Dave and Dot's 25th Anniverary Tour
Week 2 - New Orleans, LA - Memphis, TN - Branson, MO
Sunday, October 7th - We get lost . . . We find our way
We were up a 4 am this morning. Again, due to 9/11 we had to leave for the airport by 5 am for an 8:00 flight. There was no traffic and the airline was accepting baggage at the curb so there were no problems at all getting everyone checked in. I took Dot and the girls to Cinnabon's for breakfast and soon it was time to bid everyone goodbye. This was the day when all in our group headed back to Sacramento, while Dot and I began a 4 week tour of the Southeastern U.S. We made a circle of prayer and gave everyone hugs, but when it came time to say goodbye to the girls, it was very hard and tearful.
Melissa & Liz had had a great time and they were the most well-behaved of the entire group! Everyone in the group commented on how they loved them and thought that we were really blessed to have them as our grandchildren. We had to agree. Still, it was hard to let them go. They were in good hands. Joe and Debbie took charge of the girls and called us with an update when they reached Dallas to switched planes. Their parents called us when they reached Sacramento. Now that we knew they were all right we could focus on completing the rest of our trip.
Dot and I left the airport around 7am and in the process of heading north, got on the freeway going the wrong direction and spent an hour making our way back to the
west coast of Florida. Once we did that, it was smooth sailing the rest of the day. Dot made me stop twice for a nap (I really needed it) and 12 hours after we left our group at the airport, we entered New Orleans, LA, the first stop on the rest of our 5 week adventure.
Our residence for the next two nights would be the Historic French Market Inn located on the corner of Decatur and St. Louis streets. It is right across the street from the Great Mississippi river (and another Hard Rock!) and just down the street from Emeril Lagase's NOLA restaurant. Oh, and right on the edge of the famous French Quarter of New Orleans. Oh, and one more thing . . . just down the road . . . the delicious Cafe du Monde home to coffee and beniets! YUM! I smell breakfast!
Monday, October 8th - A beautiful morning in the French Quarter.
We got up today with no concrete plans to do anything special but by 10am were running to catch a trolley car for a tour of one of New Orleans' Cemetery No. 1 and the famous Garden District. We missed the first trolley but caught the next one and when we arrived at the cemetery we were able to join a walking tour that had just begun.
The cemetery is all above ground due to the fact that New Orleans is built below sea level. So the entire place is filled with crypts of all shapes and sizes. Whole families would buy a plot and build what amounted to a large room with one or two shelves where the caskets would be placed. Once the crypt was full, and if they had to bury another member, they would remove the body from the casket lay it in the crypt and place another casket into the same space pushing the bones of the previous person to the back of the crypt where they would fall to the bottom. In this way they could place several family members in one small crypt. They had to wait a year and a day between burials and so sometimes several bodies had to be stored off-site to wait for burial. The parties that accompanied these funerals were lavish.
There were also burial places that appeared to be dirt plots surrounded by concrete but were really a deep bathtub style crypt where the top was missing but filled with dirt and made into a garden. They would bury the first and when it came time to add to the plot, they would dig up the last buried, remove the bones, toss them into the bottom of the hole, throw away the casket and set the next casket into the hole. Our guide showed us were, through time and storm, some of the bones had made their way to the surface and were just laying there on the top of the ground! In all, it was a very interesting tour and even included our guide pointing out specific points where movies had been filmed there. One of my favorites, "Double Jeopardy" was filmed here but the crypt was built just for the movie and then removed.
With the completion of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Americans swarmed into New Orleans to take advantage of the boom in Mississippi River commerce. Numerous cash crops such as cotton, the slave trade and national banks, all fueled the local economy. Friction between the arriving Americans and the mostly Creole residents of the already crowded French Quarter resulted in the snubbed Americans moving upriver to create their own residential district of opulent mansions in the city of Lafayette which was annexed to the city of New Orleans in 1852. Garden Districts historic homes are a favorite of visitors to New Orleans and taking a tour of these huge homes is high on the list of things to do. Our cemetery tour included a walk-through of the Garden District and it was a perfect day for a stroll through the land of the rich and famous! At the end we hopped on the trolley for the trip back to the French Quarter where we walked the streets of that famous area for a couple more hours.
We ended our afternoon with a ride on the Steamboat Natchez Riverboat. True to tradition in every detail, boarding the NATCHEZ makes you feel as if you have entered another era. The captain barks his orders through an old-time hand-held megaphone. The calliope trills a melody into the air while the great wheel, 25 tons of white oak, churns the heavy waters of the Mississippi. You soon find yourself slipping into a sense of the old, vast and timeless river. As the NATCHEZ glides past the French Quarter and through one of the world's most active ports, you begin to understand the magic of the experience. For all its history and romance, the excitement of riding a steamboat is as real and rich and genuine now as it was a century ago.
