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Started the morning with breakfast at The Burn where we had spent the night. We ate with Chuck and his wife, another couple staying at the Burn who had been on the house tour with us the previous night. They were an interesting older couple to have at breakfast. They have 3 different homes (Miami and Destin, FL, and Minnesota – near Duluth) which they move between throughout the year – not being tied to any season, just wherever they needed to be for kids or whatever. They also travel regularly not only with a toy poodle, but also a parrot. (Since 9/11, they have not flown with the parrot, since they have to take the parrot out of its cage during security screening. Therefore, the parrot travels by car.)

We started today’s trip with a Roadside America stop at Mammy’s Cupboard, which is a small restaurant in the skirt of a 2-story tall woman. On the way to Vicksburg, we hit the Natchez Trace, a National Historic Parkway that runs from Natchez to Nashville. It is a great road to take if you need to go from Nashville down to Natchez or beyond as it’s a very scenic route; one lane each way, with no stops and just about no traffic.  We only stopped at one historic spot along the parkway before getting off at Port Gibson for our 2^nd roadside stop, the gold hand pointing to God. It is a large gold hand on top of the spire of a church pointing up to God.

Before heading into Vicksburg National Military Park, we stopped for lunch at Sonic. We had not been to one, and since they are not that local to us, we stopped in. It is like the Stewart Root Beer drive-ins in Jersey a number of years ago, but without the roller skates (at least at this one).

In Vicksburg, most of the day was spent at the Military Park. The Vicksburg battlefield consists of over 1,330 monuments and markers along a 16-mile tour road. It is an absolutely huge battlefield. We rented a portable GPS at the visitor center to escort us around the park. This is the 2^nd GPS tour guide we have used. It is definitely the way to go if you have the option. The guide goes with you around the park and automatically starts up at different points based upon your location, and you can call up further information on topics as you go along.

We headed back to the hotel to check in, got cleaned up, and relaxed a little before heading out for dinner. From Pat at the Vicksburg Visitor Station at the Park, we got the recommendation for dinner at Walnut Hills for good southern cooking.

At dinner we started with “Charlie’s Potato Rounds”. Not sure what they were (remember Rooster fries?), but were pleasantly surprised with what came out; basically, they were potato skins. Only instead of what you typically get, they were medium slices of potato topped with cheese and bacon. Basically a more improved loaded potato skin.

For our mains, Erica got the fried catfish and I had the fried chicken (along with the potato rounds, something they were noted for making). We both had the baked sweet potato as the side. Both were excellent. Even being fried they were not greasy like a lot of fried food. The baked sweet potato was delicious, but even more so as it was served with a small ramekin of brown sugar to add to the potato for a tremendous flavor.

The food and service were good on their own, but what drove Walnut Hills over the top was the conversation we overheard. Behind me, there were three local Mississippi gentlemen, discussing – in great detail – gators. Erica and I looked at each other with knowing glances as we overheard their conversation. We kept our chatting to fill only the gaps in the conversation of the gentlemen behind us so we could absorb every word.

The conversation went something like this:

“[someone in their family was learning how to gator wrestle]…I kept telling him you need to watch the gator, he doesn’t have much strength this way [I can assume by upward jaw pressure] but you have to watch out for him…he will struggle for a bit, then he will go limp… He’ll pretend he is hurt…but don’t believe him…he’s fakin’….you can’t go limp, you gotta hold him...”

“Well, the gator went limp, then Billy [I think] and …. He ended up with 16 stitches..”

“16 stitches?....How old was he at the time?...About 16 or 17….”

“Alligators are good for nothing…they’ll eat everything… they’ll even eat your bass.”

“If you are goin’ kill them, you better use something bigger then a pistol…Or you better know what you are doin’….”

“I knew a guy who used to have a pistol, but he couldn’t kill it, hit it about 6 or 7 times… He needed to get a bigger gun next time… a ‘308’…”

“You want to catch a gator, it’s a big metal pole, stuck in the ground leanin’….hanging from it is a hook with chicken tied to it… but you can’t be too far away, ‘cause when the gator bites the chicken, it’s mouth is so sensitive, it’ll strip the chicken off without touching the hook… so you need to be there to yank the pole up to put the hook through its mouth….”

