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.
Today we leave our cabin at Breaux Bridge and head to the Mardi Gras capital of the world, New Orleans. It’s about 130 miles but we have a few stops along the way and will hopefully get to drive the river road alongside the great Mississippi river.
Our first stop of the day was Whitney Plantation. An old slave plantation with a museum. This was going to prove difficult for me as we arrived at the half way point of the Forest v Arsenal match. Normally i would have just caught up via text but this was the last home game of the season and a win would see us stay in the premier league for another year. So, tentatively, i walked around the museum with my phone pressed up against my ear listening to the game. It has to be said that as my mind was elsewhere i didn’t really get much out of the museum and could quite happily have sat in the car whilst deb went in. What i did see was interesting enough though. Not as good as the Rosedown plantation we visited a few days ago because, i think, it was more of a museum than a grand house.
Next up, and only a mile or so down the road was a place I’d wanted to visit since we first started planning this trip. Unfortunately in the time between planning and us actually visiting the area, Evergreen Plantation has closed to the general public and is now used for research purposes. Evergreen Plantation is probably better known nowadays as “Candyland” from the Tarantino film Django Unchained. It looks very unkempt now and you are not allowed to go inside but we were still able to get a few photos from the roadside so i was happy.
The road along the Mississippi was disappointing. As a road it was better than the freeway and it took us through some small towns and housing / trailer park estates but due to the Levee you couldn’t actually see the river. We were soon back on the freeway and heading into the sprawling metropolis of New Orleans. It’s by far the biggest city we have visited on this trip and it was odd being back on 6 and 8 lane highways snaking above the city. We passed the New Orleans Super Dome ( home of the Saints) and made our way to the French Quarter where our hotel was.
Our hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans was the Best Western French Quarter. It is well placed for exploring and more importantly had secure parking. on checking into our room with a view ( according to the website and booking) we found out that the view was a view of a brick wall. Not happy we went back to reception and kicked up a fuss ( well, when i say “we”, i actually mean Deb, i just stood there looking sheepish lol). The upshot was a a free upgrade to a suite 5 metres from the pool …. result !!
That evening we wandered the streets of the French Quarter and ended up eating dinner at the … err …. different ..Vampire Cafe. The cutlery was gold ( Vampires don’t like silver remember” and the menu and cocktails were “themed”. A little too themed imo. I had gator to start ( different – think a fatty chicken, glad i tried it but wont rush back lol) followed by Duck. Duck should be served pink but this was unpalatably raw unfortunately. Suppose the Vampires like it bloody, not so much me though.
Whilst we were inside eating the heavens absolutely opened and gave a great thunder and lightening show. Fortunately we finished our meal just at the right time and managed to make it back to the hotel relatively dry. An early night followed ready to explore the city more in the morning.
Not a great deal to tell you about today and not many pictures as we mostly took videos. After a lovely breakfast at the Concord Quarters B&B we loaded the car up and headed out on the road to Breaux Bridge.
Our first, and only stop was the Rosedown Historic house and Plantation in St Francisville. Originally built in 1835 by one of the richest families in America at the time, the Turnbull’s it’s a fascinating look at an old Louisiana house and the history of slavery and cotton farming. I’ve taken loads of videos of the house and grounds which i plan to edit when i get back so i’ll do a proper blog post on our visit when i get back. In the mean time, have a few more photos.
After a good few hours spent at Rosewood we continued on our journey to Breaux Bridge and the Teche Bayou. The journey was an uneventful one along pretty freeways and through a few smaller town and we soon found ourselves arriving at out home for the next couple of nights, The Bayou Cabins.
We stayed in the Bayou Museum Cabin which was built in 1848 using Cypress wood from the nearby swamps and mud and moss from the nearby Bayou Teche (river). Our first thoughts on arriving were, well let’s say, mixed. Lot of bugs, the cabin, with its walls of mud and moss felt dark and dingy and it was, it has to be said, a little creepy. On settling in, cracking open a beer and chilling out it was actually fine and a lovely place to experience the Bayou and explore the area from
Dinner this evening consisted of salad, pastries and beers on the veranda and an evening of chilling out and watching rubbish American TV 😀
Essentially a gallery of pictures taken whilst driving by Deb. She has a tendency to click click click at houses, roads, churches and whatever takes her fancy so these are some of the images from the passenger side between Tennesse and Louisiana
Having done all we could at Graceland it was time to wave goodbye to Memphis and the birthplace of Rock n Roll and say hello to the Mississippi Delate blues. We soon found ourselves out of the city and onto Highway 61, more commonly known as the Blues Highway. It was 80 miles of straight road. and i mean STRAIGHT. by the time we got to Clarksdale i’d forgotten how to turn a corner lol.