We ended our day eating at NOLA an Emeril Lagasse owned restaurant. The food was great but very pricey!
Tuesday, October 9th - We visit the swamp and meet Brutus . . .
We slept in (well, Dot did) so we didn't get on the road until nearly 11am. Our goal today was to reach Baton Rouge just a short 80 miles to the north. We chose to take the river road to stop and see some of the old plantations along the river but, again, got lost and had to hurry to one of our pre-planned tours . . . a ride on an actual
airboat through the swamps of Louisianna! It turned out to be our most exciting tour to date. It was made even better when we found out that another group was booked to ride and there were too many for one boat so Dot and I somehow ended up having our very own boat . . . with our personal driver & guide! That made it really special!
We saw all kinds of wildlife, and our guide, Allen answered all our questions. We toured an area that was privately owned by one of the many refinery's in the area. They had bought it from a big lumber mill that had harvested all the Cypress trees. Our guide said that all the trees we saw today were no more than 100 years old. A couple of the original cypress were left behind because they were hollow and of no value to the lumber company at the time. To get the trees out of the swamp the lumber company built a series of railroad spurs throughout the swamp and then removed what they could find. Subsequently they left track, spikes, and rail bed in many areas as it had sunken below water level. Allen showed us one such place and Dot came away with a piece of thousand year old cypress, a lump of coal, and a railroad spike. Are we really taking that home?
The end of our tour was highlighted by the discovery of one of the locals in the swamp . . . Brutus, an 11 foot 350 lb. alligator. One of four in that particular area. An alligator's territory is small, only about 100 yards square and so they don't move around much. They spend most of each day just floating in the water, then mating with as many females as they can find when in season. That's about it. Our guide says that they have a natural fear of man but because Brutus is fed by the guides on our tour, he has become accustomed to the sound of the airboat and hardly flinches
when approached. We ended the tour by taking a high-speed ride back to our starting point . . . Excellent!
We reached Baton Rouge just before dark and ate “fast-food” for the first time (Taco Bell) on our trip so far. What can I say . . . it had been a long day and we just didn't feel like going out. Plus, I had failed to mention that going out to dinner in the South was an experience all its own in that it regularly takes 3 + hours to have a complete meal. Everyone is so laid back here that they are in no hurry to do anything, including serving your food. It is actually quite refreshing once you get used to it!
Our home for the night was a Comfort Inn near Baton Rouge. We have a long drive to Memphis scheduled for tomorrow . . .
Wednesday, October 10th - One Mississippi, Two Mississippi . . .
Today finds us on a long drive to Memphis, TN, through the entire length south to north of the state of Mississippi. The weather was cloudy & windy all day with the prediction of rain once we got near Memphis. We left Baton Rouge around 10am and arrived in Memphis around 5pm. A pretty uneventful trip. A really boring drive! It was flat and it all looked the same, mile, after mile, after mile.
After stowing our gear at a Homestead Studio Suites Hotel just south of the city, we headed for the downtown area of Memphis. There we discovered Beale St., an eclectic array of buildings from early in Memphis' life and the home of the Blues in America.
In 1909 a talented and gifted musician by the name of W.C. Handy and his band moved to Memphis and established themselves on Beale Street. This move would change the course of music history. Handy wrote many popular tunes, including a campaign song for then Mayoral Candidate E. H. Crump. The song for Mr. Crump would later be entitled Memphis Blues and become huge, and history would go on to view W.C. Handy as the Father of the Blues. Beale Street is not just some ordinary street in the United States. It is perhaps the most important street in the history of blues music in America.
The sun set as we walked up and down the street and witnessed all the neon signs lighting up. You could even hear the sounds of jazz and blues emanating from the clubs as we strolled by them. We stopped and ate at Elvis Presley's Memphis restaurant. The menu consists of all of Elvis' favorite foods including the banana & peanut butter sandwich! While there we were entertained by The Dempsey's, a group of 3 men, a drummer, a bass fiddle, and guitar. They were very energetic and versatile in that they could play each others instruments and other one besides. We stayed through their first set thoroughly enjoying the music. We even met someone from Sacramento while we were there. About 10pm we headed back to our room.
It had begun to rain by then and didn't let up until late the next day. On our way home, the lightning show was spectacular and even knocked out the power to the city while we were driving, including the lights on the freeway. Pretty scary driving in total darkness!
Thursday, October 11th - My wife thought she saw Elvis . . .
