Monday 6th December - New Orleans - Clarksdale, Mississippi (350 miles)
We caught a taxi from our hotel to the airport to pick up our car - we were glad of the early morning air-con in the taxi as it was 98% humidity and nearly 80 degrees . We got ourselves a Chevy Malibu and found out 50 miles away that the cruise control doesn't work. The first 30 miles of road in southern Louisiana was all over raised freeway above the pure swampland below. We had a lot of ground to cover and were soon cruising through Mississippi State with an abundance of rich farmland around us. The trees are currently a rich autumnal colour with not very many actuall on the ground. Towards the northern half of the State the land turned back to low-lying water-logged cotton fields. The rain started pouring down near the end and we reached Clarksdale just before the predicted overnight thunderstorms.

Tuesday 7th December - Clarksdale, Mississippi - Memphis, Tennessee (80 miles)
Clarksdale sits on the area known as the Mississippi Delta - an area rich in musical history and with a low-lying alluvial flood plain where much cotton growing occurs. We enjoyed our 'proper' breakfast of cereal and toast instead of the usual doughnuts before visiting the Delta Blues Museum in the centre of Clarksdale . The area surrounding the town has quite rolecall of former residents - Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson and Sam Cooke. Lots of poor black workers passed through (and came from) these parts on their way to a better life north in Chicage. Muddy Water's old cabin, when he was a tractor driver, is now in the museum which also had an excellent collection of old blues memorabilia including interviews with the rock bands of the 60s who were so heavily influenced by the blues sounds. We headed west from the sleep town and past flooded fields with cotton stacked high. We had a great southen-cooked lunch in a roadside cafe. We pulled in at an outlet shopping area looking for some trousers for Derek but suceeded in only finding him a t-shirt. As he paid-up the assistant commented on the fact that Derek reminded her of Christopher Reeve/Superman. We left saying we were off to save the world! We reached Memphis and the 'welcome centre', with it's huge BB King and Elvis status, just as the sun was going down over the Mississippi after a day of blue skies and temperatures in the high teens Celsius - not a bad day for December then!

Wednesday 8th December - Graceland, Memphis
If you're in Memphis you've gotta go to Graceland so that's exactly what we did . There weren't many people queueing for the bus which takes people accross the road and through the surprisingly small gates - total distance travelled, about 200 yards (it's a security thing)! The house is quite modest really compared to what you might expect. Most of the furniture is still present and because it was the 70s shagpile carpet and leopard-skin sofas were still the in fashion. The audio self-guided tour was excellent with insightful information easily forgotten such as Elvis' generosity and charity work. He bought the house in 1957 and is buried there today with his parents and grandmother (who outlived them all 3 of them!). Despite taking the videotape out of the camcorder to try to take some photos only, we were told no (though there's plenty of digital 'cameras' that can take video footage and they're not on the 'banned' list)! We grabbed some lunch before heading back to see the extra parts - the car museum complete with Pink Cadillacs, moon buggy and white Rolls Royce (to name but a few), the King's own jet named 'Lisa Marie' after his daughter with all it's plush furniture and entertainment system and the 'Simply Elvis' museum . This place detailed his musical path and influence on popular culture with plenty of video and audio to accompany it. We had planned to be left by lunchtime but ended up staying until late afternoon. We ate dinner just off Beale Street (where all the old rock and soul clubs used to be but now it's just fast food diners mainly) in Memphis city centre and watched the new 'Peter Sellers : Life & Death' movie on TV (films sometimes appear on TV here before they make it to DVD/video).

Thursday 9th December - Memphis
At 9am this morning a numbskull cleaner was hammering on our door asking 'you staying in there all day?' - checkout time here is 11am! So no-one bothered cleaning our room in retribution. We headed for the Peabody Hotel to observe the somewhat bizarre spectacle of local ducks who waddled from the elevator to the hotel lobby fountain at 11am prompt. They do this every day and return to their 'penthouse' at 5pm each day also! The National Civil Rights Museum was next and it detailed mostly black civil rights whilst also touching on women's, gay and minority rights . The museum is built around the shell of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The tour included excellent commentary and video on civil rights legal cases, Malcolm X and the role of the Black Panthers. Some of the footage of black ill-treatment on buses and in bars was both unbelievable and disturbing. The Sun Studios was where both Elvis and many rock 'n' roll icons cut their teeth and their records back in the mid 50s. The primitive equipment was cutting edge at the time and used by such people as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. More recently the studios have been used by bands like Def Leppard and U2. You can still hire the studios here to this day for the very reasonable rate of $75 an hour. We decided not to do our 'Pop Idol' audition and settled for listening to the original recordings made here instead.

