Month: October 2017

Ups and Downs

Today was a day of ups and downs. On the whole it worked out to be mostly ups but there were some weird downs.  We arrive in Lafayette, LA.

Down: Glenda had a fitful night’s sleep due to the finding of a nasty remnant of a previous hotel guest in her bed. Ick, ick, and double ick.

Up: Susan slept fine.

Down: Susan had a frenetic few hours trying to find a notary to stamp a number of documents needed for a time-sensitive business transaction. Glenda is a notary but was out of her NJ jurisdiction.

Up: Glenda caught up on email, texts, and general nonsense while Susan tried  to muster up the patience to speak slowly and listen slowly and carefully to local notarial prospects.

Down: Susan had to pay a bloody fortune to the local notary while Glenda, in her NJ world, is only allowed by law to charge $2.50 per stamp (vs. $20 each here in LA!)

Up: We were able to cancel our nasty hotel room for the second night and made a reservation at another place, in Breaux Bridge, LA.

Down: We never found the city of Lafayette (see all the downs above) and it appeared to be strip mall central.  As Jerseyans, we are ever seaux familiar with strip malls but that doesn’t mean we like them!

Up: Made our way to Avery Island, home of McIlhenny’s Tabasco sauce and all its fantastic permutations.  We love it all and have a good ol’ time touring the factory eating lunch and, of course, shopping at the company store.  Christmas will be peppery this year!!   https://www.tabasco.com/visit-avery-island/

Down: We cannot find our next hotel which was to be our up compared to the previous hotel.  The GPS announces we are there but ain’t nothing to be seen but parking lots, a gas station, big rig trucks and further down the road a trailer park.  Okay!!

We call the hotel directly and discover that yes we are there…amidst it all lies a Holiday Inn Express hard against Highway 10 and a construction zone.

Up: The staff is lovely, the hotel clean and remnants of previous guests are nowhere to be seen.

Down:  The town of Breaux Bridge is not within walking distance as we had thought but a good 5 miles down the highway which, happily, is right next to the hotel for easy car access….we guess.

Up: We venture to Breaux Bridge and we find a big crawfish sculpture along the way and a random giant pepper in someone’s backyard.

Up2:  Downtown Breaux Bridge, after our initial strip mall view, is pretty interesting…definitely funky and old world south Louisiana.

Up3:  We found a great restaurant, Buck & Johnny’s, serving Cajun and Italian food in an old Chevrolet dealership.  We order catfish, gumbo and sweet potateaux and tasso soup and are told by our lovely waitress that tonight is Thursday and therefore 2 free glasses of wine per person night.  What?  Have you ever?  Seaux…when in Rome….you kneaux….we get our 2 generously poured free glasses of wine along with our very yummy tasting food.  Such an up, really!

Up4: A delightful older gentleman (yes, older than we are) comes up to our table to ask where we are from because he had overheard us asking about the tasso.  He welcomes us to his part of Louisiana and gives us some great pointers on where to geaux.  He returns 1 minute later and says the wife and daughter and son-in-law vetoed his suggestions and really we need to geaux another direction.  All good.  He and his family just wanted to make sure we would thoroughly enjoy our time here.  Such a nice moment!  Plus there is live music…a country duo playing.

Down: The driving is a bit dicey on this highway home.  Chock full of trucks.  But we make it back to our trucker hotel amidst the construction.  Apparently the construction work, cranes, trucks, machines, etc continues at night within earshot of our ground floor room.

Up: We have “To Geaux” cups filled with our FREE glasses of wine and it’s National Gumbo Day.  Thank God we ordered Gumbo on its day!!!

Peter Galbraith, this next photo is for you. What is it???

Up Next: Natchez, MS

Natchitoches, LA

After a fabulous breakfast provided by our friend, Miss Margie, we headed south to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Pronounced Nack-i-tish, it’s an utterly charming town on the Cane River, home to Northwestern State U.

Then it was off to sample some of the town’s famous meat pies, red beans, rice and corn bread. M’mm m’mm. Delicious!!!  http://lasyones.com/

As we strolled around town, we saw workmen stringing lots of Christmas lights. Apparently it’s a beautiful place to visit during the holidays. This time of year, though, it’s lots of mums and fall festiveness.

Plantations

After saying bye-bye to Miss Margie, we drove to Oakland, a NPS plantation and another plantation called Melrose. It was at Melrose that Louisiana artist, Clementine Hunter, worked and painted her remembrances of life on the plantation. Very interesting.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/travel/looking-for-clementine-hunters-louisiana.html

So here we are at the Hampton Inn in some town near Lafayette (pronounced not lah-fayette but laaah like a baby crying waaaaah)…ready to explore south Louisiana Cajun country.  Over and out!

