we missed time we got our hands chopped off, or at least ridiculed by the main presenter). Buoyed by the music we decided that the right thing to do next would be go for a run. I really didn't think it was that good of an idea, but Bryce was pretty hell-bent that it would make us feel better. I didn't, I felt sick. The other two seemed to have a really nice time though. We headed over to a KOA on the west, and heading-out of town, side of New Orleans and setup camp for our last night in town.

Some of the cool mausoleums in the above ground graveyards.

Jazz, as evidenced by the National Park mentioned earlier, is a big thing in New Orleans and we decided we couldn't leave town without seeing some live. Bryce had chatted up a fellow the night before and got some good advice on a place to go, but through some strange googling magic we ended up going to a completely different location (unknowingly). The music ended up being really cool though. At first we thought we had been taken for the price of cover. The band was three middle aged guys dressed as if they might be doing Sunday yard work. Then they started playing and we knew we had been robbed. It was a cacophony of sounds without coherence. Slowly though the music started taking shape and it was really grooving. It turns out it was totally improvisational; one of the guys would start wailing on his instrument as a solo (there was a stand up base, a guitar and a drum set) and then the other two would get the rhythm and start falling in and the sound would just evolve from there. Though it was really cool sounding, the night before caught up with me eventually and I almost fell asleep off my seat so we headed back to the tent. As a side note on jazz music, as awkward and difficult as the start of each song was to listen to, it was even worse watching the few brave souls who decided to dance to it. I think in an alternate setting people would have suspected they had a disease of the nervous system.

That was it for New Orleans. We had had an awesome time in the city and we are all pretty convinced that at some point we will be back for Mardi Gras. Actually that wasn't totally it for New Orleans, somewhere in all of that we went for a driving tour of the lower 9th ward. That was the really poor part of town that got so much press coverage after the flooding. Mainly I was hoping to find some of the rebuilt super houses I had read about in a few places and luckily we were able to find some just as we were leaving the area. Also though we saw alot of the poverty and broken down shacks that are so associated with New Orleans since the flood.

Just a shot of the French Quarter. As can be seen there is some lovely iron work, nice balconies and it is hard to find parking.

Emm Eye Ess Ess Eye Ess Ess Eye Pee Pee Eye

We had five days to get from Nashville, Tennessee to New Orleans, Louisianna where we would pick Bryce up from the airport and begin our ten day adventure with him. We chose to drive south along the Natchez Trace, another scenic route well known in the world of US driving trips. Most of this route was through Mississippi state.

The Natchez Trace was historically the route that farmers, plantation owners (well..maybe not the owners but their workers) and merchants would travel from the south of the Mississippi River back up north to their home. Before steamships were invented, merchants would sail/barge south on the Mississippi with their goods in order to sell them to the bustling port cities. Rather than slowly paddle up river to get back home, they would disassemble their raft, trade the boat's wood for a mule or two and ride back home.

The drive was beautiful and we had enough time to take make it in a leisurely pace. Perhaps the most exciting thing along the drive itself, aside from the greenery, were the ancient Indian mounds. Not that exciting to gaze at, but very neat to think about--over 2000 years ago the Native Indians would bury their loved ones with personal belongings in these large ceremonial mounds. We spent a few nights at great campsites, did some fishing, cooked some good meals, lost Cameron's glasses (luckily they've since been found and the campground is kindly mailing them home), and had a couple good runs along the walking paths.

Cam loving the camping. Thanks to Julie and Mike we discovered the beauty of cooking corn on the grill. And please, this is grilling, not BBQing..there is a difference.

Beautiful driving through Mississippi.

Me in my prime. I've discovered I love fishing.

We detoured off the "Trace" as it's affectionately referred to, and made our way to Clarksdale, Mississippi...yet another hotbed of musical history. Ike Turner was born here, along with a slew of well known blues musicians. We rolled into town and went straight to the local blues bar, where we spent the night bopping away to live music.

We spent the next day driving along Highway 1, next to the Mississippi. Our Mississippi River spotting failed for the most part as we quickly realized there are levees that run the whole course of the river and block the view of it. We were able to detour into a little industrial port along the way and catch a glipse of the flooding waters though.

Our next highlight was BB King's birthplace, Indianola, MI. A couple years ago I never would have known who BB King was, but friends Crystal and Dave got me hooked a while ago and so I was quite excited to learn more about him. Of course, Cameron already knew who he was, not because I taught him, but because he's smart like that. The BB King museum was yet another spectacularly done exhibit and we learned all about his poor upbringing and crazy lifestyle that has kept him on the road for the last 60 years doing concerts almost daily.

