Advertisement
Its 10pm and we are set to spend the next 48hrs on the ‘Sunset Limited’ Train that takes us from Los Angeles to New Orleans. We are travelling east to explore the music cities of New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville each with their own flavour. Our conductor Carmel, or CC as she likes to be called, welcomes us aboard and lets us know that ours beds are made, and ready for the night. We have hired a roomette, kitchenette as Alison insists on calling it, on the upper floor of the carriage. There is room for two facing seats that turn into a bed, and one above that folds out. Very cosy, although we did meet others on the train who when given the larger cabins, have jumped ship because of the lack of space.
Unlike our previous train tickets, this includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although not top notch food it’s not bad for a train. At every meal we were placed with different passengers which made for very interesting conversations, we learnt very quickly to avoid discussing politics or religion! There was also an observation car, to watch the world go by and a café.
It’s a
great reprieve from the endless driving and navigation through the interstate highways. As we pass the states of California, New Mexico, Texas, finally into Louisiana, the driver seems to have his hand endlessly on the whistle as the train thunders through the countryside. The scenery changes from the desert to the lush green of the humid Louisiana swamps. Part of the journey runs parallel to the Mexican border; at El Paso it passes so close we can see the border crossing. Saying goodbye to very helpful CC we jump in a cab to Hotel St Pierre, in the historic French Quarter, in the heart of New Orleans.
We sometimes on our travels we hypothetically talk about ‘could we live here?’ The answer is only if we could wear an air conditioning unit around my head, it is Sooo humid!
Lonely planet suggested a walk around the French quarter, our first stop was the Keyes Beauregard house, which has an interesting history. It was built in and American Baltimore Style, by an auctioneer who traded in slaves, then bought by General Beauregard who had the distinction of ordering the first shot in the American Civil War. Then passed to
an alcohol trader. Who when having problems with extortionists ‘The Black Hands’, invited them to dinner in order to settle things. When one of the Black Hand threaten to kidnap his grandson, he and his son shot them dead, right there at the dinner table! The house was then bought and restored by a successful author Frances Parkinson Keyes. We continued our walk around the famous French flavoured streets, Bourbon, Royal and the lovely Jackson Square with St Louis Cathedral as a backdrop. The adjacent Café Du Monde we indulged in a coffee with their infamous beignets, a doughnut type cakes with a mountain of icing that makes a mess everywhere. Cynically this is another of the places on our travels that draws huge queues, but then you wonder –why?
We saved our energy that day, for the real reason we came to New Orleans-Jazz. At night the streets come alive. You don’t have to go far to find music, its everywhere, but not necessarily trad jazz which is what we were expecting, there was blues, rock and soul, but after a few stops and a few beers, we hit gold. A bona fide, pukka jazz band, playing their
hearts out, having fun, and making the joint (as they say) come alive.
New Orleans is known for its Mardi Gras, a vibrant street festival held in the early part of the year. More recently New Orleans has been known for one of the most devastating Hurricanes ever, Katrina. 1800 people died in this disaster, and the effects are still felt today. The Presbytere, a museum on the square, had displays about both.
We then headed off to the mighty Mississippi to board the steamship Natchez. With lunch and Jazz band in tow we had a tour downstream pointing out key places old and new. On the out ward journey the captain said at this point you can a get a good view of the city of NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana, the Americans love their abbreviations). I thought I’d wait till the return journey, only to find ourselves heading into an almighty squall and thunderstorm, we couldn’t see anything.
One more night left, to soak up the music. We went to Frenchmen St, on the edge of the French Quarter. On the street corner there must have been about 10 young guys playing brass and drums. Belting
out tunes, they drew a great crowd. We then settle into a bar with another brilliant Jazz group for the night.
Time to leave New Orleans, we took a cab to the airport to collect a rental car that was to take us towards our last destination. One tip, book a rental well in advance if you want to get the best bargains. The previous car we had booked before leaving the UK, this time as we were unsure of the second months plans in the US, so we left it later, bad move.
Picking up our silver Chevrolet Sonic we headed north on Highway 55 towards Memphis. We nearly scrubbed this city to visit, Lonely Planet mentioned a lot of poverty in the town. Having a chat with an Airline pilot in one of the Jazz clubs changed our minds. We’re glad we did.
Although we weren’t Elvis Presley fans, his home Graceland mansion is a huge draw. We went along sceptically, even more when we were bussed in and given a IPad and earphones, for our tablet assisted tour. Blowing our scepticism away, the tablet and virtual tour guide worked well. The mansion was smaller
than we expected and although lavish, it was very homely. The tour took us through, a den with multiple TV’s with bar and cinema, the shag-pile lined Jungle room (Elvis’s Favourite) and a trophy room with gold disc’s and awards. With Elvis’s music and video’s shown everywhere, with his good looks and charisma you can understand the electricity he generated, and effectively changed music.
We jumped on a shuttle bus to visit the Sun Studios. Sam Phillips set up his Memphis Recording Services recording everything, birthday parties, church services etc. He also recorded the local blues artists, a passion of his. He was instrumental in recording early stars. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis, in what was to become the Sun Records. Although he wasn’t a fan of Elvis at first, after a lot of fooling around in the studio Elvis did an upbeat version of ‘That’s alright Mama’ and the rest as they say is history.
We headed down to Beale Street for the evening, a road full of bars, some blaring out traditional blues, others offering more modern offerings. It was nearly a dry night as we'd left our ID in the hotel,
yes really we were asked for ID! its Tennessee law. We really liked Memphis, it probably hasn’t changed much since Elvis’s day, still many old buildings. We stayed in an apartment in an old 1904 cotton Exchange building, with bags of character.
One down side, although only 10 mins from Beale Street to our apartment, we were approached 4 times for money, ‘panhandling’ as they call it, although illegal it was very intimidating.
Time to leave Memphis, on our way we stopped at the Lorraine Motel. Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony here. It is now the National Civil Rights Museum and charts the struggle of black people from slavery, to the civil rights marches of the ‘60’s. A really rewarding visit, very emotive and thought provoking.
We now travel east to our third city on the trot, Nashville. The centre of country music. Based around Broadway, you can find all flavours of country music, from the old traditional, with violins and slide guitar to the more modern rocking type. There are many bars with groups in each. Some of these Honky Tonks will have multiple floors with a different group on each. We visited
the very impressive Country Music Hall of Fame. It was a well laid out modern museum and told of Country’s roots from the Scottish and Irish origins to present day. One thing we found out was the early musicians didn’t want to be associated as hillbillies, so donned the flashy western outfits to be more associated with the wild west.
One of the famous venues in Nashville is the Grand Ole Opry, it has been running for 90 years. We got some of the last single seats in this large auditorium. It is simultaneously broadcast, and is the oldest radio show in the US. It was a great evening, but we got the impression it was aimed at a middle of the road audience, we were expecting to be dancing on our seats, sadly it fizzled out. The irritating spoken adverts from sponsors didn’t help.
It wasn’t by design but we found ourselves in Nashville on the 4
th July, Independence Day. There was a large concert headlined by Sheryl Crow, and the largest firework display in all of USA. Both were fantastic but was also accompanied by the wettest rainstorm we’ve experienced. (its big country here - they
also have big weather!).
We have visited three cities back to back and are looking forward to heading back out into the countryside, north-east over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.179s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 64; dbt: 0.1085s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lesley Mcmahon
non-member comment
Elvis
I'm well jell would love to do the Elvis tour safe journey back next week xxxx