After leaving Mississippi (which was dull and not very friendly) we
arrived in Memphis, Tennessee.

Memphis is clearly a poor town with problems as is evident from the
boarded up houses and dodgy looking streets but it’s rich musical
history cannot be overlooked.

We made the decision to completely ignore Graceland (neither of us are
huge fans or know very much about Elvis) and headed to the location
where Stax Records once stood. In its place is a pretty new Museum of
American Soul music with a major emphasis on Stax records.

To say this is an excellent museum would be an understatement. It is
flawless and we spent a good few hours reading every bit of
information from the beginnings of soul music to the demise of Stax
after the assasination of Martin Luther King. The presentation of the
music is done through overhead speakers that somehow can only be heard
when you are directly below them. This allows you to wander from
section to section without hearing two songs (and what great songs
they are) at the same time. Genius. We loved it! It was great to also
see the area adjacent to Stax is being renovated. Hopefully it will be
the success it deserves to be.

We are now staying at our motel just north of Memphis and tomorrow
it’s Nashville.

This morning we said goodbye to Patsy and her beautiful Victorian New Orleans house (see first 2 photos) and doubled back towards the West for 50 miles to visit the plantations along the mighty Mississippi.

We stopped in at Oak Alley sugarcane plantation and did the tour of the mansion and beautiful grounds. See the ‘oak alley’ for which it’s named in the third photo.

From there we drove over the largest bridge in the world (25 miles long!!) over Lake Pontchartrain and then on to Jackson. Motel is a bit crap but we only have one night so not too bad.

Last night we went out for dinner at Jacque Imo’s which Patsy (MJ’s friend who we are staying with) recommended. It was a great place, so great we waited over 2 hours for a table but it was good fun and the food was worth waiting for.

Today we did New Orleans in a day with a combo of Patsy’s, Mary-Joyce’s and the tourist office’s advice.

Started with cafe ole and beignetts (square donuts covered in powdered sugar) for breakfast at Cafe du Monde, had a walk around the French Quarter, had lunch in a brewery, went on a 3 hour coach tour visiting the Katrina-damaged areas etc, wandered through the French markets, had a Hurricane cocktail and frozen margarita at Pat O’Brien’s, had po boys (sandwiches made with baguettes) for dinner on Bourbon Street, watched live jazz with some beers and rode the street car (tram-type thing) between Patsy’s in Uptown to Downtown and back again.

Busy but excellent day – we love this town. So nice to experience a completely different place in the US, which can be a little samey.

Another action packed day yesterday. We spent the day at NASA Space Centre (see rocket pic). Then spent the evening watching the Houston Astros play Washington at Baseball (see baseball pic – duh!).

We’ve now left Mike & Thelma’s (see house pic) and today heading for New Orleans.