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Published: February 1st 2016
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Hi Everyone, hope you are all doing well. Here comes the next part of January. Never knew you could pack so much into one month!
So we arrive in Peurto Rico with South West Airlines, an internal US airline that are brilliant! Two 50 pound bags each, no charge, and cabin bags too and because we were slightly delayed we received vouchers with $200 off our next flight (already used!) and when we landed there was a whoop of joy from passengers and crew alike, not because it had been a terrible flight but because we were in Peurto Rico and happy!!!
We have cruised before but not with Carnival so we knew it would be more laid back and casual which we were grateful for as Dave had no room to pack his dinner suit before we left and Ann had got rid of all her evening dresses but we did ok clothes wise (and shoe wise!). The islands we would be visiting were St Thomas, Dominica, St Kitts, Grand Turk and Jamaica, Jamaica being the only island we had been too before. The short version of our visits are that Dave nearly got fined $1000 for not
wearing his tee shirt around the shops on St Thomas, Dominica had a brilliant carnival whilst we were there and we are now expert reggae dancers, we hired a car on St Kitts where they drive on the left but the steering wheel is on the left too, the handbrake didn't work and the windows got stuck but it is a beautiful island, on Grand Turk we swam in the beautiful clear warm Caribbean Ocean and in Jamaica we could have got high, in fact really high if we had accepted all the drugs we were offered!
We have enjoyed lots of conversations with the Americans on board (we have only come across 4 other Brits) who mostly think we are from Australia but it's a great way to find out about all the different places we have yet to see and we are getting some great tips. According to two middle aged Harley Davidson riders the best place in America to visit is Yellowstone National Park which is on our list of places to visit.
We have practised our ballroom and latin dancing whilst on board but would love to learn a dance we have seen lots
of couples doing which we think is called the 'shag'!
We tried to keep fit on board. Not many people seemed to use the gym! The jogging track is ok but you have to go round 7 times just to do a mile so you can get a bit giddy but you need to do something if you take advantage of all the food aboard which is why we couldn't understand why the gym is not used much, or maybe we could 😊
Our last two days on board were days at sea and we came across a Caribbean storm which meant some very rough seas and the feeling we were still trying to balance when we actually disembarked! No sea sickness though, we must be hardened sailors and the ships do have fantastic stabilisers which help a lot.
And so we alighted in New Orleans, picked up a hire car and started up Interstate 55 towards Memphis (we will be returning to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras in February) stopping overnight along the way in an area that can only be described as very poor! Every house, except the one we were staying in, was
basically a shack and there were some undesirable people lurking about, but, you know, we said we wanted to experience the culture! Luckily the people we stayed with were lovely and it was actually one of the best airbnb's we have stayed in so far. So that taught us not to judge a book by its cover!
And on to Memphis, Tennessee on the Mississippi River. We were booked into the Heartbreak Hotel (yes, it is as corny as it sounds) which was right opposite Graceland and so that was our first stop. Neither of us are really big Elvis fans but this is just something you have to do so we saw his house which was surprisingly smaller than we imagined but very 70's kitsch and his 15 foot sofa and 10 foot coffee table probably were amazing in their day but the pop stars of the present day have far more flamboyant tastes and demands. On the other hand we wonder if their houses will be visited by millions of people 40 or so years after they have died? He was a very gifted singer and entertainer, you can't take that away from the man, but also
he actually seemed like a really nice guy. Anyway, the three days we were in Memphis we were well and truly Elvis'd with songs being played in the 'elevators', films being shown in the shuttle buses, and more memorabilia than it's fair to say you will ever see of another person!
We visited all the normal tourist destinations like Sun Studios, the Rock n Soul museum, the Stax Soul museum, the Peabody hotel to see an amazing group of ducks that live at the top of the hotel and each day at 11am they come down the elevator and waddle along a red carpet and into the lobby fountain, spend the day there and return at 5pm back up in the lift!
On a more serious note we visited the National Civil Rights museum which is housed in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luthor King was assassinated in 1968. This is a harrowing place and very humbling. It was hard to believe that in our lifetimes black people were discriminated against in such inhuman ways. The struggles that they had were enormous and we found that in this part of America, the South, there is still tension and
unfairness. It's very upsetting to be a witness to it and we feel that in the UK we are streets ahead in racial equality compared to this part of the States. We could talk a lot on this subject but suffice to say if you are ever here then make sure you visit this place, it opens your eyes.
There is a lot of poverty in Memphis, street beggars, dilapidated houses, rubbish everywhere and the City appeared to us to be neglected and under funded in basic amenities. On a lighter note there was an International Blues challenge happening the week we were there and so on Beale Street where all the bars and clubs are you could see lots of bands and singers belting out some very soulful music. That was really good to see but both of us were quite glad to leave Memphis.
We headed on to Nashville and spent a couple of days wandering the streets and again listening to music coming out of the bars. Nashville is more about country music and we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, the music city's iconic radio show theatre at the
Ryman Auditorium. Neither of us are in to country music either but we really enjoyed this show. It was funnily interspersed with adverts that only the Americans would have to have inserted into what was a very entertaining night, real toe tapping stuff! Nashville seemed a bit more organised than Memphis to us but it may just be that we didn't see all of it. Apparently the area is taking in a lot of immigrants and the city is getting bigger all the time at a very fast rate so we will have to see how that turns out.
We left Nashville on a lovely sunny day (luckily we missed the winter storms that had hit the area the week before) and drove to the 'Loveless Cafe' which is at the beginning of a lovely road called the 'Natchez Trace Parkway'. It is over 400 miles long in all and covers 4 states and was an old Indian trail and then a postal route. We drove along it for about 170 miles and went from Tennessee, through a part of Alabama and into Mississippi state. Much more picturesque and calmer than the Interstate! We saw coyote on the journey
and tonight are staying in the loft of a barn conversion with a few coyote wandering around outside. Tomorrow we drive down to Navarre Beach on the Gulf Coast to stay for 5 days to catch up with ourselves and everyone else before hitting New Orleans and the Mardi Gras. According to most people we have spoken to regarding this we are in for a wild time! We will continue our story (if we survive!) after that.
Lots of love to every one at home, Ann and Dave
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Cruise
Have you found that the Americans love to hear the British accent and our royal family?