Roadtrip Part II

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Getting out of Florida was almost a 2 day affair. For most of those 2 days we were on the road, except for a night spent in Gainesville and brief stopover in Dunedin (Jono wanted to stop there because he is from Dunedin, New Zealand). As such, to stave off boredom we played a lot of car games, including two I hadn’t played before: Minister’s Cat, and Contact. We stopped to take a picture of the Dunedin sign, and came back to the van to find it wouldn’t start. It wasn’t even ticking over. After a long phone call to the car hire company we found out that the van had ‘security locked’ because we had parked too close to the curb. Suggestions to rectify the situation included rocking the van, trying to push the steering wheel to the far left while turning the ignition and continuously locking and unlocking the car. Somehow one of these things worked and we were back on the road again.

We followed the Gulf Coast through Florida and into Alabama, where we had accommodation organized with a family in a small town called Atmore thanks to a friend in Austin who grew up there. The people we stayed with were a retired couple called Robert and Sandra (or Mr + Mrs J), who were very nice and very southern. Our night in Atmore luckily coincided with a church supper that was held by their congregation every second Wednesday. The meal was delicious- Santa Fe soup- which is essentially taco ingredients made up into a soup. We were asked to all sit at different tables so we could talk to as much people as possible. There was a lot of praying, quite a bit of which was for our safe travels, which was very sweet. Interestingly, when I mentioned that I was going to Mexico the table I was sitting at got into a conversation about drug gangs, and one of the younger parishioners was actually arguing that drugs should be made legal- which is not something I expected to hear from a church-going Alabaman. It teaches you not to go off stereotypes that’s for sure.

The next morning we had a proper southern breakfast: with biscuits (in America this means a savoury scone, which I have found is also often served with fried chicken), grits (kind of like a corn meal porridge- I really like it), fried sausages and Florida oranges. Delicious! Next stop on the road was Montgomery, Alabama which held a primary role in the Civil Rights Movements (its where Rose… refused to give up her seat on the bus, and the church were Martin Luther King Jnr used to be a pastor). As such we visited the Civil Rights museum, which was really interesting.. The monument out the front was great too- and designed by the same person who designed the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We noticed a strangely high level of security in and around the museum and learnt from the person at the front desk that the museum, and the legal office across the road from it, receive death threats everyday. A bomb went off in the museum in the 1980s and a lot of attempts had been made since. It was really sad to hear that racism is still so strong in some people.

Other activities in Montgomery included a trolley tour (a bit of a dud), and a look around the building that acted as the white house of the confederacy for some time (kind of interesting but not spectacularly so). Unfortunately Montgomery was a bit of a dead town. We also heard reports that there was going to be quite a bit of snowfall that night (that’s right, in Alabama- earlier in our trip there was actually snow on the ground in 49 out of 50 states at the same time). To avoid the snow we got in the car in the afternoon and didn’t stop until we made it to Nashville, Tennessee that night.

Nashville is one my favourite cities that we visited. On the first (and then the second morning) we headed to café called Fido where they had a fantastic brunch menu. That day we headed the country music hall of fame museum which was surprisingly interesting. We went line-dancing that night (very fun, if a bit touristy) then caught up with one of Emma’s friends who happened to be Nashville. He was with a local who was able to show us around a couple of bars, which was cool (especially the one set up like a caravan park), though a lot of the places with live music were a bit too crowded for my taste. On our second full day in Nashville, at my insistence, we went to Third Man Records, which is a record shop/ gig location/ Jack White associated memorabilia store owned and run by Jack White. White Stripes being my favourite band I was in a bit of tizzy. My heart was beating pretty fast as I went in (Jack White stood in that same place I was standing!) and bought a bit too much merch. It was great! We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to live music. I don’t see why Austin is called the live music capital of the world- in Nashville there was a street where many bars had live music 24/7, you’d never get that Austin. Of course, everything was country music, which overtime I am coming to have quite a liking for.

That afternoon we drove over to Memphis. The next morning we woke up nice and early(ish) to catch a mass at Reverend Al Green’s Baptist church (if you don’t know who Reverend Al Green is, look him up). It was pretty cool- most of the mass was made up of gospel music, and there was a bit of speaking in tongues/ possession type stuff happening towards the end. Only two not so great things- Al Green’s gospel wasn’t nearly as awe-inspiring as I had hoped/ expected, and the mass went for 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours is a really long time. Because the mass ended so late we didn’t have time to go to Graceland that afternoon like we planned, so instead went to the National Civil Rights Museum which was expensive, but pretty good. That night we had BBQ- on ‘must-do’ thing in Memphis. Apparently Memphis is the best BBQ to try to see the differences between different styles of BBQ. It is especially different to Texas BBQ which relies on brisket and sauces. Memphis BBQ is all about pork and rubs. It was absolutely delicious. After that we headed to Beale St, which is the bar street of Memphis. It was a bit dead, (though there was still some live blues music) but what else could you expect on a Sunday. That said though, as a whole Memphis was quite dead. Apparently it was hustling bustling place to be in the 1950s, but when I was there a lot of businesses were boarded up and I hardly saw anyone around.

On our second day in Memphis we finally made it the Graceland. It was really cool. His rooms had such interesting décor, and with the audio tour you certainly got a feel for the way Elvis lived. The memorial site was very interesting- with wreaths sent from fan clubs around the world. It was there that I learnt that Elvis had a stillborn twin, who got her own little grave marking. We got a deluxe ticket so got to go to additional Elvis museums- one dedicated solely to his automobiles, one to a TV special he did, and one to his fashion. For a late lunch we headed to a diner where Elvis used to eat (I’ve forgotten the name of it, but it’s the oldest diner in Memphis). The service was terrible and the vanilla shake not great, but their sweet potato pancakes were pretty darn great! We had kind of seen everything there was to see in Memphis, so he headed over to Jackson, Mississippi to spend the night. We were supposed to be stopping in Clarksdale to check out some ‘authentic’ blues, but we were worried freezing rain would leave us stuck in a hicksville town so we powered on. There wasn’t really much to do in Jackson so we took a scenic route down the Natchez Trace (a very historic trail used my Native Americans and pilgrims) which started by following the Mississippi River then went through gorgeous forests (kind of what I would imagine the forests in northern California would be like). We made lots of stops, included the second largest mound in the US (used by Native Americans for worship). It was just a really large mound. But the view, as everywhere along the trail, was great. The Natchez Trace ended in the town of Natchez, Louisiana. There we did a tour of the largest octagonal house in the US (we were strongly recommended by Sandra and Robert to check out some antebellum houses in the south, and this was certainly a prime example). The house was also the setting of a couple of episodes of True Blood, which thoroughly excited the True Blood fans, which was everyone in the group but me (though apparently I’d enjoy it).

The house was really cool. All the furnishing was in the basement because construction was only halfway done when the Civil War began. As you can imagine, an octagonal house would have a bit of a disorientating layout, but the price of admission came with a tour so we learnt what all the rooms were used for, and what they would have been used for had construction finished. The original family who lived there was a widow and her 8 children. It was all very southern, even with a ‘Gone with the wind’ sort of fan over the dinner table operated by a ‘servant’ to keep the flies off the food. The floors above the basement were all unfinished, but there were 5 other floors intended, it would have been a really amazing building if it had been finished (though it was still beautiful the way it was). The surrounding gardens were beautiful too. From Natchez we headed to New Orleans, the second last stop of the roadtrip….

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Photos

Atmore
Self-timer shot from the van, not so great.

Montgomery
In front of the Civil Rights Memorial

Line Dancing Hall
In Nashville

Octagonal House
The view looking straight up from the first floor