Vicksburg, Mississippi

When planning our road trip, Cherie wanted to spend a night in Jackson, Mississippi.

So we did a little research and quickly found out that it wasn't the safest place to visit. I think one of the reviews for what was supposed to be a safe hotel had a story from a woman whose son had been shot in the head twice while in the lobby. So we didn't book a hotel for that night and left it as a "mystery night", in case we decided to stay somewhere else.

Add to that, we had locals in San Francisco, Chicago and Nashville all tell us how bad Jackson is, so the night before our mystery night, we started searching for other places to stay that were on the way-ish to New Orleans

We came up with Vicksburg and Oxford. We decided on Vicksburg.

And after our trip to Graceland in Memphis, we took off for an easy 3-4 hour drive.

On the way to Vicksburg, we followed some signs to Clarksdale, MS, to see of we could visit the Delta Blues Museum, but we drove around and found nothing. The signage just seemed to stop. Every store was closed and the locals looked fairly dodgy. So we skipped the museum and kept on to Vicksburg.

That day was very simple. We did some shopping at the outlet mall and had dinner at our hotel.

The next day we visited Vicksburg National Military Park for some civil war education, and, of course, stand in front of massive cannons to make our junk look cartoon-like.

All jokes aside, it was a pretty interesting experience. It's funny when you realise you don't actually know a lot about what was a very significant piece of history for a country like the US.

In the park are a lot of statues, dedicated to various soldiers and officers from various states. Among the statues are many cannons and the occasional building, which may have been used as a command post during the war.

There is also a museum dedicated to the USS Cairo, a very primitive, by today's standards, ship which was sunk during the war. The remains of the ship are also on display just outside of the museum.

And that was our quick, mystery stop in Mississippi.

After the military park we took off, once again, southbound down the interstate towards Louisiana for four nights in New Orleans!

Memphis

While in Nashville, we'd heard from local bartenders that we were going to be killed in Memphis. Not exactly a comforting thought to go on, but we drove to Memphis anyway.

The first thing we did was go down to our hotel bar and have a few pre-drinks before moving on to Beale Street. We also asked the bartender how safe it was to walk around Memphis and he gave us a four square block radius where we would be fine.

The only way to describe Beale Street, when I first turned the corner and looked down is it's like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, only it's cleaner and smells better.

We must've been there on a special day because there were Harley's parked all the way up and down the street, which also meant there were a lot more people, and that was great!

We started off at the Rum Boogie Cafe. The atmosphere in this place was amazing. There were guitars hanging from the roof around the entire bar, with labels naming the various musicians who owned them, or so I assumed. And the blues band that was playing was brilliant!

I didn't think they could be topped, and then we venture a few doors down to Beale St Tap Room. In there we found my kind of blues/funk; play half a song, do improv for 15 minutes, play the other half of the song. We also had the friendliest, funniest bartender than anywhere up to that point. And for that, he got a great tip from us.

Memphis is particularly famous for its BBQ, so that's what I wanted to eat more than anything.

My cousin's wife, Carla, recommended the ribs at BB King's. Given that I'm a BB King fan as it is, I had no problems taking her up on that recommendation, and it didn't disappoint! The meat practically fell off the bone and it was very juicy! We washed that down with a 54oz Long Island Iced Tea, which is to say we left the bar a lot drunker than when we entered.

I should also mention that the guy out front of BB King's was not a happy man. The look on his face was like his spirits had been broken. After we'd tried to change from sitting outside to inside, he was a bit short with us and after we apologised to him, he just tried to keep his head down, told us it was fine and moved on, as if he was scared he was going to blow up from, what seemed like, a stressful night. I actually felt sad for the guy when I saw the defeated look on his face.

I can't mention Memphis BBQ without mentioning Rendezvous. Cherie and I had seen the place mentioned on a TV show about a week or so earlier, so we just had to try the open pit BBQ ribs.

We all had ribs and either brisket or pork shoulder. The ribs came without any sauce on it, giving us the choice of two or three BBQ sauces on our table, which was a nice, as many restaurants put more BBQ sauce on than I personally want.

The surprising part was how fast they got us in and out; thirty minutes from when we walked in the door to when we stepped back out into the alley. The security guard outside joked about it being time to go back to the hotel to sleep. And that's exactly what we did! A short nap in the afternoon seems to be good for the soul.

