America – Part 1 – New York, Washington, Tennessee, Nashville
America – Part 2 – Memphis, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Texas
America – Part 3 – Carlsbad, Roswell, Santa Fe, Monument Valley
America – Part 4 – Grand Canyon, Route 66, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles

Part 2

MEMPHIS

You know Memphis, it’s that place where Elvis lived. We went on the Gracelands tour! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, whether it’d be tacky and ludicrous or just plain n’ simple… however, it was quite pleasant. We got to see his house, his cars, his air planes, his clothes, the stupid amount of gold discs and awards he won, and I think I was most shocked by how many films he had appeared in. It was also nice to read that he used to help others by paying off their debts and hospital bills. What a lovely fellow.

Elvis may as well be their God there. With signs like “Before Elvis There Was Nothing”, and even “Elvis fans parking, Violators will be all shook up”.

Our tour leader gave us a nice surprise, something I’ve never done before. We got to ride in a limo to a restaurant! Granted they were pink and they were the restaurant’s. Still, it was a nice surprise. Plus the fact we got to sleep in a real hotel and do laundry!

Memphis felt quite small. The thing to note with American cites is most have a ‘downtown’ – but every time I think of downtown I think of a massive area, skyscrapers, suits, busy busy busy, etc. But alas, Beale street was just a short stroll, a few bars, some souvenir shops (with every Elvis souvenir possible), and just about the music. Names of the bars/restaurants make us laugh, to quote one of the girls on our tour “Every thing’s world famous around here…”.

Oh, and this hotel – The Peabody Hotel. They have ducks that come down in the lift at eleven, dordle about this fountain all day and then go back up in the lift at five. Odd right?

NEW ORLEANS

Actually, before we hit New Orleans we stopped off in Jackson to a restaurant called ‘The Two Sisters’ – it’s basically an old renovated house where they serve soul food (left overs) and are linked back to the story of Rosa Parks, where blacks couldn’t ride on white’s buses etc etc – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks – There’s more about this on wiki.

Anyway, I’d been looking forward to coming to New Orleans. A city that’s survived so many storms and history. We stayed in the French Quarter, which is apparently the nicest part because apparently, if we had dared to cross the street and into the park there was a chance we would have been mugged. But it felt safe.

We got told about the history of New Orleans and how billions of the funding to help rebuild it from Hurricane Katrina had been mostly spent on this area, and the reason before with the government being corrupt more funding had gone into up-keeping river banks in this area than poorer areas where they deteriorated and burst in the storm.

We weren’t far from Bourbon Street, basically a road full of clubs, bars, odd voodoo shops and the oldest pub in the world. I was more interested in the appearance in this place. It felt so unique there and you can’t deny it doesn’t look battered by the weather too, but that seems to give it a warm charm about the place. The streets are filled with colours and beads everywhere, literally everywhere.

The river front is quite a relaxed place. We walked around some markets, took a boat ride across the Mississippi river, went to a jazz bar, it never seemed too busy. I didn’t get the hype with Bourban Street, it sort of felt like some sleazy holiday place at night. Really down toned it from the unique jazz bars there.

LAKE CHARLES

Swamp tour with Cajun Jack! A man that barks after making some sort of (often sexist) joke. Lovely tour guide though. It didn’t really occur to me that there’s people that still live in the swamps, as odd as that sounds, there is. Apparently there’s only around 52 left these days though. The only way to their house is by boat and in their area it’s all about the crab fishing, providing you don’t get eaten by any alligators or bitten by poisonous snakes hiding in the trees.

Fascinating place, even the trees roots go all the way down to the bottom of the swamp and back up again to the surface. We managed to see a few alligators as well, didn’t get any photos though! There was a flower we picked up too (called Hyacinth), which is odourless until you dip it in the swamp and then starts smelling like watermelons.

We were back to lodges again by another lake and had a cook off in the three group lodges we were in. That was fun until we went back to our lodge, saw some armadillos, had to get rid of a cockroach in our room and try not to think about the sign that said “Do not feed or approach any alligators”. Raccoons also broke into our trailer and ate some food and sleeping bags…

The thought came to everyone’s mind: “This is what horror stories are made of”. It really was that creepy sleeping out in a national park.

TEXAS

Wow, everything is bigger in Texas. The first day we stopped off in Austin but we didn’t get to stay there long. I really wish we could of, just on one street (11th) there were so many bars and venues with decent live rock music in them. Shame we couldn’t see more. There was a fantastic shop there called ‘Uncommon Objects’ – which basically just sold any old thing. It looked like an antique store, with objects just tagged and placed anywhere but reasonably priced. The shop is a bit of a maze but fun to see what gem you can find.

Some fun facts for you: ‘Throwing a deuce’ – to us it’s sticking the fingers up at someone, to them it’s part of hello and normal. Texas is known as The Lone Star (because the flag has one star and it’s to do with its independence from Mexico and all that rock n’ roll). Austin’s motto is apparently ‘Keep Austin Weird’ so a taxi driver told us.

Our hostel (which was all of us together) was next to a lovely lake.

LUBBOCK

Like I said before, Texas is massive and we just spent most the day driving to Lubbock (around 8 hours), which there really isn’t anything there (well, Buddy Holly lived there). On the way driving to Lubbock the scenery is so flat you can see storms miles upon miles away. Even the small towns we drove through looked like they belonged in western films. Everything really does look like the movies.

It was either on our way to New Mexico or here, we stopped off at some petrol station in the midst of no where. A place where they really do say “Welcome y’all”.

Our van!