On our way to Clarksdale we stopped in Tupelo. This is teeny tiny house that Elvis was born in, and lived until he was 3 years old. At that point, his parents couldn't afford the house anymore and had to move in with Elvis's grandparents.

Elvis and his folks

Perhaps one of the best meals of the trip was in Taylor, MI. Catfish (one plate blackened, the other grilled) at a little divey looking restaurant

We had to do it. We had to try Sonic, a drive-in restaurant. Thinking it would be "old-fashioned" and serve us with a table attached to our car window we were excited. Instead we got a to-go bag of food and a greasy smelling car.

Davey Crockett's home. Unfortunately you see what we saw. The exhibit inside was all deteriorated and rotting so we didn't really learn too much about the great frontiersman.

With our sightseeing complete, we got back onto our scenic drive and rode the rest of the Natchez out before jumping on the major highways to bring us into New Orleans. What was really wild was the gigantically long raised highways that led into the city. Louisianna has so much water and swamp land and the area leading into NOLA (yes, that New Orleans, Louisianna) had houses raised up on stilts and children going to school in boats--very reminiscent of Cambodia!

Nashville, Tennessee

Our drive to Nashville was non-descript, minus the downpour of rain we fought through. We got camp set up in our token KOA campground in the heart of Opreyland and got to work the next morning seriously exploring Nashville.

First off was taking care of DJ. We had a slow leak in the passenger side rear tire that needed to be fixed and so went into the downtown Honda dealership. We hunkered down in the waiting room, complete with free coffee, pop, popcorn, hotdogs (not yet cooking), wireless internet and the most recent newspaper. For people who have been travelling for ten months this is heaven and we almost considered just spending our day at Honda. A bit too quickly the inspection was finished and showed a nail pucture, requiring a new tire (though Cameron is adamant the tire could have been patched and they were scamming us...luckily the tire is warrenteed). They kindly shuttled us downtown to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum while DJ waited in line to get fixed up.

The museum was just awesome and we saw all kinds of old county music clips and videos...everything from Hank Williams to the beginnings of the Grand Ole' Opry to Roy Rogers to Taylor Swift. In usual form, Cameron and I are the slowest moving people through the museum and the Honda dealership thought we were nuts to spend the whole day there!

Look closely and you will see the cowboy themed changes made to the car...a saddle in the console, guns for the inside door handles. I forget who this car belonged to but it was some big wig country singer!

This picture is for you Dad!

The original blue suede shoes!

With DJ fixed we headed to Hog Heaven, another restaurant recommendation from Jaci and Larry's viewing "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"...and again, the turkey sandwich with white BBQ sauce came up gold! Back downtown to Broadway Street and spent a few hours listening to multiple bands at various pubs/lounges/bars. Nashville is amazingly musical and there is talent everywhere you turn..people come here to "make it" just like actors go to Las Angeles.

Have you picked up on the theme yet? We're eating a lot of BBQ.

Broadway is full of bars, music stores, and ratty tourist shops

We had a wander around downtown, touring another state capitol and learning how unique Tennessee is with some of its governing....now, I say unique, and I know it was unique but already I seem to have forgetten the details...ugh.

Look closely and you will see that sneaky Confederate flag on the desk.

We took in an evening show at the Grand Ole Opry. For those of you like me, you might recognize the name but don't really know what it is...the Opry is a live radio broadcast country music performance that started back in the '40s and have been happening weekly ever since. The show is a couple hours long and performers having 15 minutes a piece, usually enough time to do 3 or 4 songs. The night we were there had multiple old timers that have playing there since their hay day in the 50s (this included Little Jimmy Dickens**..the cutest, smallest cowboy you ever have seen...in his 90s now he still knows how to work the crowd!) and finished with Diamond Rio.

**please, if you never look any links, look at this one. He's ADORABLE!

Grand Ole Opry stage

Cameron lovin' the country

Having had two nights of live music we were getting hooked, and took in a third at the Bluebird Cafe, a long-running restaurant that hosts up and coming singer/songwriters (and also where Garth Brooks was discovered, along with many others). The night was perhaps our highlight of Nashville. The crowd was very intimate--while it was a "sold out" show (you don't actually have to buy tickets, just make reservations for a table) and they had two acts over the couple hours. The first started with 5 or 6 youngsters, ranging from late teens to early 20s, that were developing their music careers. They all had beautiful voices, great songs and basically blew our minds. Included in this group were American Idol discoveries, though we don't watch the show so nobody was recognizable.

That concluded our musical tour of Nashville and we were back on the road...five days to make our way to New Orleans where we would meet up with Bryce (remember him from NYC?).