March 18, 2007: New Orleans, Louisiana.


Everything we read or heard about this place mentioned the out-of-control crime. It seems even to be a frequent topic of conversation among locals. Our RV park was two blocks north of the French Quarter, and the owner gave us a cab voucher for every night of our stay. He told us not to walk home at night under any circumstance. We asked around for confirmation of the danger and everyone, including our cab drivers, said they would never walk those two blocks at night. So we didn't either.


Jackson Square is named after our 7th President, who was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The park is bustling with drunkards, dopey hippies, young families, tourists, and buskers.

Most of the buildings in the French Quarter actually date from when Spain ruled the city. The landmark Cafe du Monde serves coffee and beignets 24/7. It is always packed and the floor and tables are laden with powdered sugar.


We missed Mardi Gras by a few weeks but by St. Patrick's Day the folks here were ready for another parade. The parade was kinda lame, but the Garden District neighborhood it traveled through is lined with amazing old homes from the 1800s.

March 13, 2007: Natchez, Mississippi.

The richest families in antebellum Mississippi built their homes in Natchez. The most poignant example of the dramatic rise and fall of the southern aristocracy is that of the Nutt family. Aiming to outdo all of his neighbors with a 5 story oriental villa, Haller Nutt started construction of Longwood in 1860, but the war and the resulting blockades prevented its completion. The basement had been finished so the family moved in. During the war, the federales destroyed Haller's plantations, freed his slaves, and seized his assets. Haller died in 1864 and his family was left with nothing but the unfinished mansion.

Four generations of poor Nutts lived in the basement of Longwood until the 1970s, all the while with four floors above boarded up and hollow. It was vacant for a while after that with neighborhood kids making forts inside (how cool is that!), but now its a museum.

March 12, 2007: Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Vicksburg National Military Park is laid out, like other battlefield parks, as a driving loop that takes you along the lines of how the battle progressed. The 16 mile loop led us to believe that neither of us would make particularly effective generals, as we never had any clue which way was north or where the front was. What was clear was that Illinois cares the most about their Civil War veterans, because their memorial (left) was the bomb.

The town of Vicksburg was interesting but poor. Jefferson Davis, whose plantation was about 15 miles south, started his political career on the steps of the old courthouse (left). On July 4, 1863 General Grant rode up the same steps to oversee the changing of the flags after the surrender of the Confederates. The folks here held a bit of a grudge for a while, and Vicksburg did not celebrate Independence Day until the 1976 bicentennial celebrations.

March 10, 2007: Memphis, Tennessee.

We are heading west quickly and have stopped at this spot where they say the Mississippi shines like a national guitar. It's a mostly bleak place with a few bright spots, one of which is Jim Neely's Interstate Barbeque. The hands-down best barbeque either of us have had is located in a rather ghetto-ish part of town that our trusty Let's Go! led us to. We got a few props on the Vino scooter on the way there.

Graceland. Snore.











The hotel where MLK was assassinated on the balcony has been turned into the National Civil Rights Museum, which is a much better exhibit than what they do in Atlanta. It's controversial though, since it has turned this otherwise historically tragic spot into a tourist trap. There's a woman who has camped outside here for 19 years in protest. We sympathize, but we still had to get our photo.


Beale Street, the self-proclaimed Home of the Blues and Birthplace of Rock & Roll, is a little like Lake Havasu during spring break, but with live blues coming from every bar and fewer bikinis. We got drinks from one of the many Beers-To-Go kiosks and sat on the curb to marvel at the debauchery.

March 8th, 2007: Nashville, Tennessee.

We liked Nashville a lot, though the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, wasn't all that. Jackson was for the common man (expanded suffrage from the propertied class to all white male citizens), and that was reflected in his taste. The foyer walls are decorated with a wallpaper mural depicting The Odyssey. When I was young, I had a wallpaper mural of Yosemite in my bedroom, while my brother, Kris, had one of a Hawaiian beach in his. He and I are also for the common man.

We went to see the early show at The Bluebird Cafe, an institution here that features 3 or 4 artists 'In the Round,' where they take turns playing new songs with each other.

We went to see The Shins at the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry for 40 years before it moved to a bigger spot. Music is all over, with a lot of cheesey venues hosting several very good bands starting at about 2pm and going into the night all week.

They built a replica of the Parthenon in the main park here. Inside is a statue (the largest indoor one in the world) of Athena. It's kinda better than the one in Athens, since its not all busted and broke down.

March 5th, 2007: Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The battle for 'the Gateway to the South' stretched all over the place around here, and there are several military parks to visit. We visited Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain (left), which overlooks the city, the Tennessee River, and the site of the main internment depot for the Indians on the Trail of Tears.

Only slightly less terrible than those 19th century events was our tour of Ruby Falls, the tallest underground waterfall. Our guide was excruciatingly hammy, and after we walked thru caverns with him for a 1/2 mile, he turned out the lights so that we could "experience the falls the way Leo Lambert [the spelunker who discovered them] first did." The lights fell and the theme from 2001 erupted, presumably just as it had for Leo.

March 3rd, 2007: Atlanta, Georgia.

MLK's childhood home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was first pastor, his tomb and memorial museum are all within the same city block here. The site was unfortunately dilapidated and the museum was surprisingly uninspired given the subject.

But Georgians have their priorities straight. They got the Confederate Memorial right. The 'Rushmore of the South' occupies the most beautiful space just outside the city, where a carving of Davis, Lee, and Jackson - also about the size of a city block - has been forever set in granite.

Stacey's friend Jackie, who's at school at Emory, came over to see the war heroes and climb Stone Mountain with us.

February 26th-March 2nd: Avon Park, Florida.

Sue & Gerry Page are possibly the world's nicest people. They graciously let us stay at their home both before and after our trip to Nicaragua. They're in the running for favorite aunt and uncle, no doubt. Karin and Lorry escaped the brutal Maine weather and came to Avon Park for some serious golf time. One day we all took a trip to Vero beach to visit Thomas's great aunt and uncle, Agnes and Harry. They treated us to a lunch of Heid's hot dogs which are to Liverpool, NY what Pink's is to Los Angeles.

It's March now which means that it's time to leave Florida and hope that warm weather follows us west.

February 23-26th: Granada, Nicaragua.

Granada is the oldest city in Central America. As evidenced by these churches, there's been quite an effort to keep the city looking photogenic. Granada is located on the coast of Lake Nicaragua, near Mombacho volcano. When the volcano erupted long ago, it created about 365 islands. We took a tour of the islands and saw the squatters and rick folks living island by island.

More from Granada: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=58zzb4pj.5c6hsrmf&Uy=-rc0i6u&Ux=0

February 21-23rd: Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua.

Lake Nicaragua is among the largest lakes in the world. The lovely island of Ometepe was formed by two volcanoes, Concepcion on the left and Maderas on the right. The lake is home to the world's only species of freshwater shark. When we took a kayak out to explore the lake, we found the aptly named monkey island but no such luck on the shark fins.


They've got some small horses over there. These poor guys struggled a bit on our four-hour journey to the San Ramon waterfall. Sure made the trip easy on us, though. That is, until we woke up the next day and realized that our backs had been rendered virtually immobile.

More photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=58zzb4pj.9kwpzs9j&Uy=-ea6uge&Ux=0