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ROAD TRIP THROUGH THE USA
Continued from week 1
JULY 21ST TO AUGUST 3RD 2009

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Day 7:  Nashville, Tennessee (Rest day)

 

CONTINUED FROM WEEK 1...

I can’t believe we have been on the road for a week already.  Time flies when you are having fun!  From peaceful, conservative Amish country to the Bourbon capital of the world, we are now in the capital of Country Music (and parties!).

 

We drive downtown in the morning.  A 6 min. drive from our Econolodge.  I am surprised to see how small of a city it is.  I thought Nashville was bigger…  Walking at 9am feels strange. I can feel that this is a city of parties, a city that lives at night.  There is no one on the street, except some tourists that are easy to spot!

 

We start our day a visit of the Country Music Hall of Fame.  I think at first that 22$US to enter is expensive, but the Hall of Fame is simply amazing.  Interactive, informative, and amazing collection pieces.  The road to the Hall of Fame leads you through the history of country music.  I fell like being a cowboy now!  Country music is actually not that bad!

We have lunch at Tootsies, a popular bar/lounge that plays live music almost 18 hours a day 7 days a week.  Actually, most bars in Nashville have live bands every day of the week.  It is the place to get a name in country music –still today-.

 

We visit the State Capitol, but it is almost 3pm and the sun is roasting.  Probably 35 degrees or more.  We head back to the motel for a swim in the pool.

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Day 8: Nashville – Memphis (Tennessee) -360km-

 

It is pouring rain today.  We get to our Econo Lodge at 12:30pm, unpack the car and immediately take off for Graceland.  I am disappointed at first to see how the death of a star can turn into such a mega-tourist trap.  10$ for parking, 20$ for entry, 10$ for the plane exposition, 15$ for Elvis’ cars, 12$ for Elvis horses, 10$ for a digital picture, t-shirts, ice-cream, posters, movies, etc.  Really, I feel like I am in Walt Disney for few minutes.  So much Elvis garbage all over the place.  We take the private bus across the street to Graceland (his home), and after we enter the home, the pace changes drastically.  Calm, quiet & more relax. We stroll slowly and quietly across all original rooms.  They haven’t changed a thing since he died.  Totally the 70’s!

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Room after room, there is more and more authentic stuff, from movies to original posters & suits.  The tour ends by a walk in the meditation garden where Elvis and his parents rest in peace since the early 80s (he was moved from the public cemetery for safety).

Again, it was well worth it.  We come back to the Graceland welcome center and I run back to my car, trying to avoid all these non-sense souvenir shops

 

We stop downtown Memphis and again, I am shocked to see how small of a city this is. Smaller than Nashville and smaller than my home town!  No skyscraper!

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Day 8: Memphis – New Orleans (Louisiana) -631km-

 

We leave Memphis early in the morning and drive most of the day.  As soon as we enter Louisiana, we are driving over wetlands.  The highway is literally built 20m above the ground. Wetlands everywhere as far as you can see.  We drive through wetlands for almost 45min (70km) before getting to New Orleans.

 

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We get to our Youth Hostel (AAE Bourbon House Hostel) at around 4:30pm. My legs are numbed for being in the car all day. I go for a 6km run into town. It feels good.

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Day 9: New Orleans (Rest day)

We take our car and go for a ride into the 9th ward, where the wall broke down during hurricane Katrina.  Impressive to see all these abandoned houses.  CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF HOUSES. Dozens and dozens of streets empty of people.   Some have decided to come back and built their house (again), but I am questioning myself to the future of this town, especially when you live close to the ocean, but 12m below see level.  It is simply a question of time before you get flooded again.

 

We buy a family package for 60$/pers. that includes IMAX, the zoo, the aquarium, and the insectariums.   We start by visiting the aquarium (it is pouring outside anyway) and we then go to IMAX to see a film on Katrina.

 

Our day goes by quickly and we walk around the French Quarter in the afternoon.  The balconies are pretty, and the history interesting.  We stop at Café du Monde for beignes et café.  A café open since 1880.

 

We are back to the hostel by 7pm.  We are all tired of our day.

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Day 10: New Orleans (Rest day)

 

We wake up at 7:30am and take off for a swamp tour where we might see alligators.  The company is located about 25km from downtown.  The tour is really fun, with hundreds of alligators all over the place.  The guide has alligator skin, alligator head, alligator teeth, and a baby alligator alive that all of us can hold in our hands!  Alixe and Cynthia love it! (me too!) Not super eco-friendly, but the guide says that he releases the baby alligator when they reach about 2 feet.  He then tries to catch another one.

 

Straight from the swamp to the zoo!  It is one of the best zoo in America (supposedly) with Gorillas, Ourang-Outang, Elephants, tigers, leopards, giraffes and much, much more.  Alixe is in paradise for most of the afternoon.

 

We head into town for some last minute shopping and are back to the hostel at 8pm.  Time to pack again, as tomorrow is a long day on the road.

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Day 11: New Orleans-Austin (Texas) -819km-

We leave New Orleans at 7am.  As soon as we enter Texas, I am somewhat horrified to see all these pick up trucks on the road.  Where do you all guys come from?  Don`t you live in the 21st century and know that guzzling trucks are not popular anymore?  For most of the afternoon, the ratio of car to pick up trucks is 1:8 (if not more).   I can’t convince myself that all these trucks are NECESSARY for all these Texans…

Anyways, it is now hot, really hot.  The car thermometer goes from 35 to 37, than 40 and finally hits 42 degrees at around 4pm.  
We get to the Days Inn in Austin at 5pm.

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Day 12: Austin (Rest day)

We visit Austin this early Sunday morning.  I am surprised to see that we can enter the State Capital just like this (no security) and that we can all walk all over the floors without having to sign up!

 

We walk through the park and Alixe goes for a swim!

At night, we go to TGIF for dinner, the best spot in town to see the 1.5 million bats emerge from under the Austin Bridge.

 

Day 13: Austin-Torréon (Mexico) -938km-

We wake up a 4am and hit the road by 4:30am.  Long day ahead of us.  We are at the border at 9:30am and it takes over two hours to complete the immigration stuff and paper work for importing our car into the country.  It is fairly straight forward, but little English is spoken here!

 

We drive all day, hitting some very good highways (paid highways), but some poor maintained roads (around Saltillo).  We get into Torréon at 5pm, before getting completely lost into the city, due to construction. Welcome to Torreon!

We meet our principal at 6pm, and head to our new home!

We did it!  5000km in 13 days.

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