Friday 10th December - Memphis - Nashville, Tennessee (200 miles)
Leaving Memphis showed us the much more picturesque houses of suburbia compared with the many derelict warehouses and old parking lots of the city centre . We found freeway 40 to Nashville easily enough despite the lack of signposting and we discovered that the cruise control on the car does work - we'd just pressed the wrong button! 200 miles later on one very straight road we arrived in Nashville, 'the true home of country music'. We managed to find a bar with some cool lounge music playing and headed for the most popular restaurant in town with a wait time of 20 minutes. Today is the coldest day we've had since we left Canada at the end of October.

Saturday 11th December - Nashville, Tennessee
We got an early call from Lesh to say she was getting close to Nashville. If you cast your minds back to the beginning of April when we were in Thailand, we met Lesha as part of our group who went trekking in the hills near Chang Mai. Lesha came along with her friend Rhonda. We stopped off in a Mexican for lunch and caught up on old times, and times since with Lesha. The Grand Ole Opry is a musical venue legend in country music circles and we decided to check it out . Unfortunately we didn't realise the trouble we'd have getting there. After queueing for 30 minutes in the car to get near it and parking in a huge parking lot about the size of Texas, we decided it wasn't worth the trouble and bolted. Lesha and Rhonda were tired after their long journey so we dropped them at their motel and headed back to ours. The 'Old Spaghetti Factory' provided our tea (order one main course and they throw a drink, salad, soup, bread and ice-cream in for free!)

Sunday 12th December - Nashville - Lawrenceburg, Tennessee (100 miles)
We met up again early with Lesha and Rhonda and this time went to the much easier to access 'Country Music Hall of Fame'. This place had an in-depth look at the roots and origins of country music and how it has evolved into styles such as bluegrass and country rock. The interactive parts of the museum were really good with plenty to listen to and look at. Musicians such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson have had their names put up in lights there . After deciding the best route back to West Virginia for them, we waved goodbye to Lesha and Rhonda and headed South East towards the Natchez Trace Parkway - an old Indian trail from hundreds of years back that's now been transformed into a 450 mile scenic drive with historic bits and pieces along the way. We stopped in the 'Loveless Cafe' for 'biscuits' (which we call scones). The houses on the way out of Nashville would put some royalty to shame with huge buildings, fancy gates and massive gardens set amongst the trees. It was getting dark and there were lots of wild deer at the roadside so we picked a place called Lawrenceburg to stay. We find signposting here 'minimal' and would be lost without our road map detailing places and roads - the signposts don't tell us much at all sometimes. Typically, althhough there was a cinema in town, all 3 films showing were rubbish.

Monday 13th December - Lawrenceburg - Tupelo, Mississippi (160 miles)
Last night's accomoation cost us 15 pounds and we got a really good breakfast inclueded! Lawrence County is Davy Crockett country but as we didn't know much about the man we left him and his hat behind . Southern Tennessee is full of rolling hills and rich farmland ('Only Texas has more goats'). We crossed the border into Alabama, past the burial mounds of ancient Indians and into the state of Mississippi once more. The Natchez Trace was formed by people returning to the North East after sailing down the Mississippi river - in the days before steamboats existed. We reached Tupelo in time for lunch. It is the birthplace of Elvis and we started looking for it. We failed to find it and searched for the 'CVB' (aka tourist office). After being directed 'past the Colleseum' which turned out the be a bank building (!) we eventually found it - a modest 2 roomed white-washed wooden hut. Tupelo turned out to be a surprisingly big town. We checked out a couple of motels and headed for the local shopping mall where Derek finally (!) got himself some trousers. The local cinema was showing 'The Incredibles' so we went and watched that and a fine movie it turned out to be.