“[What you can get for a gator]….it can vary from year to year. A good year is $15 a foot… It doesn’t matter if they get older ‘cause they get wider as they get older.”

You cannot script conversation like this! It really pushed the entire meal over the top for being in the locale.

Tomorrow we head towards Little Rock (and our Billgrimage) with a side stop at the birthplace of Kermit the Frog.

- Stephen

Tuesday we left Gulfport, but before we did, we stopped to see the “World’s Largest Rocking Chair,” that’s been around since about 1965.  We also stopped to see the “World’s Tallest Ronald Reagan Statue” in Covington, Louisiana on our way to Natchez. The Reagan statue is a bit newer, built in 2008. Why was it built? Well the guy in the town was apparently just a really big fan. Reagan had no other connection to the town.

Natchez is a small town with a feel of older days past. These are some of the best kept examples of antebellum homes.  Mainly because of its beauty, it was spared some of the looting and destruction by the Union army when they came through the area.  We toured around downtown and had lunch at “Planet Thailand”. While not quite keeping in the spirit of things, it was close, open and we were hungry. Stopping at the Natchez Visitor Center, we got our orientation and National Park stamps for Erica’s collection. Natchez is the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway, which is a historical trail that runs all the way up to Nashville.

We headed to The Burn, our B&B in Natchez, to check-in. The Burn is a great period home which is being restored by its current owners. It was occupied during the Civil War by Union troops. After getting settled into our room, we headed over to “Melrose,” one of the two homes managed by the National Park Service. It is probably the most accurately restored homes of the period, as one of the residents -- the daughter of the McMurrans, who were original owners and builders of the home -- was such an avid and descriptive writer.

We came back to get a historical tour of some of the main rooms in our B&B, which was built in 1834.  We learned our room was a part of the side buildings used by teenage boys of the original family.  On our porch, you can see initials in the bricks carved by Union soldiers.   The only ghosts reported on the property were children who have been heard playing on the steps up to our room.   (We never heard a peep.)   For dinner, we went to the “King’s Tavern”, the oldest building in the Natchez territory (1789). It is a three story building, which is supposedly haunted. You are encouraged by your host to wander up to the third floor and check things out for yourself. We dined on the first floor, which was thought to be the stables at one point. The décor and ambiance was that of the late 1700’s – even serving the water in little metal tavern-style cups. The brick walls were adorned with tools and equipment of the period.

The food was wonderful -- exceeded our expectations. I got their specialty which was style of BBQ prime rib with a baked potato and homemade horseradish sauce. Erica had their BBQ pork, another specialty. It was delicious, I had have never had prime rib like that, and I suspect I won’t ever again. The smoked pork dish Erica had was very good, a nice sweet smoked flavor. Erica finished up with bread pudding for dessert.

One thing we have noted about dinner service down here is that it is fast. Not even the slower normal pace you are used to up north. We would expect a big meal to take almost two hours for a meal (drinks, appetizer, dessert). However, down here we have been getting through dinner in under an hour. We don’t feel rushed through the meal, it is just very prompt and quick service. It runs completely opposite of the overall pace down here. Everywhere we have eaten has had very good service, nice and polite.

I had forgotten to mention at the USS Alabama in the gift shop was Col. Glenn D. Frazier, the author of “Hell’s Guest,” who is an Alabama native.  The book documents his time as a Japanese POW, starting with the battle of Bataan. He was very interesting person to talk with.

There have been a lot of churches that we have been passing on our road trip, some with some interesting quotes or sayings on their church signs;

“Don’t wait for six strong men to take you to church.” (We aren’t sure what this means or what it references)

               “1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given” (This is one which we have seen a couple of times.)

The visitor centers we have stopped in at are some of the best we have ever seen. Just by signing in (location and number of people) you get a very good fold-out map of the state. In the last one we stopped in just over the line in Mississippi they were even offering free drinks (soda and the like).

