12th Forgot to mention that last night saw our first real thunderstorm. Every four or five seconds a thick lightening bolt would light up half the sky like daytime and this lasted about an hour. As Kirsty was driving so fast that she got her citation, we couldn't hear the thunder and we only had a few spots of rain the whole time. Today we drove the scenic route from Tallahassee to Pensacola along the coast where there are places like Panama City, which could be really nice but has been made rather tacky with amusement arcades and seedy shops. Because of all the Alabamians and Mississippians that flock here in Spring, they call this part the Redneck Riveira. But, by contrast, Watercolour and Seaside just a few miles along the coast towards Pensacola, are a tucked-out-of-the-way gem. They used Seaside to film the picture-perfect township in The Truman Show. Seaside was created in 1981 to be a beautiful village on the coast and it is so nice that only the mega-rich can afford to live there now. They are so bohemian that they add 1% on to any purchase made in its shops and restaurants to go to the town's Arts and Crafts Foundation. After looking around the pastel shingle houses, perfect parks and white sandy beach we carried on west. Just outside Pensacola is a place called Shoreline Park, which we had to visit as we had been told that that is where UFO spotters sit and wait to welcome aliens - a bit of Americana we couldn't resist having a look at. Unfortunately there were no Alien greeters around today, but the park is right on the coast and has a great promenade and landing for fishing from.

13th We took a trip to Pensacola's Navy Aviation Museum, which has 90 decades of navy aircraft strewn out in a giant hangar (much like the Smithsonian in DC), mock ups of aircraft carrier decks, aircraft simulators and fighter aircraft cockpits to play about in. Kirsty liked the cockpits because she got to press buttons and flick switches! Also in the Navy base there is a beautiful and deserted white sandy beach with a coastguard lighthouse and the whole area is so peaceful and tranquil. As we were only passing through Pensacola and not planning on exploring it in any detail we finally left Florida and entered Mobile Alabama. Florida has been good to us (and our waistlines - thanks AC), but we've been there far too long and it was nice to be leaving and heading into the Deep South for some real exploring again.

We arrived in Mobile (pronounced Mow-beel) and were surprised how deserted it was, even for a Sunday. This is a large city built alongside its docks and the locals have got tired of telling everyone that Mardi Gras started here and not in New Orleans. As we arrived we just caught the end of some entertainment for the Mobile Marathon Race, which had been run today, and went off in search of Southern cooking. We found some in one of the few places that were open. It was so run-down that at first we thought it was a soup kitchen and the food was really rough - but really nice and filling. We took a walk around its downtown area (centred around Dauphin Street) and got our first real feel of French influence in America, with beautiful latticed wrought-iron balconies. Unfortunately, the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are still evident there as many buildings still have skips outside and are only just being reconstructed.

14th - 3 States in one day. We drove out of Alabama, through Mississippi and into Louisiana. We had nowhere we wanted to see in southern Mississippi, so carried on to Baton Rouge in Louisiana, which, once again, surprised us by how dead the city was. Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana and is primarily a business and government district with a lot of poverty stricken areas surrounding it. We took a walk down to see the Mississippi River and found the view from Baton Rouge incredibly similar to the view of the Mississippi from Memphis (wow, was it only a month ago that we were up in Tennessee? Although we've had a blast the whole time it seems like we've been out here years). The riverfront area is practically a building site, and though Baton Rouge is very clean the levelled buildings and construction sites make the waterfront look more run-down than it actually is. We took a walk around the functional concrete city to the State Capitol building where the new State Governor had been inaugurated that morning. The building is a beautiful art deco tower that rises above everything in the city and we saw that Baton Rouge uses a lot of prisoners from its correctional facility to do maintenance work and run the cafeteria in the government building. Around the building are some beautiful gardens and oak trees draped with Spanish Moss that are everywhere in the southern states. Because of the inauguration, we could not go up the tower and had to be content with viewing the opulent lobby, Senate and House of Representatives chambers on the ground floor. After this, we went to another dive of a restaurant (still yummy) and checked into our 'hotel'. Unfortunately, because of our arrival, the cockroaches had to complain to the hotel about there being humans in their room.

15th - We returned to the State Capitol Tower to see the city from the 27th floor. Baton Rouge from this height really is very industrial but the view of the 'Mighty Mississippi River' running into the distance towards New Orleans is a great sight. En route to New Orleans (our next stop) we decided to take a look at Houmas House, a plantation on the Mississippi. This Mansion was home to sugar barons in Louisiana and dates back to the early 1800s. While not nearly as impressive as European stately homes, it did give a great insight into parts of history that we don't have in Europe - plantation gentry and slavery. We arrived in New Orleans as the weather turned nasty (not like 2005 - we're still safe!), the clouds were all dark and the forecast is for three days of rain - great! We checked into our beautiful French-style hotel and chatted to the friendly girl on reception who asked Kirsty "If you're from England, do you know the Spice Girls?" and then got all excited and wanted to take a photo of Kirsty's bum because she was wearing Victoria Beckham jeans! We headed straight for Bourbon Street (New Orleans' party district in the French Quarter), which is a stone's throw from the hotel, and checked out all the bars with their live jazz and blues. This area is amazing; a total party-zone with monster drinking binges. I started work on a hangover and we watched a few live bands and took in the pre-carnival atmosphere. I think Kirsty has fallen in love with this place already despite the rain that has started to descend.

16th - The rain continued all night and shows no sign of stopping, but we have too many things in our travel guide to do, so we have to brave the conditions. We took a walk around the French Quarter looking at the French style shops and ate in lovely restaurant called The Two Sisters, which has a posh buffet of Creole, Cajun and European foods while a jazz trio plays. The idea was to be able to sample all the southern foods and get a feel for what we like, and it is all wonderful - especially the jambalaya (like paella with cayenne pepper to give it a bit of bite). As the weather was rubbish and we were getting wet and cold, we called off the exploring early and headed back to the solace of the hotel so that I could retype this blog entry (I spent three hours on it over the last few days and then deleted it by mistake this morning… urgh!) and Kirsty could catch up on the sleep that she lost last night because of my drunken snoring. It's a carnival night on Saturday and we expect to be heading to Texas on Sunday. Oh yes, and we're 6 hours behind the UK again in New Orleans.