Travelling across five states in five days

Our last port of call on the Mississippi Cruise was Memphis. Unfortunately many people painted a bad picture about Memphis being the most violent city in USA. It is true some of the outskirt neighbourhoods are struggling, but there are wiffs of restored pride and the downtown area is quite exciting. For many no trip to Memphis is complete without visiting Graceland.

This is definitely a pilgrimage to Elvis and does a good job of depicting the man behind the fame. To think he bought this pad and 14 acres for around $100 grand. Not sure about his taste in home decoration though. OK if you like yellow vinyl walls, green shagpile carpet and draped brocade ceilings.

Quite a bizzare step back to the 70's. We were captivated by the whole experience as we were walked through his music and movie memorabilia, his collection of gold and platinum records and stage dress. Outside the house is a beautifully manicured meditation garden,....a powerful place including the last resting spot for 'the king'.

We explored some key attractions of downtown Memphis, including Beale Street which has a permanent throb of Blues music; and the spot where Martin Luther King met his fate from the barrel of his assassin's rifle. But one of the most intriguing and frivolous sights was the famous Peabody Duck March. Don't ask!!! This tradition dates back to 1930 where five ducks are kept in the penthouse of the Peabody Hotel. Every morning they are escorted down the elevator and waddle across a red carpet in the lobby where they decamp for the day in a stylish marble fountain.

Every afternoon the process is reversed, - all under the supervision of the duck master?? Sadly this pageant attracts thousands of visitors twice a day throughout the year, but at least it puts the hotel on the map!

After leaving the Mississippi cruise we hired a rental car and headed for Nashville. Accommodation was at a premium because Nashville was hosting many festivals and concerts including big ticket performances like Adele. The digs we ended up with were rumpy to say the least! We soon learnt that Nashville never sleeps. The downtown area is one large entertainment area based around country music. Not only was music blaring from the scores of honky-tonk bars, but fun spilled out on the streets, onto rooftops and along the riverbank. It is obviously a mecca for bachelorette parties. Hopefully a few of the brides-to-be will sober up before their big day.

Must say we enjoyed the creative spirit of the city's enjoyment, especially this self-propelled bar,....literally pedal while you partake!

If only we were still young and crazy enough to party until daybreak. Instead we went for a romantic riverside walk and called it a day around ten.

The next couple of days were nothing but an endurance test navigating the Interstates, leaving Tennessee, then crossing through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to Florida. Speeds around 120kph were normal and lane swapping was a necessary activity. After several hours of boring tarmac, we diverted our journey through the Smoky Mountain National Park, part of the southern Appalachian Mountains. In so doing we swapped this.....

for this........

As we came closer to the east coast we saw signs of the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, - debris and fallen trees, but only a patch on the carnage experienced by the people of North Carolina. Our first stopover in Florida was Orlando for the opportunity to be kids again......

And yes, among other things we got wet doing this.....

Now we are chilling on the beach at Fort Lauderdale until we are due to leave the shore and head through the Panama Canal. Not sure about the internet connection while at sea, so it will be a lottery where the next blog comes from.

Note to all hurricanes: Stay away!!

Up the big creek without a paddle

On reflection, we were sad to leave New Orleans. It had a special magnetism. To really fit into the culture each day should start at midday. Not only that, each day must start with a Bloody Mary; sometime during the day you need to eat shrimp-and-grits, po-boy and beignet; walk around the streets holding a beer or a coffee; act like every day is mardi gras; wear cheap iridescent beads; believe in voodoo rituals; and party until almost daybreak!! Also,........ rhythm must be in the DNA. These boys created a fantastic beat out of upturned paint buckets!

So right now we are chugging up the Mississippi in a 'paddlesteamer' with a fake paddle and no steam. This big floating barge was only launched this year and is super-comfortable. Only 185 passengers on board. All very low key as far as cruises go but we are being thoroughly looked after. Doug and I are possibly amongst the youngest (and thinnest!!) on board so there is no competition for the gym equipment.

The Mississippi is a pretty confusing waterway full of crazy bends. Now we know why they call it 'the artery of USA'. The huge amount of shipping makes it one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world. These powerful little towboats exert their pistons pushing up to forty barges of cargo (mainly grain in this area). Apparently they take the load of over 70 artic, trucks.

The entertainment on board is also very low key,....usually around jazz and Southern comedy. These girls sang the old favourite Andrews Sisters songs. They were brilliant and gave many of the old vets on board heart flutters!!

I guess we could sum up this trip as reliving the Southern history of grandeur and ruin,........grandeur in the form of the wealth of the cotton plantation owners, and ruin from the Civil War days. Here is an example of one of the many stunning plantation mansions.