We stopped at the Gateway to The blues tourist information but only stopped to get some maps and some info. There was a museum attached but we were all museum’d out after the morning at Graceland. We were soon heading into Clarksdale and heading towards our unique lodgings for the next couple of nights.
First stop was the local Walmart to stock up on some sweet goodies and a few beers. Once they were purchased it was off to the Shack up Inn, the rather cool and very bluesy motel we had chosen to stay at.
The Shack up Inn is hard to describe so i’ll point you in the direction of their website to read more …. The Shack Up Inn . The main building and gin bar looks more like a scene from American Pickers ( both inside and out) and the accommodation is a mixture of wooden shacks with tin roofs and Grain Bins. We had picked the Delta Shack and to be honest, we were a little apprehensive as the pictures on the website made it look very old and rustic. On check in we picked a guitar to borrow from the lobby and headed over the rail track to find the Delta. We were pleasantly surprised. As the website states, “It Ain’t no Ritz” but it is cool as a cool thing and perfect for plucking teh guitar on the veranda under the moonlight.
This evening we headed over to the Hopson Commissary for food, beer and live music. It’s one of those places that when you walk in wearing a “man bag” (i know, i should know better lol) everyone stops and stares but it also had bags of authentic character. We found a table, opened a tab at the bar and had a great evening listening to two fantastic guitar players and singers.
Dinner that evening consisted of Chilli, Rice, Mac and Cheese, Salad and Cornbread. You stuck $10 in a tip jar and helped yourself to what was on the table. It was simple, well cooked and very tasty.
Well that was a rather long day and as always i find myself wide awake at 6am in the morning on our first day in the States.
9am UK time, yesterday, and we Barbara picked us up in the rather lovely BMW 7 series and it was another fantastic chauffeur driven journey down to Heathrow airport courtesy of A52 Executive Cars, the best chauffeur and airport transfer service in Derby (come on, i’ve got to get the occasional plug in for my own company lol). The journey went smoothly enough and soon we found our selves checking in at Terminal 5.
The Journey through the airport went very smoothly i’m glad to say and we soon found ourselves checking into the Aspire lounge. This is a mistake we won’t make again! If you are ever looking for a lounge at T5 then avoid this one – it was awful. Choice of food was limited to soup or a very dire buffet, only one coffee machine working, loos were a 5 minute walk away and the place was packed. Ok, it was only £40 each but i’d have much rather spent that in one of the airport restaurants. Ah well, you live and learn.
The plane took off on time and the flight was extremely good, plenty of space in premium economy ( or whatever BA call it these days) and nice and smooth with only one bit of mildly scary turbulence 😀 All in all, nothing really to report about it. We landed 15 minutes early, got off the plane speedily and found ourselves pretty much at the front of the immigration queue in Nashville airport. Obviously it was US Immigration so it still took bloody ages to get through but our luggage was waiting for us and soon we were off to pick up our hire car for the next three weeks.
So then, the hire car …. When we first booked the flights and car prices for car rental were through the roof so we ended up booking the cheapest available which happened to be a Kia Soul. I hadn’t researched it and the shape of the Soul made me think it was a small SUV type thing. Fortunately we decided to visit Kia in Derby a few weeks back and check one out … goddam awful car !!! We hurried back form the showroom and immediately phoned up BA to try and get the car changed lol. Long story short, BA changed us to a mid size SUV ( a Chevrolet traverse or similar) and because the price of car hire had come down we got £400 refunded for a bigger car … RESULT!!
So then, back to Nashville. We got told at the Avis desk we had been allocated a Dodge Durango, cool i thought, we have had on in the eStates before and it’s a big old thing with loads of room and perfect for a USA Road trip. On turning up to the Dodge parked in the rental garage we actually found we had been given a Dodge Durango R/T Hemi 😮 It’s a 5.7 litre V8 American beast – needless to say i’m rather excited about driving around the Deep South in this beast 😀
The Drive from Nashville to our first hotel, The German Town Inn was only 9 miles and went smoothly enough. We managed to avoid an argument ( YOU ARE DRIVING TO CLOSE etc etc) and we were soon unloading the car and getting settled in.
The Hotel is lovely and the concierge had soon sorted us out with a couple of beers and we were chilling in the Tennessee evening sun relaxing at long last. From pick up in Derby to arriving at the hotel was around 16 hours so not too bad but I was ready for a cold one.
Anyway, thats the travel day sorted and it’s now 6:30am so i better go and wake Deb up, have some breakfast and head out to explore Nashville.
International travel during the covid pandemic hasn’t been easy but as with everything, if you take the risks the reward is there. So in June 2021 with the USA well and truly closed to international visitors we found ourselves booking a week in New York in December for my 50th Birthday.
