Woke up in our second 'Motel 8' in a row just outside of Memphis. We were pleasantly surprised by an 'ok' breakfast of toast and bagels. I had my second cup of tea of the holiday.. Lipton :P .. First thing I do when I get home is have a large mug of Yorkshire tea.
We took the car back to our memphis drop off point and bartered with the guy for the cheapest rate to keep the car till DC! It started at an additional $800 but we managed to try various drop off points and got it down to $240.. Still saving us about $400 on doing it all at once in Vegas. Definitely worth trying different options when renting a car for the long haul. Different states and areas have different drop off fees that vary dramatically and saving lots of dollars is definitely worth the extra hassle.
Once we had our dodge car and sally satnav (of course she's been named.. We made her have a British accent too, just so we don't get too homesick) confirmed all the way to our next major stop we headed off to Gracelands..The home of Mr Elvis Arran Presley!
On the way we stopped at a small boots shop at the side of the road thatwas full to bursting with cowboy boots, belts and hats! The friendly old couple were very helpful and I think we all got a little carried away withour want to look like a Texan cowboy! I bought some Lizard skin boots and snakeskin belt to go with the cowgirl hat I had already bought in NewOrleans! Steve bought some Lizard boots, snakeskin belt and hat like me andJenny couldn't decide so bought 2 pairs of boots.. Well one pair were onsale so its ok! All in all I think the shop people were very pleased indeed they didn't go for the early lunch break they had planned.. I won't say what our total bill came too :-O
At Gracelands we opted for the basic tour of the Gracelands abode..Complete with trophy hut and audio tour for the grand total of $28 .. Beinga tourist is expensive. The house was pretty crazy.. Mirrors and carpets onthe ceilings, indoor waterfalls, floor to ceiling phsycadellic wallpaper,tv room, snooker room, jungle room! We headed on through to where he recorded some of his songs and then on to the many many many walls of fame! This dude had a LOT of gold and platinum records, awards, wacky outfits,the works!
The tour gave me a new found appreciation for Elvis. my image of him before was a scary looking middle aged dude with crazy sideburns, but heyElvis was HOT in his younger years.. He fought for his country and gave alot of his time and money to charities!After our Elvis fix we put on our blue suaede shoes.. Oh no I mean cowboy boots and headed into Memphis City centre. This time we had moved from jazzin New Orleans to the blues in Memphis. The streets were filled with bluesbars and shops blaring out music. We stopped for some of the local delicasy of hickery glazed pork at the 'Pig' bar and cafe - Pork with an attitude!They had won hundreds of awards for their spit roast pork and mm we cantaste why!
We headed to the local park to listen to some live music in the sun andrest a while before getting on the road again. Memphis is meant to be thehome of rock and roll, where Elvis and many other famous artists haverecorded in places such as Sun Studios.. Our next stop off! We called inbut just missed the last tour so instead Steve bought the Sun Story CD sowe could listen to the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis as we drove ontoNasville.
We had hoped to meet up with Box and the Military boys who were just overthe state border in Arkansas but they had to train late and we had to getback on the road.
Its now 9pm and we are just outside of Nashville. We just stopped at the 'old country store' where I got a traditional milkshake and some honey sticks.. Remember those? Jen bought us each a USA flag to say thanks for doing all the driving! One for outside the front door, one for ther livingroom and one to hang in the window just to make it clear to everyone welove America :) .. Maybe we will save them for our next themed party!?!
Hopefully off out in another music filled town tonight.. First need to find a motel..
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Day 17 - NOLA Jazz and Heritage Festival!
We left the Mexican influenced South and woke up in the French influenced NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and it just so happens to be the annual jazz and heritage festival! We are doing well at randomly bumping into annual events in different cities, or maybe there is just always something going on in America's cities?
We headed to the French quarter for breakfast parking our car in a random local car park in the middle of the city. The friendly guy limped along to find us a space then proceeded to shout at us for wonky parking and not knowing English jazz singers whose names I don't even remember since he mentioned them earlier. I wasn't sure what to expect with N'Orlans but must say I was definitely impressed and would like to come back, probably forMardi Gras or to spend more time at the jazz festival.
The buildings were beautiful with outdoor rought iron balconies just like in the movies 'fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe' and the like! The small streets were filled with street performers, horse drawn carriages, local artists, palm readers and unique little shops selling alsorts of trinkits and 'antiques'.
