Articles with classic diners and restaurants

The long drive from New Orleans to Chattanooga

A few days ago we undertook the biggest part of our road trip around the US Southern States, New Orleans to Chattanooga via 5 states. The straight road straight up the freeways would be 460 miles and about 6 hours but oh no. That was far too easy.

We had decided, well I had, that we should go via the coast road to Biloxi and Mobil and then head up on the US equivalent of our A roads. In hindsight it wasn’t the best of ideas. Imagine driving from London to Edinburgh but deciding you aren’t going to take the motorways … well it was a few miles longer than that :D.
We hit our first snag when the road was closed due to a bridge being out, we got hopelessly lost trying to find a way around it and in the end decided we would just follow the Sat nav but by this time we were too far along the journey to take the easier route.

The majority of the journey was dual carriageway that went straight for miles and miles ( and miles more). Deb took loads of photos but they are on the other camera so they will be uploaded as a photo dump in the next couple of days. Theres not a lot to really say about the journey other than it seemed to last a lifetime.

The Roads got prettier and more scenic the further north we got and we soon found ourselves driving through some lovely hills and forests. About 10 hours after we had left New Orleans we found ourselves driving into Chattanooga and our hotel for the next couple of nights, The Read House Hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to be given another room upgrade ( this time without any complaints) and the historic hotel was absolutely lovely.

Fortunately, just across the road was a 24 hour diner so we headed over there to get some food. The City Diner Cafe was everything you would expect of a classic American diner. Neon Lights, stainless steel, Red booths and a menu that was so extensive it took an age to read. The food was good and the waitress was sassy ( or stoned – not sure which). Despite how good the desserts looked we decided against having one and made our way back to the hotel for a well needed sleep.

I’ve been Walking in Memphis

Yes, I know. The cheesiest of titles for todays blog but it HAD to be done 😀
We are now on our last day in Memphis before moving on down south along the Delta Blues Highway to Clarksdale. Last night was spent on the outskirts of the city at the Guesthouse at Graceland in readiness for this mornings trip to the Kings House but the previous couple of nights have been spent a few blocks away from Beale street taking in the sights and sounds of the Memphis blues scene.

First stop of the days walking tour was for breakfast in Memphis’s oldest diner, Arcade Restaurant. The pancakes, bacon and syrup were good and we sat a booth away from the Elvis’s favourite seat when he used to visit. Due to the restaurants original 50’s style it’s been used as a filming location for several films including, Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire, The Firm and loads of others i’ve never heard of.
After a hearty breakfast it was only a few blocks up to The Lorraine Motel, an iconic location for all the wrong reasons. It was here that on the 4th April 1968 Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated.

I’m not going to pretend it touched me in some spiritual kind of way, It didn’t. In truth, I’m from little England and though i’ve learned a lot over the last few days about the segregation in the Deep South i’ll never know how that felt ( or feels). I can however understand what an important location The Lorraine Motel is and how important the Civil Rights Movement was back then and i’m glad we stopped by to check it out.
Anyway, after that we wandered back through Downtown Memphis up to Beale Street and visited the Rock n Soul museum.

The Rock n Soul museum, and later the Memphis Hall of Fame had some great exhibits. The former told the story of the Memphis music scene from the cotton fields right through to explosion of Stax in the 1970’s whilst the latter was exhibits of some of the greatest musicians to come from the area from Elvis Presley through to Issac Hayes. Both were worth a visit though the Rock n Soul museum was a lot more informative on the history of the music and the self guided tour with headphones was very good.

After we had finished at the museums we headed to the Peabody Hotel to see the “Duck March”. It was, errr, very American shall we say 😀 I’m not going to go into detail on some Ducks walking from a hotel lobby fountain to an elevator here so you can read more if you visit the Peabody Hotel website . After the Ducks we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. Back on Beale street we headed to Silky o Irish pub or whatever it was called for food, beer and live music.

The following morning ( May 14th i think – I’m losing track) we had to check out of the Holiday Inn so we headed out of town to get breakfast at the nearest Ihop. You know you are in America when you are eating sickly sweet pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast!

From there we wandered off to find Lauderdale Courts which was where Elvis Presley lived with his parents when they first moved to Memphis. It’s now a trendy gated community so was not easy to find and get to but after several loops of the block we eventually found 185 Winchester at Lauderdale courts which housed apartment 328 where he lived.

