Sorry for the big delay in updating the blog, we have been busy having fun and travelling!!! So here is an update on what we have been doing for the last few days. When we left Baton Rouge on Sunday, we decided to take a tour through the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans - the area worst hit by Hurricane Katrina. I had heard and read reports that it was still pretty bad there so I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a lot of new houses and a lot of construction ...

Friday was a very rainy, cloudy, wet day and with most of the downtown buildings still closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday, we took a gamble that some of the plantations and other tourist attractions were open and headed for White Castle, home of the Nottoway Plantation - A 150 year old sugar plantation that is still in operation today. Nottoway was completed in 1859 forJohn Hampden Randolph and his wife, Emily Jane Liddell Randolph, and it was home to their ele...

Tuesday in Memphis was not a nice day weatherwise and as Mud Island was closed until next Spring, we were at a bit of a loose end. Luckily (or may be not!), the lady at the visitor centre had told us about Tunica, about 30 miles south of Memphis where they have casinos. There are some strange laws here about gambling being all right as long as it is done on the water. The original casino boats were designed to carry passengers out into International waters where ...

Leaving Nashville on Sunday morning we took a circuitous route to our next destination - Memphis. This was so we could add 2 more states (Missouri and Arkansas) to the list of states visited. I have had a long time ambition to visit all 50 states and by the end of this trip next April I will have achieved 26. The rules are you actually have to set foot on the ground (this rule was made up when I tried to claim Maine after our plane stopped to refuel on a 2002 ...

Muic City USA - the home of country music. We spent a very nostalgic day today touring the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where we saw memorabilia from stars such as Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and of course Elvis Presley, including his prized gold Cadillac and piano. You don't have to like country music to appreciate the museum and in fact a lot of music has crossed over into main stream pop / rock in more recent years with stars like Shania T...