Friday, Dec 7th
We finally roll away at 11
am. It doesn’t seem to matter how much preparation we’ve done before, what time
we get up, how few things remain to be done – it always takes us until 11 to
get moving. I have come up with a “rule” – each of us can have no more than two
items by the door on the morning we leave. (This is more for me than Darlene.
A good drive down to the
Buffalo border, a momentary panic trying to find my passport which has slid
down behind the front seats, and an easy trip to a Day’s Inn off the 271 in
Macedonia. A good Mexican dinner accompanied by a pitcher of watery Margaritas.
Day 2-Dec 8th gets us as far as Cave City, KY, home of Mammoth Caves, which we will
not explore as we’re moving on to Nashville this morning. In the afternoon we
sign up with T-Mobile for an international plan and then discover down the road
that it’s only good for landlines! Darlene is on the job. But last night’s meal
at El Mazatlan – more Mexican – is great. A huge difference in quality and it’s
packed with families. (“The county
is dry but the restaurants are moist.”[1])
And from what I can see, so are the women – in their armpits and neckfolds. We’re
back in “big” country. We spent the night at a Sleep Inn, newly built,
excellent value for our $47.
[1] Carrie, Day’s Inn Night Manager
Day 3-Dec 9th finds us at the Two Rivers campsite in Nashville,
after a drive through rain that Noah would have recognized – non-stop
torrential. The sky and the road the same colour of grey, tire tracks quickly
filled in and the semis disappearing once they’re 15’ in front of you. And
then, as soon as we arrive at the campground the skies clear and we are able to
set up in the dry. Get everything working – water pump, water heater, fridge,
propane, furnace, plumbing – all is good. While I’m messing with the outside
stuff Darlene has the inside sorted out and suddenly we’re “home” again.
I discover that the
campground has seriously upgraded their WiFi and we can actually stream Netflix
so the evening is spent watching some old Bones.
At night the rain revisits and it feels like it’s trying to pound its way
through the roof
Day 4 – Dec 10th
A frustrating day with
success at the end. Dar’s phone can no longer access the T-Mobile server. All
gone.
In the morning we head to
the Lane Motor Museum which houses a collection of European cars and I take
some photos. Nothing terribly exciting but I fill in a few blanks, get to see a
Trabant ( a constant feature of East European spy novels) and then we head downtown to Jack’s
BBQ for lunch.
After some pulled pork and
smoked turkey we were hoping to grab some honky-tonk but not a lot is happening
and so it’s back to Opry Mills to see if we can do something for Dar’s phone at
the T-Mobile centre. No, we cannot. So say the T-Mobile people. But they do
send us to the iJunkiez kiosk where me meet two very cool guys. Their business is fixing
anything that’s an iSomething. The
boss spends and hour and a half figuring out what’s wrong with the phone then
re-jailbreaks it and bingo we have service again. While he’s doing this I watch
his assistant disassemble an iphone, fix it, and then reassemble it with a
totally custom face. And at the end he doesn’t want to charge us but I send $25
over to his assistant and everyone is happy.
By this time we’re both
tired so it’s home to a movie. Thank you, Aaron!
Day 5 – Dec 11th
Wake up to electrical
problems with the overhead lights on the dining room slide and a blown breaker.
The breaker is just an overload – tea kettle + heater fan – but it won’t reset
and that has me checking GFIs and then going right back to basics, turning off
the main breakers, disconnecting the battery, and wondering if the breaker
itself could be shot.
Speak to Albert Camp next
door who has the most amazing Alabama accent and after I hear the horror
stories about his Class A I’m feeling better about the on-going maintenance
that I seem to require. Albert also fixes the breaker in 2 seconds. It turns
out that trailer breakers are not the same as house breakers – they need to be
held fully down for a couple seconds to reset them. Every day, a new piece of
information.
We eventually head into town
to visit Fisk University where they house a portion of the Stieglitz
collection. I was hoping for more of his photos but am happy with a few and get
introduced to John Marin (1870-1953) and I like his abstract watercolor
landscapes.
In the afternoon we head
back to Opry Mills and enjoy The Life of Pi in 3D with another couple. (We
didn’t know them – there were just the four of us in the theatre.) We really
did not enjoy the half hour of previews though.
Day 6 – Dec 12 (12.12.12)
I spend some of the morning figuring
out why VISA keeps declining payment for the new printer I bought and then we
head over to the Opryland Hotel to see what all the fuss is about. This is not
so much a hotel as it is a small town, complete with it’s own river, amazing
gardens, multiple restaurants, tons of stores all on at least four levels. I
love it when Americans go overboard!