And here are the slave's quarters. This plantation once had around 230 slaves. This room possibly squeezed about ten of them in!

One of our favourite side trips was to Atchafalaya Swamp to see how the local people (cajuns) eke a living in their stilt houses, either by fishing or hunting alligator. This little fella showed an interest in us!

A great trip to watch the wildlife, particularly a bald eagle do a fly by after raiding some sort of food source. Like many waterways the Asian carp are a nuisance. We got more than we bargained for by having two big 'mothers' jump into the boat. One landed on a lady's lap!! Now this was no herring, - it must have weighed around 5kg. The boat owner was quick to grab it for 'gater bait.

So, before we left the 'real' South on our way to Memphis we were fortunate to meet with the Governor of Louisiana in person!

Y'all come back now!!

New Orleans on foot and by streetcar

It was a shock to swap the natural awe inspiring sight of The Grand Canyon for the city madness of Phoenix. Our navigation skills and marital status weren't even challenged thanks to Google maps. Until our last week with Doug and Jerry-Lee we were driven everywhere, so it was about time we exercised our independence. Before we left their fantastic hospitality Doug took us to his pistol shooting range. We made short work of the balloons, but the bull's eye was a little more challenging.

After overnighting in Phoenix we took an early flight to New Orleans and straight to our digs in the French quarter. Indeed live music isn't an event in New Orleans,....it is what the people breathe and is therefore part of the city soundscape! Never too young to start!

We soon learnt that the French quarter was more than the infamous Bourbon Street and we couldn't get enough of the elegantly aged buildings, the old iron lamps and the verandah gardens.

Ten years after cyclone Katrina,  New Orleans is far from healed. It wasn't the natural disaster that affected them, but rather an infrastructure failure, as their levees couldn't control the swollen waterway surges. The maintenance and restoration of many buildings has had to give way to fixing the groundwork.

There is no room for prudism or peity in New Orleans, especially on Bourbon Street at night.

Of course it provides a great people watching opportunity. Topless, trannies and tramps live side by side in a happy haze of marijuana (law softened on use a few months ago!!:) It is indeed a party city. Americans go nuts over Halloween. New Orleans goes crazy! It doesn't celebrate it for a day. It celebrates it for a week! Shops are full of costumes and houses are already decorated.

Yesterday we decided to stretch our boundaries beyond the city centre and explore the surrounding suburbs by streetcar. Our favourite was the St Charles line that took us down grand avenues past a superb collection of historical mansions belonging to the rich, if not famous. Somehow this area is connected with the film "A streetcar named Desire".

Tomorrow we will head up the Mississippi. Hopefully we will take the music and the cuisine with us. Having said that I can't believe how people queue for the famous beignet. Fried donut mix smothered with icing sugar is definitely not worth lining up for. We will however continue to enjoy jambalaya and seafood gumbo when we return home. New Orleans is definitely a place we will return to,.....if we have the energy!

Two asses didn't get to sit on two asses

All our good plans were foiled when an unexpected electical storm wrecked the trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We were booked to ride a couple of mules into the heart of the canyon and stay overnight at Phantom Ranch. We arrived bright and early eager to take the trek when the sun broke yesterday morning, but the damage was already done and this lot had the day off!

Disappointing! As a result this forced us to view the mighty Grand Canyon from the South Rim.

In contrast our time in Zion National Park was perfect. Apart from the dramatic scenery, Zion is a hiker's paradise. We spent two days exploring and could have easily stayed longer. The first day we took in the low level highlights looking up at the soaring red and white cliffs rising over the Virgin River.

The next day we defied gravity by going to greater heights. We were hoping to take the Angel's Landing Trail an intimidating path that runs along a narrow rock fin with death-defying drop-offs on both sides. Unfortunately this track was closed for most of the day so helicopters could maintain the toilets by lifting out all the human waste. No kidding!! So we chose to climb to the Hidden Canyon. This had a fear factor all of its own as in parts we had to hang on to a chain while scaling the cliff face.

Part way up on this trail, the track split and took us on an unrelenting uphill slog via several steep switchbacks, a more strenuous workout than Angels Landing. The view from the top made it all worthwhile and a distant thunderstorm added an eerie touch as thunder echoed around the canyon walls.

Needless to say a hot bath and a cold beer back at the hotel room afterwards was top priority.

Regretfully we had to leave Zion and sadly we are about to leave the redness of Arizona we have seen become vermillion, purple and gold in changing moods.

We are now back at our home base in Prescott repacking and getting organised to fly out from Phoenix to New Orleans. Not sure we are ready for the hectic city life yet!