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On The Road Again: From Smoky Mountains To Sweet Home Alabama
It’s with a real sense of occasion that we set off from Gatlinburg through the greenery which is this morning made even more intense by the glorious bright sunshine brightening the leafage and dappling the roadway. We’re on the road again on the final leg of our southern states road trip. Ahead of us lies an 850-mile journey from the Smoky Mountains back to New Orleans where we will return the rental car and catch a flight to Los Angeles; splitting the trip into three sections means two more small town one night stands on the way. Anticipation is buzzing inside the Chevy. With more time between check out and…
- History, Independent travel, North America, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Tennessee, Travel Blog, USA, Walking, Wildlife
Smoky Mountains, Black Bears & The Trail Of Tears: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It’s the sort of thing you take with a pinch of salt, advice placed inside the apartment on what to do if you meet a bear when you go out the door. I mean, it’s never really going to happen, is it…. Except it does. On our fourth, and last, night here, we set off towards town for our last evening meal, and get no more than 50 yards from our door when we come face to face with a young black bear in the street outside. Thankfully he or she is more scared than we are, and turns and trots the other way, soon joined by what looks like…
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Non-Stop Nashville: 4 Days In Music City, Then Time For A Change
The Interstate cuts a sunken swathe right through the heart of Nashville, the gleaming skyscrapers of the city telling of its recently gained reputation as an economic powerhouse. Giant companies such as AT&T, FedEx, Nissan and Bridgestone have all set up major bases here as Nashville grows in confidence and influence, commerce clearly adding another string to its bow. Or maybe another string to its guitar. It may have made that move, but as we walk down Broadway (aka Honky Tonk Highway) for the first time there’s absolutely no mistaking the fact that Music City is still Music City, not only another site of huge musical origins and influence but…
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Memphis 2: Elvis Presley & Martin Luther King
Beale Street is alive any time of day, but away from there the rest of Memphis is as quiet a city as you could ever find. Sidewalks are spacious and largely empty, streetcar seats have only a handful of takers and traffic is sparse – there never seems to be any congestion anywhere. The “home of the blues” buzzes but the rest of the city snoozes. There’s a kind of Sunday morning feel regardless of what day of the week it is. Those places where the crowds are always to be found are the blues clubs and the barbecue restaurants, though twice daily at 11am and 5pm people also gather…
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Walking In Memphis, Singing The Blues
“Hey guys, how you doin’”, calls the guy on the corner of Beale Street as we wander out to explore Memphis for the first time. “Well”, he continues when we tell him we’ve just arrived, “Memphis is about four things. There’s barbecue, there’s the blues, there’s Elvis Presley and there’s Martin Luther King”. Interesting that he says barbecue first. You know, when learning about a new place on our travels, we often feel as if we’re unravelling history to piece together what has made that town or city what it is today. Memphis is to turn out to be the exact opposite: our time here is all about learning that…
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Hot Springs & Little Rock: Exploring Arkansas
Bathhouse Row is once again an elegant and proud place. Thoughtfully restored in the last decade after years of decay following the collapse of Hot Springs’ illicit economy, the eight buildings now form an impressive collection which speaks of quality and indulgence. Once again visitors flock to the town to enjoy the calming – some say healing – properties of the pure, hot waters from the springs. The adaptation of the bathhouses to the modern day vacation market has been cleverly done. Five of the bathhouses have been developed into your typical spa resort destinations with attractively presented updated facilities and prices to match. One has retained more of the…
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Hot Springs Arkansas And Its Remarkable Story
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Hot Springs Arkansas And Its Remarkable Story
It isn’t difficult to work out why this town grew in the place that it did – the clue is in the name Hot Springs, after all. What is fascinating about this attractive little town though is its history, not just its social history but its centuries old geological history too. Unlike most other places centred on hot springs, this one is nothing to do with volcanic activity, there is nothing of the sort around here. Here, the gushing of seriously hot water from numerous springs in what is now a National Park, is caused by a fascinating chain of events which literally takes millennia to evolve. The rain which…
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Hot Springs & Little Rock: Exploring Arkansas
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Seeking Small Town America: The Road Trip Begins
When planning this road trip out through the Southern states, we wanted our first stay to be in small town America, some off the beaten track small community kind of place where we could delve into how things work and what makes backwaters tick. Somewhere with a ring to the place name would be a bonus, so when we spotted a B&B named “The Wisteria Inn” in a town called Crystal Springs, temptation hooked us in without any further research. Heading north away from New Orleans on the I-55 we get a real grasp of the extent of swampland, the first 20 to 30 miles of the highway is on…
- History, Independent travel, New Orleans, North America, Photography, Travel Blog, USA, Wildlife, World food
New Orleans Is Unique, Y’All
Unique is an adjective regularly used to describe New Orleans, with guide books and websites consistently referring to the city as “unique in the whole of the USA”, a description based largely on the amalgam of cultures which have clashed, fused and evolved into the persona which The Big Easy enjoys today. To us, it feels like this fusion and integration has created a single style: a Nawliner is one particular type of person, regardless of historical cultural background. No barriers, no segregation, joyous inclusivity. You are more from this city than from any one particular background. A big guy is playing Barry White and Bill Withers on his keyboard…
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New Orleans And All That Jazz
“Hey y’all. Y’all havin’ a good time?” Everyone responds. “O’ course y’all havin’ a good time. You is in Nawlins and in Nawlins everyone has a good time. If you ain’t havin’ a good time, den you is in da wrong place” And so the scene is set for our time in New Orleans….. We’ve given ourselves some changes of scene which have bordered on culture shock in the past, but we’re not sure we’ve ever made quite such a leap as this one. One minute we’re in the Amazon rainforest listening to the gentle lapping of the waters of the Rio Negro, the next we’re taking a stroll down…