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| Opryland Hotel Panorama |
In the afternoon we’re off
to the Frick Gallery of Art where they have a Carrie May Weems show. Powerful
images that reflect on the black experience in the USA. Then it’s dinner at
Demo’s and on to Robert’s Western World for some country. The Don Kelly Band is
playing. He’s really only a so-so singer but he’s got great sidemen and his
guitarist, J.D. Simo, just blows us away! Anyone with children who think
they’re going to make it in the music business should bring them here. See and
hear the quality of musicians who make their living playing for tips.
Day 7 – Dec 13
We leave Nashville and head
for the Natchez Trace, stopping first at The Loveless Café for a late
breakfast. The Trace proves to be a lovely two-lane road through countryside
that goes up & down and back & forth constantly. There is no way we are
going to do 400 miles on this road and we leave it at Fly, happy to have seen a
bit but ready for a drive down the I-65.
We stop at Cullman,
Mississippi for the night – a quiet campground. Friendly people, happy to
announce their Christianity but not pushy about it.
Day 8 – Dec 14
Still heading down the I-65,
we pick up some groceries in Hattiesburg, MI and then later head off the road a
few miles to Little Black Creek Waterpark. (This is not one with slides, rather
a state park on a lake.) Due to a conflict between different levels of
government, they can’t afford to open fully. There are over 100 sites closed
and we are the only people staying there.
Day 9 – Dec 15
We make it to Ponchartrain
Landing, our RV site in New Orleans by early afternoon. After setting up we
head into the French Quarter, manage to find a parking spot on the street and
go for an explore. In the late afternoon we duck into Maison for some Cajun and zydeco. Have a great time dancing among
people who follow these bands from bar to bar, just to dance! Again I’m
impressed with the Cajuns – there are no restrictions; 90 year-olds dance with
20 somethings, mothers with sons, and friends change partners easily. It’s all
about the dance!
We later have a forgettable
dinner at The Praline Connection – don’t bother – and then make our way home.
Day 10 – Dec 16
A day in New Orleans starts with a visit to the NO
Museum of Art where we see an excellent show entitled “Life” featuring works
from Warhol to Ai Weiwei. We then head for The Gumbo Shop where Darlene is not
impressed but Ian is. This is followed by a visit to A Gallery For Fine
Photography, possibly the best private photo gallery in North America where we
see a huge range of images – from Julia Margaret Cameron and Fox Talbot to
Salgado and Adams and Uelsmann. For me, this is a highlight of our stay.
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| Cafe au lait & beignets |
We then walk down Canal St
where I stop and ask a woman on the street what the fare is on the trolleys.
She tells me she’s not from NO and I recognize that to be true; I tell her I
should have figured out her name by now and she fills in with “Marcia Gay
Harden”. I wish her a good day and
stop pestering her.
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| Bayou Teche |
We visit Riverwalk, which
has lost a lot of life since we were last here and then duck into the Café du
Monde just as it starts to pour. After beignets and café au lait we make our
way through the French Quarter back to the truck.
Day 11 –
Dec 17
Darlene agrees to a (far too long) side trip to New
Iberia, the haunt of Dave Robicheau and the place where James Lee Burke grew
up. It has changed, of course, since he was a boy but Bayou Teche still cuts
its way through the town, there are some beautiful homes, and we do a walking
tour through the town checking out the places that Dave visits in the books.
Sadly, Victor’s Cafeteria, one of Dave’s lunch spots, closes at 2 but the sushi
place across the street lets us in and we have a good late lunch of sushi and
sashimi.
The drive back becomes a little harrowing when night falls. There are
few street lights even at highway intersections and at one point we’re
convinced that our GPS is telling us to make a left turn across the lanes of a
65 mph highway. It all works out but I’m glad when we’re home.
Day 12 – Dec 18
Our last day in NO. We putter around the camp site in the
morning tending to little fix-its and then in the early afternoon we head into
town. We begin by driving back and forth through Tremé. There are a lot of new
buildings and still a lot of empty shells but on the whole this is a vibrant
lively community. Some of the architecture is gorgeous but the streets are very
skinny and already full of parked cars, and I don’t stop for photos.
Our next stop is the Ogden
Museum of Art which is now closed on Tuesdays. This is a pain but a
receptionist at the NO Contemporary Museum across the street puts us onto a
whole line of private galleries and we walk and talk our way through several. I
really can’t get over how open and friendly people are here. There’s no gallery
snobbishness at all. I eventually buy a photo I’ve seen in other galleries.
We follow that with an early evening walk through the
French Quarter – mostly down Bourbon St – and I get out the tripod and we do a
number of night shots. (One fellow finds this exciting enough to expose his
genitals for us and bounce up and down. Apparently he didn’t quite grasp the
concept when I explained that a 5 second exposure wasn’t going to show anything
at all. And it didn’t)
Dinner was at Oceana on
Capri St. TVs on the ceiling but the food was fantastic! I’m getting lots of
ideas for preparing oysters.
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