Nice place, very compact and easy to walk around the centre. Plenty of places to eat and drink. However it’s the Stockyard area, which is the main draw for visitors. It’s what the real Wild West looked like. They have rodeo shows and cattle rustling all put on for visitors,

It’s very touristy but as we are here out of season, it’s not busy. It also has loads of stores and bars, you can buy anything for the cowboy, or cowgirl in your life.

This morning we’re visiting a few more places before hitting the road and continuing north and briefly turning on to the legendary Route 66. We may decide to make a slight detour and visit “the” Southfork Ranch but we’re not too bothered.

Weather is still fantastic not as warm as San Antonio but still hitting the high 20’s.

J

After checking out a few more of the sights in San Antonio, it was time to hit the road again, for the short drive north to the state capital.

One of the highlights (for visitors at least) in Austin is watching the nighttime show put on by 100,000’s of Bats, yep, Bats. Every evening between April and November at dusk, they leave their nesting area which just happens to be under the Congress avenue bridge, the main bridge in downtown Austin and head out to feed. It was very impressive, certainly a different type of tourist attraction.

We’re staying at the Austin Motel, it’s been here since the 1930’s and it’s not changed too much since then, it’s in the “trendy” part of Austin so there are plenty of bars and restaurants right outside the door, very handy.

For dinner yesterday evening, we opted for burgers (again), however, this place called Hopdoddy, is a multi award winning burger place, on a Tuesday evening at around 8:30pm, there was a Q (line in the US), going out the door and around the corner. Was it worth the 40 minute wait to get a table, yes, the burgers were really good, however the usual American style of fries, while better than most, were just ok, but the excellent cocktails, made it all worth the wait 🙂

After much discussion on our next move, we’re going to continue north to Fort Worth, which is about 30 miles west of a place called Dallas (you may have heard of it). We started this morning with a swim in the motel pool, even at 8:00am, it was a very nice 25C. Then we checked out a few of the quirky stores before stopping for breakfast to set us up for the 4 hour drive to Forth Worth.

J

Once we left the Deep South we had no plan of where to stop off next, bar continuing our journey west. After doing some reading up on a few things, we decided to hit San Antonio. The Alamo is the big draw but there’s a lot more to this city as we soon discovered.

It has an amazing river walk which is lined with shops, tons of bars and restaurants. The river is more of a canal, rather than a river, but it’s cooling to walk along in the almost 40C heat, yep, it’s hot, really hot.

Given its close proximity to Mexico, we figured if you’re going to find a good Margarita bar, it’ll be here. And find one we did, as you can see from the photo, everything “is” bigger in Texas (unless you’re in Vegas).

Tomorrow it’s looking like the state capital, Austin, for our next stop but that may change, maybe we’ll travel a little further south, towards Mexico and perhaps find bigger and better, Margaritas 🙂

J

Our New Orleans visit has been fun and action-packed. On our last day, we took a cruise on the Steamboat Natchez. With a live jazz band and interesting commentary, it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning. And with nearly 30C heat, we made sure to soak up the sunshine while enjoying the views. After a quick lunch, it was time to leave New Orleans and say farewell to the lakes of Pontchartrain.

En route to Baton Rouge, we visited San Francisco Plantation House. We were lucky enough to catch the last tour of the day and got to hear about the history of the house and plantation. After a one night stopover in Baton Rouge, we’re heading to Texas. Next stop is the Alamo!

Yesterday we visited the Louisiana Swamps, yeah, I know, why would anyone want to visit a swamp?. It turned out to be amazing. This was the real deal, alligators, wild boars and loads of other wildlife. Zooming around in one of those metal boats was great fun, although it was when they would turn into one of the smaller waterways it was really cool as there was barely enough room for the boat to squeeze through as it meandered slowly through. You could reach out and touch the trees and overgrowth – although our boat captain asked not to reach out over the boat, especially ifyou didn’t want to lose a finger, as there is a good chance an alligator is hiding in the reeds.

On other parts of the waterways, we stopped up, to feed the alligators, a diet of hotdogs and marshmallows of all things. It was great to see it up close.

Today we’re taking  a trip on a steamboat, called the Natchez and later we’re leaving  New Orleans  and staying  in Baton Rouge as we continue our drive west.

J

There were a choice of several tours to see Graceland, so we went for the VIP option. The grounds and house are amazing. Tours are not allowed to visit the upstairs of the house, the reason, this was Elvis’ private part of the house in respect to him, it remains that way.

The lavishness has to be seen, all the original furniture, lighting and even the technology from the era remains today. You also get to see the hall of awards, racket court, the office and of course, his grave. All the time listening and watching the excellent audio and visual guide.

There are also several museums and other attractions as part of the package, overall it was an excellent insight into the legend that was Elvis.

After a quick coffee it was time to hit the road again for the 6 hour drive to New Orleans. We stopped for lunch and to fill up on on petrol, whoops, I mean Gas :-). There was not much of a choice so we oped for Arby’s – just yet another fast food chain, although they did manage to make it about 10 times worse, than other fast food options 🙂

The highlight of the drive was the last 20 miles into New Orleans – the road was above ground, above the swamp, it was very impressive, old houses on stilts, straight out of the movies.

On arrival into New Orleans and after checking into the hotel, we hit the town! It was obvious, New Orleans was going to be a great place to visit. There was a fantastic atmosphere, so European in parts, loads of places to eat and drink and loads of sitting outside on the footpath, sorry, sidewalks.  And of course the weather, a balmy 28C, nice!

More later

J

Arrived into Memphis from Chattanooga, nice drive but the weather is way different from Charleston – blue sky, highs of about 35C, hot, but nice.

First things first, caught the late evening tour of the famous Sun Studios, a must do if visiting Memphis. The reasonably short 40 minute tour is very insightful with an enthusiastic tour guide.

Tomorrow, the main reason people travel from the four corners of the world, to join in the pilgrimage and worship the King.

(For those that asked, we’re working on uploading more photos)

J

After a few interesting days in Charleston it was time to hit the road. After picking up the rental car we headed slightly south towards the coast, a place called Folly Beach, which was inaccessible the day before due to the hurricane.

We gathered a few shells and took a few snaps before heading towards our first inland stop, Chatanooga. It was about a 7 hour drive with a stop for lunch and a quick coffee stop. As we got in late we headed straight to the hotel – the famous, Chattanooga Choo Choo – totally kitsch but part of the fun, why would a visitor stay anywhere else 🙂