Tuesday 18th November
An early start this morning to meet my tour. As expected it is a small tour, just me and 2 older couples from England and of course our tour guide. Should be a good tour though and it is a 'premium' tour so I am looking forward to some nice hotels! After the usual introductions etc it was on the road bound for Nashville. Our first stop was at the Jack Daniels distillery ironically enough located in a 'dry' county, so no taste tests but it is a very picturesque area and every drop of Jack Daniels is produced right there. The little town that it is next to, Lynchburg, is very cute too and is where Moon Pies are from (kind of like a Wagon Wheel but no jam).
We arrived in Nashville and got checked into our VERY nice hotel and then headed out to 'Music Row' to see the Honky Tonks before an early dinner at the Wildhorse Saloon (my first taste of actual southern fried chicken! haha). The place is known for doing line dancing and has some big acts play (none tonight though). Just as we finished dinner another tour guide offered us free tickets to the Grand Old Opry! They had extra that they didn't want to go to waste and we didn't have tickets because it was sold out as they were inducting a new band tonight! So we went along and got to see the show and 'Little Big Town' inducted. Very cool.
Wednesday 19th November
A free day in Nashville to improve my music knowledge. l started at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and then went to the Johnny Cash Museum. The Hall of Fame was interesting and the Johnny Cash museum was small but very good and at least I knew his music a bit more (thanks Hollywood). Apparently Nashville is home to a sweet/candy bar called a 'Goo Goo' so I had to try one of those... very sweet! Basically marshmallow, caramel, peanuts and chocolate.
I'm coming down with another cold (damn it) so had a quiet night tonight.
Thursday 20th November
Back on the road today, our first stop at the Shiloh Civil War Military park. It was very interesting to learn about the Civil War and see some of the battle fields. Just up the river is a place aptly called the Catfish Hotel (famous for serving catfish from the river) where we stopped for lunch.
We arrived in Memphis, staying at the Peabody Hotel, which is famous for the ducks that live in the hotel, spending their days in the hotel lobby fountain and their nights in the penthouse! As well as the ducks, it is a beautiful hotel. After we were settled, we headed down to Beale St to have a look around and dinner at BB Kings.
Friday 21st November
A lot to see in Memphis so it was up and straight to the Rock and Soul Museum. This is more the music l know, or have at least heard of, so a little more interesting for me. I also visited Sun Studios which was very cool, especially the actual recording studio where Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded! In the afternoon the group all met up to go out to Graceland. We saw Elvis' cars and planes (wow!), checked out the museum and then went over to the actual mansion. What a house! They have done well in both preserving it and setting it up for tourists. They had even decorated some of the rooms for Christmas which was really beautiful. We actually came this afternoon specifically because they were lighting the Christmas lights so we watched that - the lights were turned on by John Stamos (aka Uncle Jesse from Full House) and of course an Elvis themed Santa arrived for the fun. On our way back to the city we stopped at a traditional BBQ place for dinner.
Saturday 22nd November
This morning we drove out to Tupelo (Elvis' birthplace). It really is amazing to see how he started life, l don't think you could get two further extremes in life. This afternoon we made our way to Clarksdale and visited the Delta Blues Museum before going to our hotel for the night, actually a house from before the Civil War (known as it was specifically not built by slaves!). We actually stayed out in the separate guesthouses but still cool to stay there. This evening we were surprised with a cool old limo to take us out to Ground Zero (a famous local bar/venue part owned by Morgan Freeman). We watched a very interesting, animated local band (the lead an extremely large guy called 'Big Boy' who played the harmonica!).
Sunday 23rd November
An early start today to drive to Natchez to be there in time for church! We joined in on a Gospel Church service at the Pilgrim Baptist Church. It was most definitely an experience - the gospel singing was great (the preaching was a bit intense though). After church we went into town and had some tamales for lunch. In the afternoon we had free time to check out the William Johnson House (museum), he was a 'free man of colour' who kept a journal about his life in those times, one of the only accounts from that perspective (and interestingly owned slaves after being born into slavery himself). Very interesting to learn more about that time. Then l walked around town and saw a few of the old southern mansions and homes, and walked along the Mississippi River front at sunset.