I can imagine this place would be a lot of fun in the evenings with jazz filled bars selling hurricane and hand grenade cocktails! Unfortunately time is running out before we have to give our car back.. At 9am in Memphis, which is approximately 500 miles away.. Back to driving!
Goodbye Louisiana, hello Missssiiiisssssiiippppiiiiii!!
Just passing through on the way to Tennassee. Stopped for more steak, chicken and fries at Applebey's restaurant in Jackson. I think I've saved about $150 so far by having water instead soda and probably saved myself from having about 5 fillings! The free refills are dangerous..you can drink a gallon of pepsi without even realising!
Well now I'm up to date again and am writing this as Steve drives the last100 miles to Memphis. We haven't passed a car in about 15 minutes..Apparently if you only get a warning for speeding it doesn't get passed between states so Steve's back up to 100mph.
Just stopped for a bit of star gazing..there is no light for miles around so the stars are so clear.. Can hear crickets croacking in the grass or arethey rattle snakes rattling? Time to make a sharp exit!
It's time for a car nap.. Night all.
We headed to the French quarter for breakfast parking our car in a random local car park in the middle of the city. The friendly guy limped along to find us a space then proceeded to shout at us for wonky parking and not knowing English jazz singers whose names I don't even remember since he mentioned them earlier. I wasn't sure what to expect with N'Orlans but must say I was definitely impressed and would like to come back, probably forMardi Gras or to spend more time at the jazz festival.
The buildings were beautiful with outdoor rought iron balconies just like in the movies 'fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe' and the like! The small streets were filled with street performers, horse drawn carriages, local artists, palm readers and unique little shops selling alsorts of trinkits and 'antiques'.
I can imagine this place would be a lot of fun in the evenings with jazz filled bars selling hurricane and hand grenade cocktails! Unfortunately time is running out before we have to give our car back.. At 9am in Memphis, which is approximately 500 miles away.. Back to driving!
Goodbye Louisiana, hello Missssiiiisssssiiippppiiiiii!!
Just passing through on the way to Tennassee. Stopped for more steak, chicken and fries at Applebey's restaurant in Jackson. I think I've saved about $150 so far by having water instead soda and probably saved myself from having about 5 fillings! The free refills are dangerous..you can drink a gallon of pepsi without even realising!
Well now I'm up to date again and am writing this as Steve drives the last100 miles to Memphis. We haven't passed a car in about 15 minutes..Apparently if you only get a warning for speeding it doesn't get passed between states so Steve's back up to 100mph.
Just stopped for a bit of star gazing..there is no light for miles around so the stars are so clear.. Can hear crickets croacking in the grass or arethey rattle snakes rattling? Time to make a sharp exit!
It's time for a car nap.. Night all.
Day 16 - Houston we have a problem!?!
It is day 16 as I write this. Finally I have caught up with myself thanks to being able to type my blog on Steve's blackberry as we drive down the empty roads between towns. We have just passed into Louisiana from Texas and have ticked over the 2222miles mark, that plus the 888 miles we drove in the convertible brings us to a moving total of 3110 miles! We've certainly done the distance.
This morning we woke up in Corpus Christi and headed off early to Houston.We passed hundreds of 'nodding donkeys' of varying sizes. By nodding donkeys I mean oil drilling machines, pumping up the black gold that has helped make much of Texas so wealthy and the reason George 'doubleYa' Bush has been so apathetic towards the environment. Helping the big oil barons make more money by changing environmental laws to support the big corporates rather than.. well.. The environment! I have a couple of books on this and the damage he has done if anyone is interested..
We passed through many more nodding donkeys and no entry areas with big Exxon signs before finally seeing some wind turbines.. And by some I mean hundreds! Exxon showing they 'care' !?!
3 hours later we arrived at Houston and our next tourist destination.. NASA Space Centre! We learnt about how astranauts live in outer space.. If you thought my dads earth toilets were bad try pissing in a tube as negative pressure pulls it away from you! We saw some of the original space suits and went in a 3 minute stimulator that took us on a roller coaster through outer space.. Definitely not worth the $4 extra we paid for it.
We decided to eat in the space centre cafe. Jenny opted for the usual fried chicken and chips (I think we are having a competition as to who can eat the most fried chicken.. Not difficult considering the option is everywhere) and Steve and I got excited with the possibility of actual fresh vegetables and got a stirfry from the 'moon wok'! Before we left Steve realised he was running out of clothes and bought a new NASA T-shirt! Its a close call as to which is more touristy.. The NASA one or the free 'cold, smooth, wild' one he got in a bar in Austin?!!