To continue our travel in Mississippi, we will be heading up part of the Natchez Trace Parkway to our next stop in Vicksburg.

- Stephen

We left Montgomery yesterday morning and headed on towards Gulfport. Not a lot to stop and see really until we got closer to Gulfport. We stopped in Mobile for lunch at Wintzell’s Oyster House, another recommendation from one of Erica’s co-workers. Wintzell’s is a pretty good place to eat. We got an order of fried pickles, which we had never had. And I got the oyster sampler. All very good (the pickles are good, but man could they kill you) but a very heavy lunch.

The entire place is plastered in sayings all over the walls. They also had a Yuengling mirror hanging on the wall. Sayings like:

               “A duck is a bird that walks like he has been riding a horse all day.”

               “Junk is the things you keep for years, but throw away two weeks before you need it.”

Our first stop was the USS Alabama, which exceeded our expectations. It was a great, well-marked tour of the ship. On the grounds, they also had a submarine, a number of vintage tanks and artillery pieces, and an airplane hanger. The airplane hanger housed a number of modern jets including an SR-71 and an F-17. They also had a military river boat from Vietnam.

On the way to and from Bellingrath Gardens, our next stop, there was a crematorium right next to an aromatherapy institute.

Bellingrath Gardens were beautiful. Very large grounds right next to the river. Wonderfully well-kept grounds with a great variety of flowers and plants. They even had a very large Oriental-American garden where I got some good shots of a small crane (bird, not the machine!).

We have been keeping count of different things along they way. I should have kept count of the number of dead armadillos I have seen on the side of the road. I have seen at least a dozen of them on our drive yesterday.

Our final stop before Gulfport was the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. Surprisingly a lot smaller then we expected. All along the coast as we drove to our hotel, there are still a lot of empty lots, or lots with just foundations. But there is also a lot of re-construction and renovation going on as well.

Dinner at Emeril’s was nice. The restaurant being in a casino had more of a casino look to it then something you would expect from Emeril in terms of design. But the food was good. I started off with some BBQ shrimp and my main was a double-cut pork chop, which I would put either 2^nd or 3^rd in the list of top pork chops I had. (It came close, but could not beat the one I had in Montreal.) Erica started with fried green tomatoes and got the andouille sausage-encrusted Redfish.

- Stephen

We headed out of Nashville yesterday morning. It took us several attempts at getting breakfast some place local as it was Sunday and all the church goers were out for breakfast. We stopped at two “roadside America” things on the way to Huntsville. A giant chicken, which either wasn’t there anymore or we just couldn’t find it. The other was “giant boy”. Which we did manage to find, and that he was -- a giant boy.

In Huntsville, we stopped at the NASA Space and Rocket Center, the home of Space Camp. That was a pretty cool place. They have two museums there and a rocket park covering all the history of NASA all the way up to today. They have one of the large Saturn 5 rockets on display. We had lunch in their Galaxy food court (they called the area the “lunch pad”), where there was a children’s birthday party going on.  We were happily able to get something healthy there, chicken salads, which was just the right amount for lunch.

On the way to Montgomery, we stopped at the Ave Maria Grotto. It is another roadside America stop and it completely blew away the expectations we had for it. It is a large collection of outdoor sculptures made by Brother Joseph who was originally from Bavaria. They are either reproductions of religious places around the world, or inspirational sculptures using ‘found’ materials. It culminates in the Ave Maria Grotto. We didn’t have high expectations based upon what we saw about it.  The pictures generally focused on the grotto part and did not cover all of the other sculptures and reproductions. A very impressive stop, as Erica called it the “Splendid China” for Christians. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

We finished up in Montgomery for the night with a late dinner at “Jim ‘n Nick’s BBQ”, meeting up with Erica’s friend John who is stationed in the area. We both got the brisket on John’s recommendation and it was not a disappointment.

On our long drive, Erica remembered the game which Wayne and Robbie played while on their road trip -- Road sign names. Basically making up names from the place name distance signs along the highway. The top one is the first name, and the bottom one the last name. Two good ones we saw were “Warrior Robbins”, and “Kimberly Morris”.