Monday 24th November
Before leaving Natchez we did a tour of the Longwood Mansion. It is the largest Octagonal house (in the US?) but was never finished due to the Civil War. Only the basement level was ever completed but it was occupied by the family for generations. The other 4-5 levels (!) are literally just a sheIl, even including what was meant to be the main entrance. Still, they have kept the original furnishings in the basement level so very impressive to see. After a quick brunch at a cool little place in town, it was off to Lafayette. As soon as we arrived we met our Cajun food tour. We spent the afternoon going to 6 local restaurants to taste in best in Cajun cooking. l tried everything from alligator to po-boys (sandwhich/sub) to deep fried Oreos but my favourite thing was the Bon Temps roll (kind of like a sausage, spinach and cheese spring roll).
That night we went out to a Cajun (Zydeco) music hall and l tried some sweet potato pecan pie (sooo sweet!)
Tuesday 25th November
We are off to New Orleans today but before we get to the city we did a swamp tour. We didn't see any alligators (too cold now) but we did catch some birds and got to see the swamp and river, the vegetation is so diverse in such a small area. One more step before we got to New Orleans was at the Piggly Wiggly! haha I didn't realize though that it was the very first supermarket, so there's actually some history to go with the novelty.
After settling in to our New Orleans hotel, we set out to see the city. We are staying right next to the 'French Quarter', a fantastic location to be able to just walk everywhere. We were warned that it's not a safe city though, so might keep that walking to during the day. We went down to the riverfront (yep the Mississippi again) and then through and around the French Quarter. After dinner at the Gumbo Shop (gumbo is pretty nice) we tried our luck at getting into Preservation Hall. It was originally an art gallery where they brought in musicians to play in the background but at some point they took over and it's now a very popular venue where they play local New Orleans jazz music 3 times a night. It's such a small little place though so you have to wait in line and see how many people they can squeeze in standing up. We were very lucky and JUST made it in. lt was a great set, a true taste of New Orleans jazz.
Wednesday 26th November
A day to explore the city properly, in the day light. After breakfast I headed out and wandered through the French Quarter to the French Markets. l had to check out the Voodoo museum seeing it's so big here. A very small museum but lots of information and interesting, not sure I really 'get' it though. One of many things New Orleans is famous for is pralines, so of course l had to try one... yummy! Kind of more like fudge but very good. After walking around some more (it's a nice city to just do that) I stopped at Cafe Du Monde to try their (again famous) beignets (kind of like a doughnut covered in icing sugar)... l am glad I don't have diabetes here! l wanted to see the above ground cemeteries New Orleans is known for (seriously, there is a lot to see/do here) so l found the one nearby. They had/have to bury people in above ground tombs here because it is so low lying that the regular flooding would mean bodies floating down the streets if buried 'normally'.
Tonight we boarded a steam boat river cruise down the Mississippi. Yet another 'must do' here, it was a nice night.
Thursday 27th November
Happy Thanksgiving! To celebrate we headed out of town to the oldest and largest plantation mansion in the area, the Nottoway Plantation. After a walk around the grounds, we had an enormous buffet lunch complete with all the traditional Thanksgiving food (Turkey, corn, mashed potato and 'yams' aka sweet potato). It was delicious and fun to celebrate a different holiday. Once we got back to the city we went out and watched the Thanksgiving parade (l also saw some of the New York parade on tv). After a rest (Thanksgiving tradition haha) we met up again and headed out to a club called the Howlin' Wolf (that used to be a theatre) for a free comedy show and a gig by a band called Rebirth Brass Band.
Friday 28th November
We are off to Alabama today. First we stopped in a little town called Meridian (Mississippi) for lunch at the oldest restaurant in the state, Weidmann's. We continued driving to Alabama and arrived in Birmingham at our supposedly haunted hotel (I can't confirm this thankfully). This is a nice but very quiet city, so we all headed out to a (very nice) diner for dinner before having an early night.
Saturday 29th November
Our last day of tour today. We aren't getting on the road until this afternoon so this morning I headed to the Civil Rights Institute. A very well done museum, all about segregation and the fight for civil rights in America - very interesting! And just across the road from the church where 4 girls were killed (and many injured) in a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan in the 60s, so sad!
Before our final trip back to Atlanta we stopped at Cracker Barrel (a southern chain, actually originally a store but now have a restaurant attached) for lunch. We had heard advertising for it at the Grand Ole Opy at the start of tour so Anita thought it was an appropriate end.
Once we arrived in Atlanta we said our goodbyes and I headed to my hotel. That is it for tours for my trip so it's solo sailing until Christmas.
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