Shreveport, LA

We head to Shreveport to visit our friend Margie, a Louisianan who spent 30 years in Jersey and just last year returned to Louisiana, making her home in Shreveport.  Margie has been instructed by her friend Sheron, Susan’s neighbor and friend in Short Hills (now living in Dallas), to only show us the best of her childhood hometown, Shreveport.  Margie gives us exact instructions on how to drive to her place avoiding all the….interesting?…places.  We run into trouble with a detour off the highway and are immediately launched into…just the places we are not supposed to be.

Nevermind.  Margie, the gracious southern hostess, was now on board to take us around town.  We start with lunch at Herby K’s.  A good ol’ fashioned fried food joint.  Yum!!

Now on to the fab sights in Shreveport.  We are always able to find some interesting ones.

Elvis!!

More fun Shreveport sights:

Margie’s friend Nancy has a most interesting tree in her front yard.  It’s a live oak tree with its branches growing along the ground. Natch, a photo opp.

Tomorrow we are off to Natchitoches..pronounced like Nack-i-tish..or something like that.  Woo!

A last stroll through Memphis.  Before hitting the road, we went for a walk downtown and near the Mississippi River.  One thing about Memphis..there are so many old timey signs.  Cool throwback!  Plus we had no idea we were so close to Arkansas and that Arkansas does not border Kansas.

Onward to Little Rock, Arkansas

Just 2 hours from Memphis we head to the Clinton Presidential Library.  But look!!  A roadside stop not to miss.  A 1936 round top filling station to the stars of the era in Sherwood, Arkansas.  It appeared that there is a curfew for juveniles there in Sherwood as well.  More investigating on that required.

Clinton Presidential Library

Who greets us at the door to the Clinton Library?  Joy Galbraith…. not sure if Susan is the northern branch of Galbraiths and Joy the southern but since the name is not that common we had a photo op of course.  Plus, Joy directed Susan specifically to the metal detector to make sure “Galbraiths weren’t packin'”.

The library was also surprisingly emotional…we had heard this from a fellow traveler and found it to be true for us too.  Here is a President Clinton quote we liked:

“We must return to the principle that if we give ordinary people equal opportunity, quality education, and a fair shot at the American dream, they will do extraordinary things.”

We found the Lost 40 Brewery around the corner from our hotel and ordered every appetizer on the menu along with the local brew.  Yum!!

Good night, Little Rock.  Spa time tomorrow.  Hot Springs, AR here we come.

We awoke to our first cloudy day since hitting the road but we didn’t mind since we had some indoor activities planned; our first major museum day.

King Cotton

Everything in Memphis is tied up with cotton, even today. Our first stop was to the Cotton Museum, housed in the beautiful, old Cotton Mercantile Exchange building. Here’s a summary of what cotton is:

Act at once! Here are some more pix:

Ducks

Of course we had to wander over to the Peabody Hotel for the 11 am march of the hotel ducks from the roof to the elevator to the lobby to the indoor fountain. Started as a practical joke by a visiting hunter in the early 1900’s, the ducks have been there ever since and draw a huge crowd.

Civil Rights Museum

The site of the museum is located right next door to the motel where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. The whole place was simultaneously moving and depressing given the current state of affairs. There was so much information in the well done exhibits that our heads were filled to the brim. Worth the visit.

She Said Yes!

In genteel Southern style, we needed a letter of introduction to visit our next stop. With that in hand we ventured to a well-established, beautiful Memphis neighborhood, home to the University Club. We met for cocktails on the veranda with Patrick, Glenda’s step-bro, and Jamesa who only the night before had said “yes” to Patrick’s marriage proposal. Woo hoo!!! Lots of champagne, toasts, catching up and getting to know each other ensued. Congratulations Patrick and Jamesa!

Next Up: Little Rock, AK

Out at the crack of 11:00!!    We are so motivated!!  To be fair we have lots to do every morning!!

Started our day with another BIG sighting!  A whisk bike rack (please click photo and note the wearing of cowgirl boots!).

We’re goin’ to Graceland

A quick photo op en route to mark an area near where some of Susan’s relatives were from.  Here she is with Dr. William Henry Clement of Henderson, TN….on Susan’s mother’s father’s side…the southern branch!

Continuing with all things BIG..we headed to larger-than-life Elvis’s home Graceland.  Named for the original owner’s aunt Grace.

The tour involved an array of a/v equipment to be worn on our person.  Including: ipads, earphones, cameras, eyeglasses, and of course our own bags and stuff.  Only thing not required was our personal floatation device.

Glenda, as the navigatrix on the trip, had named the various places where we keep all our “equipment” the NOC (Network Operation Center).  Here is Glenda with her body NOC getting ready for the Elvis tour:

Our highlights of the tour: shag carpet everywhere including walls and ceiling; private racquetball court and game room;  14 tv’s; loads of memorabilia including Elvis’s 7th grade report card (he got high marks for courtesy and reliability, not so much for industriousness); a massive seatbelt across the double bed in his private jet; and much more!!  You gotta love Elvis!!

Memphis

When in Memphis you eat ribs and you go to Beale St for some blues.

Dancing in the park

Bye now!!