After a whistle stop tour of NASA it was time to move on out for Louisiana. On the way we stopped on the side of the road to check out the 'everything that flies' stand .. An old local selling kites, flags and birds.. And caps.. Well I guess they kinda fly when its windy!?! He almost had his wife driving from home to bring Steve a Texan cap from the box he had left there as he did not approve of Steve's trendy skateboarder cap.. but we had along way to go so said our goodbyes and promised to do as he said and 'speak well of America when you go home y'hear!?' - of course... we bloody love this place!
So far Louisiana is much like Texas.. Long straight roads, occasional country stores selling cowboy hats and boots and lots of Craccer Barrels which is where we are stopping for dinner..
Biscuits..?!?!...Hobnobs, digestives, custard creams.. The usual subjects! So exactly why do they serve them with a full steak dinner? Because biscuits over here aren't like ours at all, but instead are a kind of cross betweena scone and a muffin.. Tasty? .. Not really! I'll stick to British scones, british muffins and good ol' traditional dip in y tea biscuits!
For my dinner I had 'chicken fried chicken' and no that's not a double mistype but a popular American delicasy! I think that gets double points.
Steve and I continued to swap driving through the darkness till about midnight and we were within 20 miles of N'orlans (New Orleans in local speek) and tried to find a place to lay our heads for the night. We managed to find our way to a scary area filled with late night partiers, dodgy deals behind cars and 'would only be found dead in' motels! We decided to make a sharp exit and headed closer to town until we found a decent, safe place for the night.
This morning we woke up in Corpus Christi and headed off early to Houston.We passed hundreds of 'nodding donkeys' of varying sizes. By nodding donkeys I mean oil drilling machines, pumping up the black gold that has helped make much of Texas so wealthy and the reason George 'doubleYa' Bush has been so apathetic towards the environment. Helping the big oil barons make more money by changing environmental laws to support the big corporates rather than.. well.. The environment! I have a couple of books on this and the damage he has done if anyone is interested..
We passed through many more nodding donkeys and no entry areas with big Exxon signs before finally seeing some wind turbines.. And by some I mean hundreds! Exxon showing they 'care' !?!
3 hours later we arrived at Houston and our next tourist destination.. NASA Space Centre! We learnt about how astranauts live in outer space.. If you thought my dads earth toilets were bad try pissing in a tube as negative pressure pulls it away from you! We saw some of the original space suits and went in a 3 minute stimulator that took us on a roller coaster through outer space.. Definitely not worth the $4 extra we paid for it.
We decided to eat in the space centre cafe. Jenny opted for the usual fried chicken and chips (I think we are having a competition as to who can eat the most fried chicken.. Not difficult considering the option is everywhere) and Steve and I got excited with the possibility of actual fresh vegetables and got a stirfry from the 'moon wok'! Before we left Steve realised he was running out of clothes and bought a new NASA T-shirt! Its a close call as to which is more touristy.. The NASA one or the free 'cold, smooth, wild' one he got in a bar in Austin?!!
After a whistle stop tour of NASA it was time to move on out for Louisiana. On the way we stopped on the side of the road to check out the 'everything that flies' stand .. An old local selling kites, flags and birds.. And caps.. Well I guess they kinda fly when its windy!?! He almost had his wife driving from home to bring Steve a Texan cap from the box he had left there as he did not approve of Steve's trendy skateboarder cap.. but we had along way to go so said our goodbyes and promised to do as he said and 'speak well of America when you go home y'hear!?' - of course... we bloody love this place!
So far Louisiana is much like Texas.. Long straight roads, occasional country stores selling cowboy hats and boots and lots of Craccer Barrels which is where we are stopping for dinner..
Biscuits..?!?!...Hobnobs, digestives, custard creams.. The usual subjects! So exactly why do they serve them with a full steak dinner? Because biscuits over here aren't like ours at all, but instead are a kind of cross betweena scone and a muffin.. Tasty? .. Not really! I'll stick to British scones, british muffins and good ol' traditional dip in y tea biscuits!
For my dinner I had 'chicken fried chicken' and no that's not a double mistype but a popular American delicasy! I think that gets double points.
Steve and I continued to swap driving through the darkness till about midnight and we were within 20 miles of N'orlans (New Orleans in local speek) and tried to find a place to lay our heads for the night. We managed to find our way to a scary area filled with late night partiers, dodgy deals behind cars and 'would only be found dead in' motels! We decided to make a sharp exit and headed closer to town until we found a decent, safe place for the night.
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