Woke up to rain. In fact it rained all day and didn't really let up until early evening. The weatherman that evening said that Memphis got 4.15 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, more than they usually get the entire month of October. WOW! The electrical storm we drove through the evening before kept us awake most of the night. When we finally got up, it was our day to visit Elvis Presley's Graceland Mansion. The tour was actually better than I had expected. The entire tour is well planned and executed. Visiting Elvis Presley's Graceland takes you on a one of a kind journey through Elvis's humble beginnings and rise to superstardom with up-close and personal looks at the influence that forever changed our music and our lives. You will experience rock 'n' roll through videos, photos, personal mementos and artifacts, movie memorabilia, stage costumes and much more. Although we opted for the self-guided tour with audio devices that guided us through the home, there were attendants at every stop to answer questions also. The tour of the home takes you through living area, office and awards room where ALL of Presley's gold and platinum records are hung. The tour ends at the gravesites of Elvis, his parents, and his manager, the colonel. But visiting Graceland isn't just about touring Graceland Mansion. The Graceland experience also includes the Elvis Car Museum, his custom jets, Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access, to the Private Presley exhibit, an Elvis '68 Special Exhibit and much more. While at Graceland, you can also enjoy great shopping, fun restaurants, and much more all at the Graceland Plaza. AND for the for the ultimate Elvis experience, you can even stay at Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel located across the street from Graceland. It features 24-hour-a-day Elvis movies, a deluxe continental breakfast, heart-shaped pool, and more. You want Elvis? You can get overdosed with Elvis here! (no pun intended). Even though I am not an absolute Elvis fan, even I was impressed by it all.
Friday, October 12th - We visit a historic cemetery and Mud Island.
Today is the 14th day of our trip our 6th day on the road. We have now been on our trip for two weeks and still have three weeks to go! We are still in Memphis and really enjoying our time together.; Not nearly as much stress as being at home and having to go to work each day. I could really get used to these extended vacations!
The rain is gone and has been replaced by beautiful blue skies. Everything is so green everywhere we have gone and the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn a brilliant array of reds, oranges, & yellows. It is truly beautiful here in the midwest . . . AND extremely humid!
We started our day in a cemetery. Cool huh? It is one of Memphis' most historic sites, The Elmwood Cemetery. Here you will find a historic tour that you can drive (although we choose to walk it) which takes you to several individual & group sites giving you a history of Memphis. There are governors, heads of state, historic figures, and thieves. Most notable was the civil war soldiers that had unmarked graves. These were only numbered (no names) but you could get a list of some names from the proprietor. Also noted were sites that were built for a riverboat disaster. The ship had blown up and burned, killing over 1500 people, on the Mississippi River. After the tour we got a list of the Mackey's and McHenry's buried there and went in search of them. Only found a few McHenry's in our search but none were directly related to our family.
We then traveled to Mud Island. It is a park, on an island, in the middle of the Mississippi River. You take a monorail that looks a lot like a light rail car but it hangs from the track. It takes less than 5 minutes to get there. Last year nearly 200,000 visitors experienced this unique historical, cultural and recreational attraction.
The island includes a ½ mile long Riverwalk model of the river from the 3 dams that feed it to it mouth where it pours into the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the most unique representations of the Mississippi River in the world. Along your journey, you'll revisit historical events and learn about geographical transformations. There, visitors can enjoy a leisurely pedal boat ride around the Gulf area with the Memphis skyline in the background. It was really very interesting! Quite an impressive display and one I would highly recommend to those who love history or geography.
Also on Mud Island (when we were there in 2001) was the WWII plane the Memphis Belle. You would recognize this plane by its painting of a lady on the fuselage.
Saturday, October 13th - Branson, the Las Vegas of the Midwest.
Today we head for Branson, Missouri, a miniture "Vegas" (without the gambling) in the middle of the Ozark mountains. First started in the late 1800's it has grown to over 50 different venues. A lot of the stars who perform there also live there. We arrived in Branson mid-afternoon and checked into our condo. We are staying at our WorkMark Branson resort where we own a timeshare. It is one of our newest resorts and we actually stayed in a building that only had three of the condos completed to the point of residency.
We headed up north to Ozark, MO for dinner with the Quackenbush's at a place called Lambert's. It is a real down home country restaurant where they (literally) throw your dinner rolls at you and serve you portions that are served in a skillet! Here you pick your entree and then you can eat as much as you want, ordering the same slab of meat several times if you are hungry enough. I had a ham steak that was at least a foot in diameter and nearly a half inch thick. I was only able to eat one. (had too many of those great tasting rolls!)
We had a wonderful visit with Randy and Shelly. We had a nearly 2 hour wait for dinner and so we were able to leave a "line holder" and visit their
home in nearby Nixa, just a few miles away. Lambert's is actually just across the road from James River Assembly where Randy is the Music Director. Larry, Randy’s brother was able to get us tickets to a show about the life of Christ called The Promise and we saw that after our visit and dinner. Very well done!