Up at the crack of 10.  We certainly like to get out and get going early!!!

Armed with suggestions from our favorite hotel bellhop, we made our way on foot to the honky tonk district down by the river.  We pass the Union Station, now a gorgeous hotel and, next to that, giant flowers.

Continuing on, shock of all shocks, we got waylaid by boot shopping.  Will we ever actually wear cowgirl boots???  Apparently we think so!!

Lunch

Such a great town for drinks, chow and music.  Lunch at Acme followed by wandering and listening to music.

Music

Now the exciting part of our day!!

So, we wanted to visit Glenda’s friend’s cousin’s guitar store.  A fixture in Nashville since 1962…Cotten Music Center.  We couldn’t get one of those free golf cart rides they offer here, so we set out on foot armed with google maps on our phone.  Please harken back to day whatever when Glenda could not read a map to save her life and Susan was barely better.  Off we go for our 2-mile trek to Cotten Music.  Oops.  Where are we??  We are in the industrial unknown section of Nashville, surrounded by highways and trains and factories.

We came upon a massive traffic clog caused by a freight train absolutely stopped dead on the tracks that we needed to cross to get to the store.  Ain’t nothin’ moving.  So, being the rule followers that we are, we stood and waited. And stood some more.  Finally after about 15 minutes, we asked a nice young man in his car if this happened regularly and did he think it might move any time soon.  Yes it happens often and it might take a while; he thinks they are on break.

Should we run for it climbing up onto and over the train to reach the other side?  The stress!!!  The tension!!!  The anxiety!!!  A possible rule breaking!!!  We held our breaths, crossed over that red and white do-not-cross arm…

..and clambered over the trains.   Success!!  We are free to continue through the factory-land to find the store.

Cotten Music Center,  www.cottenmusic.com,  is a boutique vintage and new guitar and more store that sells to serious musicians worldwide.  Kim, the owner, was there and graciously showed us the store and told us about the area (transitioning along with the whole area we walked through!).

Kim walked us over to a hot, trendy bar/restaurant down the street, Bastion…and who do we see is the bouncer there?  Our own very nice fellow train waiter….David!!

Small town…small world!!!

Up Next: Memphis, TN

Good morning Gatlinburg!

2 Stops before Nashville

First up the “Secret City” – Oak Ridge TN.  Site of a government built city in the middle of TN made specifically to develop the atomic bomb during WWII.  The whole place was constructed in a matter of months and grew from the first expected 12,000 inhabitants to approximately 75,000.  It was so secretive and big brother-like.  The workers couldn’t discuss their work with anyone and letters to home were censored.  All in the name of supporting the war effort.

So there is a 3-hour government run tour of the facilities (it covered 90 square miles) which we hadn’t signed up for,  but the museum offers a good look into what was happening there.  Lots of photos documenting life in Oak Ridge on the “reservation”.  They were adding 32 houses a day in 1942-1943.

Wow!!  Interesting!!

Onto a much less grim place.  Lynchburg TN, home of the Jack Daniel’s Distillery.  Ahhhh.  A tour of the distillery followed by a tasting of course.  Plus the added bonus of specialness, with Glenda being the heir of a Tennessee Squire complete with a square inch plot of land in Lynchburg on the distillery land.  We weren’t sure which inch it was. Susan got to bask in the glory of a Squire’s life….for a moment.

The buildings are a bit reminiscent of abandoned factories in the northeast with all their gray and black metal.  We seriously did not think the good stuff came through those weatherworn buildings.  But it definitely does!

The tour is super fun, the whiskey is great and the people watching beyond!!!

A quick BBQ plate at a local place in Lynchburg and on to Nashville!

Asheville

A visit to the River Arts District is first up.  Cool area along the river being redeveloped for artists’ studios and galleries.  The studios are in old factory buildings.  We checked out several different artists’ studios and made some fun purchases.  Look out for ho ho ho.

On the Road to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN

Great timing for the great views and a herd of bugling elk!!  And random other animals.

Here for listening pleasure elk bugling:

We entered the park in North Carolina and exited in Tennessee.  Another stop in the park included a small taxidermy exhibit.  FUN!!!

We Love Dolly Parton

And finally, the piece de resistance..what we have been looking forward to….a touch of Dollywood.  Tickets to Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede., a combination of Hillbilly Disney, the circus, Lipizzaner stallion show and a giant country fare feeding of the masses. Glenda particularly enjoyed the racing mini pigs, rooting for Abe Link Sausage and General Grunt.  Susan was mesmerized by a performer dressed as an Indian dressed as a glow-in-the-dark giant bird..flapping its one wing while it held the hand of another Indian on a horse.  She was confused but into it!!

P.S. The gps-guided route to the show through hillbilly gully full of hairpin turns and trailer homes was almost as exhilarating as the performance itself.  The route included a stretch on the aptly named Boogertown Road.

Pictures below:

Listen again.  A couple snippets:

Up next Nashville, TN via Oak Ridge and Lynchburg!