Down to Louisiana

We have just visited the three B's - Broadway Avenue in Nashville, Beale Street in Memphis, and Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  What a variety of music and people.

We left Paris Landing State Park and headed down to Memphis.  Memphis has Beale Street which is "Home of the Blues".  There weren't a lot of crowds and we didn't hear a lot of live music; however, the live music mostly didn't start until 8 or later as opposed to Nashville, where the music seemed to go all afternoon and into the night.  It is also known as the birthplace of Rock and Roll.  This explains the bars owned by Jerry Lee Lewis and B.B. King.

And one can not help but notice the influence of Elvis Presley and his music.  I don't think there is an entertainer anywhere that still has the following as he does.  And the remembrance, archives, museums, and the souvenirs is like no other.  Of course we did all the tours - his mansion and the grounds, car museum, his two airplanes, and anything else that was part of the complex.  As part of the mansion tour, it is self-guided with the use of mini ipads.  Each person is given an ipad and a set of earphones, and it guides you through the various areas, gives you some history of it as well as video clips, music, and photographs.  The only part we could not access is the second floor where the bedrooms are located as family still stays there whenever they are in town.  It was all very well done.

On to New Orleans which took us a couple of days as we travelled down the backroads.  We are about an hour out of New Orleans so when we went down to the city, we made a full day of it.  We started out by taking a drive south of New Orleans  about halfway down the Mississippi Delta where we crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry.  It was a terrific drive and very interesting.  We were surprised at the number of people that lived along there, the number of farms that had cattle, and the fact that there were quite a number of citrus groves.  We bought some locally grown satsuma oranges that were delicious.  There also were a lot of ports and ships that seemed to be loading various cargo.

We had seen many houses that were built above ground but it seemed that anything new is built even higher.  There was a real variety - houses built on the ground,  some built on short posts, some on medium ones, and some on high posts.

The sights and sounds in the French Quarter are unique.  Many of the bars/restaurants had live music which was very loud.  The drinking laws are fairly liberal so many folks are walking around with a drink in hand.  Pedestrians filled the streets and the cars would dodge them as the streets were not closed.  Everyone was very loud, and there were many young females who chose to dress rather scantily.  The day was rather cool so I'm not sure what the attire would bring if it had been a warm evening.  Even young children were performing - mainly using plastic pails as drums and they were very good.

Another great week has come to an end.  I hope everyone had a good week and hope you stop by next week.