Tuesday 14th December - Tupelo - Jackson, Mississippi (150 miles)
One more day on the road of the Natchez Trace Parkway . We queued for a 10am sandwich from Subway as we knew there wouldn't be too much on the road ahead to choose from. Much of the Trace feels like you are driving through a continuous National Park instead of an interstate-highway - at times with the wide grassy verges it was almost like a golf course. With the stereo blasting we made 80 miles before pulling over for lunch (They're very strict with speed limits here and we've seen a lot of people pulled over). We thought we'd only be a few minutes but got talking to a couple of local bikers who use the 'Trace' quite regularly - they did most of the talking! We rolled on in the afternoon stopping off for walks through various woods, swamps and beaver habitats, making it to Jackson just before sunset at 5pm. After being showed a couple of already occupied rooms in one motel and being told 'no' when we asked if we could see a room in another, we settled for the one in the middle of both of them where the 'local weather channel' turned out to be showing porno movies!

Wednesday 15th December - Jackson, Mississippi
Onernight frost on the car had disappeared by the time we hit the road . We were only going to the city centre but once again it was hopelessly signposted. Even the visitors centre had no directions whatsoever, but we had the address from the guidebook to get there. It felt like we were the first visitors of the day especially as the blinds and doors were fully closed when we arrived! Closeby was the historical Manship House built in a rare example of Gothic Revival architecture in Mississippi State - it was built in 1857 and has been meticulously restored with lots of original furniture. Charles Manship built it using wood-graving work, which transformed plain doors and mantels into fine marble and expensive looking wood. Walking around the city centre it was eerily quiet and Jackson is the official State capital - there are many fine buildings in the city with the Old Capital building one of the finest examples of Greek Revival style in the country. A visit to the library told us all of the news from home we needed to know - like the Yorkshire Ripper is getting hitched (!) and (the old UK TV person) Jimmy Krankie fell off a beanstalk in a pantomime!

Thursday 16th December - Jackson, MS - Natchez, Mississippi (100 miles)
The road out of Jackson was easy to find as the freeway ran right past the motel door . The final stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway took us to Natchez itself, the original settlement town along the Mississippi river. We stopped at Rocky Springs along the way - a thriving town 150 years ago but now long abandoned - the only signs of life of yesteryear being the still standing church and attached graveyard and a couple of rusty safes from the post office that used to exist there. We reached Natchez by lunchtime, ate some, phoned Sue's parents and headed into town. The tourist office had an introductory/background/history video of Natchez that we watched. A walk down the riverside to the gambling steamboat (Mississippi is the only 'gambling legal' State outside of Nevada and Atlantic City as far as we know but we stand to be corrected on that) had us walking through cobwebs attached to the lampposts! Natchez is noted for it's ornate period buildings and we had a guide in our hands so we did our own walk about town following the instructions. Many houses did indeed have rocking chairs sitting on the outside porch just like the movies . The locals in this part of the world are incredibly friendly and often say 'hello' to us - we must like so much like tourists!

Friday 17th December - Natchez, MS - Baton Rouge, Louisiana (100 miles)
The road to Angola and it's prison wasn't quite as desolate as our guide book would have us believe. Louisiana's 'State Penitentiary' is a maximum security enclave with lots of people in for life and about 100 or so on death row. There's a museum right beside the gates to the prison though when we arrived it was 'closed' as it had temporarily lost it's power supply. Once inside along with the usual recollections of daring escapes attempts and captured improvised 'weapons', the annual prison rodeo was documented on video. Inmates compete for cash prizes (watched by thousands of spectators) in usual rodeo events and one very bizarre one where 4 men sit round a table playing cards whilst an angry bull is in the ring - last one left sitting at the table wins the prize!! The museum had the old electric chair that was used to execute people up to 3 years ago - now they inject them instead . We left Mississippi State behind and were now back in Louisiana again. Baton Rouge is the State capital city - we parked up and went for a look inside the 'Old Capitol Building' with it's castle-like look. We left in time to catch our first 'rush-hour' traffic on our trip - one hour to travel 10 miles - we could barely remember how it felt! One more motel check-in - every motel seems to have glut of fast-food haunts and restaurants in close proximity to them despite their out-of-town locations.