To be honest there wasn’t that much of a risk. We booked through British Airways so it only took a £150 deposit to secure the hotel and flights with the remainder being paid a month before we went and with no end to the travel restrictions in sight the cost of flights were stupidly low. We managed to book business class flights with BA at an absolute bargain price, from memory I think they were cheaper than premium economy tickets with Virgin.
Much whooping was heard and jumping for joy done when in September 21 President Biden announced that America would be once more be opening its borders to holiday makers from November. OUR HOLIDAY WAS ON!!! We didn’t bet on a new variant rearing it’s ugly head though.
It wasn’t “easy” travelling with the new testing regimes in place but at the same time it wasn’t difficult. BA released the Verifly app which took you through what you needed to do to travel in baby steps – namely, supervised lateral flow test 24 hours before flying and filling out a couple of forms. I think the hardest thing was trying not to get too excited just in case we had a positive test on our fit to fly LFT’s
So, on the 12th December at 13:00, we found ourselves waiting nervously in a Lloyds Pharmacy having had our supervised LFT’s. The 15 minutes to get the results felt like hours but we were both negative …. We could go to NEW YORK 😀
We hadn’t dared to pack yet in case we were positive so we rushed home, packed 4 suitcases full of New York weather proof clothing ( waste of time lol) and tried to relax … very difficult.
We got to Heathrow airport the following morning at around 5am (for a 9am flight). Business class check in couldn’t have gone any smoother with the Verifly app taking most of the strain and we were through security in 5 minutes. The BA business lounge at Heathrow T5 was disappointing. Not sure what I was expecting but I did expect more than a rock solid crusty cob with a sausage inside it and the worse coffee I’ve ever tasted. We have paid £20 for better lounges before so it wasn’t the greatest start to the Business Class experience. It was however quiet and away from the hustle and bustle of the terminal but that’s pretty much all it had going for it. Our early arrival may have been the reason and it could be a great place if you are flying later in the day but it was meh for breakfast.
We boarded the plane at around 8:30 am and all thoughts of the poor BA lounge went out fo the window. It’s the first time I’ve ever flown business class before and I could really get used to it! Just the ability to stretch your legs out straight on a plane was fantastic, and that before you started playing with the seating etc. The TV screen was great however the choice of what to watch wasn’t fantastic in my opinion but i was more bothered about listening to my music and relaxing so it wasn’t a big deal for me. Breakfast was served on crockery with a real knife and fork. I had a full English. It wasn’t very full but it was very tasty and a cut above the usual plane food. Drinks were plentiful throughout the flight and with a good tail wind we landed at JFK about 10 minutes early.
Being one of the first off the plane we were one of of the first at the immigration queue in JFK. That went relatively smoothly ( for JFK) and we were standing outside, looking for our driver about half an hour after landing.
We had pre booked our transfer from JFK to The Arthouse Hotel with New York Airports Transportation on facebook. They were excellent, competitively priced and highly recommended. Our driver was pleasant and pointed out various landmarks and recommendations for food and days out etc. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them next time we visit NYC ( and there will be a next time)
We stayed in the Arthouse Hotel ( formerly NYLO) in the upper west side. It’s an area we know quite well and love. It’s away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist traps with loads of little diners and restaurants and only a 30 minute walk ( or two minutes on subway) down to Times square. We usually stay across the road in the Belleclaire but you couldn’t book that one through BA hence trying the Arthouse. We weren’t disappointed, It’s a great boutique hotel and very “New York”, and is nothing like a faceless chain hotel in times square. The lobby, bar and breakfast area are all very nice and the room, whilst being on the small side ( I think we had the smallest room on the floor) was more than adequate and came with a good coffee machine and a fridge etc and when it comes down to it, a hotel is only a place to rest your head each night.
We had initially decided to have an easy afternoon and first night but we ended up walking all the way down broadway to Times square and then the Rockefeller centre to see the Christmas tree and all the way back up 5th and 6th avenue. We dined out on fine Shake Shack burgers and Starbucks caramel lattes kept us going. What should have been a light walk turned into 20k+ steps and aching feet …… That bed in the arthouse was the best bed in the world after such a long day 😀
After a late breakfast at the Old Town Manor, it was time once more to pack the car and hit the roads again. We enjoyed Key West but I’m not sure we will revisit. As nice as it was doing nothing but eating, drinking and wandering we couldn’t get over the fact it felt a little bit like America’s version of Benidorm, not quite that trashy but nevertheless a party town first and foremost.
After an early breakfast at Casa Thorn we repacked our suitcases, threw them in the ample boot of the Mustang and said our goodbyes to Islamorada. Today we are driving Route 1 down to our next hotel in Key West.