Today our endpoint is Gulfport and Emeril’s restaurant.

- Stephen

Landed early in Nashville Sat. morning. Got our rental car at the airport, a white PT Cruiser, and headed out for Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniels distillery. The tour was great, even if there were no free samples. They have a simple operation, but massive in terms of the amount of Whiskey they turn out every year. At the end of the tour we got a really good smell of the Whiskey as it was going through its mellowing process in the barrels of charcoal. It is probably in my top 5 smells ever!

We went to “downtown” Lynchburg for lunch and came upon their spring festival in full swing. There were a gaggle of red hat ladies, musicians playing in a gazebo and people everywhere. Had some good pulled pork, potato salad and coleslaw at the Red Caboose.

Afterwards we got back on the road and heading up to Andrew Jacksons Hermitage. A historic site covering his Mansion and grounds there where he spent the rest of his life after he retired as President. The mansion and grounds were beautiful.

For dinner, we made reservations at the Stockyard. According to Erica’s colleague THE best place for steak in Nashville.  We had some time before dinner, so we made it ove the Parthenon in Centenial Park. A bit of Greece right in Nashville.

Dinner was great, the service there was terrific. I am glad we checked ahead of time about dress code, because I would have felt very underdressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I had the Prime rib and Erica had the Mixed cuts of prime beef. We started with “Rooster Fries”, deep buttermilk battered fries – “one of the south’s best kept secrets”. Our waiter asked if we had ever had them before or knew what they were. As it happens, they are fried Turkey testicles. My response to him was “Bring it on!”.

They were pretty good. Tender and the breading was a good peppery breading that added some nice flavor to the turkey balls. The testicles themselves were a lot like a very tender liver.

This is our overall itinerary:

• Nashville, TN
• Montgomery, AL
• Gulfport, MS
• Natchez, MS
• Vicksburg, MS
• Little Rock, AR
• Joplin, MO
• Overland Park, KS
• Omaha, NE
• Minneapolis, MN
• Davenport, IA
• St. Charles, MO
• Memphis, TN

Along the way, we will be hitting sites big and small, like the Jim Henson Museum, the world's largest electric shovel, Bill Clinton Presidential Library, Mall of America, St. Louis Arch, Vicksburg Military Park, Jack Daniel's, Grand Ole Opry, Vanderbilt, Hurricane Katrina memorial, and many, many other things.

Between Twitter, FB, and this blog, it should be one of our most documented trips while we are on it. We'll see how it all goes.
- Stephen

The night before our trip and we are getting everything squared away for the trip. We have been slowly putting things out in one of the spare rooms throughout the week in preparation. Trying to make sure we don't forget anything. As usual I am sure we are going to forget something, it is inevitable. We  have way more tech on this trip then other trips. The Garmin is a new addition. Erica managed to pull down over 120 "POI" (Points of Interest) off of Roadside America, which I loaded onto it.

We are also bringing E's laptop, something we only do for business trips, typically we just bring phones, iPods, camera's and the little gps for the camera's. This time my carry on is just my camera bag sling with some lenses since I have upgrade to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Since it is a road trip and within the US, bringing the laptop isn't as much of a hassle. I have gotten to know how to work the Garmin much better over the past two weeks. I have learned though, its interface could use a lot of work in how intuitive it is for where it stores stuff, and that being only able to transfer 4 fields, none of which is really address data in a POI is about 10 years behind where data transfer technology really is. I mean come on, why can't I simply transfer full address data? My phone can do it. While the integration with Google maps is cool, there is no bulk upload of addresses and categories.

- Stephen

So I have been pretty much letting this site languish over the past year. We are getting ready to go on our big "Road Trip 2009" tomorrow, so I finally got the push on to dump the old site and at least get something more workable up on the site that I can post to regularly. I have basically taken off all the old content, and pointed to where I am now keeping most pictures which is Picasa, Flickr and Facebook.

I will be posting here regularly through the trip and then afterwards will do a full post of the photos and stuff from the trip. After that at some point I may get around to re-posting some of the older content either to here or one of the other places. I am not completly crazy about the theme, but it will work for now.

- Stephen