Saturday 18th December, Baton Rouge - Lafayette, Louisiana (60 miles)
We left our furnace of a room (air-con had no real effect) and headed for Lafayette and the real heart of 'Cajun country'. Near the airport (again hopelessly signposted) was the Cajun/Creole Heritage Park of Vermillionville - an area full of either original or reproduction dwelling houses of the Cajun/Creole people going back over 200 years in some caess. We sat in on a quick cookery lesson for making sesame seed pralines . Walking round the houses we met all the local craftspeople sitting in various places and we caught what must be the shortest boat journey in the world - all of 10 yards accross the swamp. Though alligators do hang around here it's too cold for them at the moment to appear (though not for us - we were walking around in t-shirts!). The wood-carving man told us they get less than half the number of US visitors now compared to before September 11th, 2001 - though the number of foreign visitors remains the same as before. We had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay, mostly because we couldn't make our minds up. But on our meanderings we spoke to a Texan woman who told us about a charity Cajun music concert in a local hall in Lafayette. So that's where we headed and first on the bill was a traditional Irish/Cajun music crossover band - the lead singer was from Dublin but had recently moved to Louisiana. As the second Cajun band were playing we heard our stomachs call and left for a funky little restaurant called 'Artmosphere' which also had a band playing . We headed back to where we were to see out the rest of the gig - we shared the floor with a motely crew of locals, young and old - we never knew faded denim was so much in fashion again and lots of the haircuts were straight from 1984. We didn't let the bubblegum blowing granny put us off the music - Cajun uses instruments like fiddles, accordions andn big double basses along with more traditional guitars and drums. Zydeco is a similar styleand once it's playing the locals can't stop two-stepping to the beat.

Sunday 19th December, Lafayette - Breaux Bridge (60 miles)
After a good night's sleep and a great breakfast there was only one place we were going and that was the 'Tabasco Sauce' factory which was about 25 miles south of Lafayette on Avery Island. They call it 'pepper sauce' round here but we know it better as 'chili sauce'. Surprisingly they actually put the harvested mashed peppers into oak barrels for 3 years to get the required flavour. Their gift shop was one of the best we have visited with no 'tack' to be seen . Avery Island is also a nature reserve and garden and we drove there as we had some time to spare. Despite the lack of birds and alligator warning signs as we walked about, and the hundreds of mosquitoes and smoke billowing accross from land on the other side of the water, was of more concern to us. We drove to a barn on the edge of Whisky River to have another look at a Cajun gathering of Clans. Young and old, mobile and slow, they all like to dance - we sat and watched till it was time to eat. At 'Mulates' restaurant, there was more music being played - round here music, food, drinking and dancing all go hand in hand it seems.

Monday 20th December, Breaux Bridge - New Orleans, Louisiana (120 miles)
We were late checking out of our motel after making use of the phone to speak to our folks at home. We returned to the Whisky River landing we were at yesterday to take a boat tour of the swamp and bayous (slow moving rivers). The first tour place we stopped wasn't running any trips but luckily the place down the river was when 3 more people showed up after us . Though the skies were blue and it was quite warm, the only visible wildlife who fancied being around were some river birds. The water level is currently 6 feet higher than 3 months ago and can go 6 feet higher again we were told. The Cypress tree stumps are often covered and only the tree tops can be seen which makes the construction of a raised freeway for 18 miles accross it all the more impressive. The Cajun people (French settlers kicked out of 'Acadia' in Canada 350 years ago when the English renamed it 'Nova Scotia') used to live on floating houses not so long ago and our boat's captain was actually born on one! We left Cajun country behind and hit the road back to New Orleans to be closer to our planned destinations tomorrow.

Tuesday 21st December - New Orleans
We left our French courtyard-style motel behind and hit the highway to a Creole plantation, 35 miles west of New Orleans. We drove an extra 10 miles as the diabolical signposting failed us once again. The plantation was call 'Laura' after the grandaughter of the original owners. The day was very warm and ladybirds were plentiful in the air. The plantation next to the river used to grow vegetables and sugar cane all looked after by slaves. The slaves in these parts did have certain rights and could actually buy themselves out of slavery if they could afford it. We drove to our next motel, dropped our bags and found a drop-off centre for our car around the corner which beat driving back to the airport as the traffic was chronic. Our shuttle bus to the French Quarter was delayed in traffic so the motel paid for a taxi for us. We revisited our old haunt of Cafe Maspero with it's great food and cheap alcohol and walked down Bourbon Street one last time, ending up in a bar watching a really good soul band strutting their stuff.