Next on the list was the Bass Pro Pyramid. This is essentially an out door pursuits shop housed in a huge pyramid and filled with boats, Guns, Fish, Crossbows, clothes and stuffed wild animals. Yep, it was as odd as it sounds. You could buy anything here (as long as it aided you to kill a wild animal) and the place housed enough firepower to take down a small country – a day shopping here and i reckon you could probably overthrow Wales for example. It was “interesting” and scary and lets just say there were a lot of mullets on show 😀

We didn’t do a great deal for the rest of the day. We drove up to the Guesthouse at Graceland (nice but a little underwhelming) took in a few neighbourhoods and shops along the way and spent the late afternoon and evening drinking beer and eating burgers, grilled cheeses and Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches served by a little old lady who i’m sure was in the Golden Girls 😀

New York, Walking the High Line and Lower East side

Day two of our Christmas vacation in New York saw an early rise in the Upper West side and a couple of blocks walk to our favourite New York diner, Viand. It’s a proper New York Neighbourhood diner, no frills but big portions, nice food and proper booths, oh, and it’s a great place to start the day with pancakes, bacon and more maple syrup than is probably good for you. Oh well, the plan was to walk off the calories.

Viand Cafe outside in the Upper West New York
Eating a New York Breakfast in the Upper West Side
Subway train arriving at a platform in New York

After breakfast we jumped on the subway and headed down to Hudson Yard to take a look at the vessel, do a spot of shopping and contemplate if we had the kahunas to go up “The Edge”, (We didn’t). After a brief wander and a coffee we headed off to find the High Line. This is our third trip to New York and it’s something we had always forgotten to do before now. The weather was unseasonably warm and it was a lovely walk along elevated trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan.

Hudson Yard Shopping Mall Christmas Lights
Views from The High Line New York
Views from the New York High Line Trail
View of Old Building from the High Line in New York
views from the high liine new york
Graffiti of Andy Warhol seen on the High Line New York
Views from the high line of old Manhattan Buldings

We left the high line when we saw the iconic sign for the Chelsea Market and headed inside. It was a hipsters paradise. Lots of pretentious coffee shops and eateries, a few shops selling tat and stuff you have no use for. We browsed for an hour and then headed out to the next destination .

New York Ghostbusters Firehouse
Ghostbusters fire house new york
Chelsea Market New York
Grafitti in the Lower East side of New York

Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, better known as Ghostbusters headquarters was only a brief walk away so we stopped by for a couple of photos before heading on through Little Italy into the Lower East side. Was a shame to see that Alife Rivington Club had closed down, or it certainly looked like it had. For those not in the know, which is probably the majority, it was one of the best streetwear and sneaker shops in New York, if not the world. This was my third visit and I’ve only managed to get inside once as theres no clue that a shop is there unless you know what you are looking for. A quick press of the buzzer and if they liked the cut of your gib they let you in.

Alife Rivington Club, Lower East Side New York
Beastie Boys Mural on the original Pauls Boutique site
Grafitti in the lower east side of New York

Anyway, also down in the Lower East side i was hoping to find Ludlow Guitars (also closed now) where i bought a Gretsch Ukulele from in 2012. We paid a visit to the corner of Rivington and Ludlow which was the original location of the cover of the Beastie Boys Album Pauls Boutique and now features a great bit of street art dedicated to the band. We then headed up to contemplate dinner at Katz ( but it was packed) so ended up walking back up Broadway taking in the shops and ended the evening with cream topped hot chocolate sat outside Maceys people watching.

Katz Deli New York
New York at Night at Christmas
Maceys New York at Christmas

After 45k plus steps, and being on the go since 9am, we jumped on the subway to travel the few stops back up to W77th and the hotel and called it a night

Bagdad California Bottle Ranch

Do it in a Teepee at the Wigwam motel

After a busy few days in Vegas its time to head back to Route 66 and into California to the wigwam motel. We took a taxi back to McCarran airport to pickup our new hire car. We dropped off the car and picked it up three days later as it cut down the cost by a few quid as we weren’t paying for parking in Vegas and the taxes were less on the last leg of the journey.

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San Francisco, hills and lots of walking

Our first full day in San Francisco was spent walking up some very steep hills ! It doesn’t matter which way you head in San Francisco it would appear you’ll be heading upwards at some point.

We awoke nice and early Thursday morning and headed to Ihop for breakfast. The perfect way to start a long day of walking is with coffee, blueberry and buttermilk pancakes, bacon, hash browns, eggs and lots of maple syrup !

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Route 66 Shield in Missouri

6 Route 66 tips – Roadtrip Planning

For my first blog post that isn’t from the road i have decided ill try and give any budding road trippers a few Route 66 tips that we found useful or could of done with on our drive from Chicago to Los Angeles.

These are my own personal route 66 tips, opinions and views taken from our 2015 road trip along Route 66 and  not in any particular order. I hope you enjoy reading them.

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Winslow to Kingman via Seligman

I was standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, and such a fine sight to see, It’s a girl, my lord in a flat bed ford slowin’ down to take a look at me ” sang the Eagles in 1972, so it would be rude not to find the corner they were singing about as we started todays travels in Winslow.

As it happens they were not singing about a particular corner but that hasn’t stopped the local tourist office dedicating the corner of Old Highway 66 and N Kinsley Ave to the line in the song Taking it Easy. Its a very popular photo stop on route 66

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