We stopped into the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated. I was amazed by how much I didn't know about his death; the conspiracy theories surrounding who may have wanted him dead, the assassin shooting from a hotel window across the street. But it did make me smile to know that he had a pillow fight the day he died.

To keep with the famous deaths theme, we just happened to be in Memphis during Elvis week, and with the last day being the day before Elvis's death, we just had to go to Graceland.

Although our tickets allowed us to see six or seven exhibits, we only had enough time to see Graceland, Elvis's cars and do some souvenir shopping.

Graceland was fantastic! The really retro designs and the colors and patterns of the house were exactly what I imagined the 70s to be, and more! I mean, what other era would lend itself to having a room called The Jungle Room, covered in green and brown with a water feature at one end, and mirrors on the roof?

There was also plenty of that quintessential mission brown and orange. And a room with a bright yellow bar top. And of course, more rooms with mirrors on the roof!

We had to cut our Graceland visit short to take off to Mississippi and then New Orleans, so off we went down the interstate!

Nashville

I'm not a huge fan of country music, but I was more than happy to spend a couple of days in Nashville to enjoy its live music scene. Cherie is a fan though.

That morning, while sitting at La Guardia airport in New York, we introduced James to Five Guys burgers. He was in heaven. Personally I think they're the best burgers from a chain restaurant, right up there with Smashburger.

We already had James with us at this point, but we were about to add Shaun to our travelling group.

We flew into Nashville a few hours earlier than Shaun, so we checked into the hotel early and hit up Broadway quickly for some food and drinks.

The first thing that hit us was the humidity. It was overwhelming! It was a five minute walk to Broadway and the three of us were drenched in sweat by the time we got there.

Honky Tonk Central. The name just says it all really. There was a live band going on with all of the doors and windows wide open so you could hear the music from the street. And everyone who walked past certainly had a look in.

Throw in some strong southern accents and I could tell we were in country music city.

After lunch, we headed back to the airport to pick up Shaun, and the car that we would drive through the south for a couple of weeks; an SUV that just barely fitted the luggage for all four of us.

Shaun needed lunch, so we all ate again. And then the drinking started, firstly with some live music at Robert's Western World.

Later that night, after a couple of bars, we ended up at The Wheel Cigar Bar. It was a quiet night, so we had the pleasure of chatting to bartender, Michelle, the entire time we were there enjoying our cigars and whiskey.

Apparently some other Australians had given us a bad name when they were hauled out by the cops one night, so we had to redeem the Australian reputation, which Michelle assured us that we had by the time we had left, after a couple of hours of jokes and banter.

The greatest moment of the night came during the short walk back to the hotel. A man wanted some money from us, so I, to simply get rid of some coins, went to hand him about 75 cents, and Cherie went to give him a dollar. But James decided that for our trouble, he should get a cigarette off the man, so he snatched it right out of his hand, while he was still smoking it. The look on the guy's face was utter disbelief. He just stood there with his $1.75, not quite sure what the hell just happened. The rest of us were in hysterics!

We had breakfast at Loveless Cafe the next day. It may seem like a long way out of Nashville, but it's worth the drive for some of the best southern cooking I've had. Between the four of us we had biscuits with preserves, bacon, eggs, turkey sausage, fried chicken and country gravy and it was one of the best breakfasts I've had in the US, only matched by Hollywood Cafe in San Francisco.

And that night we went to the Grand Ole Opry.

If I had been a big country music fan, this would've been my wet dream come true. There were thousands of people, most up on their feet screaming for their favorite country music artists.

By the time the intermission came around, Shaun, James and I were actually enjoying it, having first been very skeptical about whether we could handle a couple of hours of country music. Cherie is a fan, however she wasn't able to come along with us.

The next day, before taking off down the interstate towards Memphis, we stopped into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Again, not being the biggest fan of the music, I wasn't quite sure who many of the artists featured were, but I could certainly admire the guitars they all played! Sweet looking semi-hollows and resonators everywhere!

Portland, Maine

On Cherie's wish list was Maine. Mostly because she liked to read Stephen King novels, whose stories, I found out, are often set in Maine. It was too far by train to do in one day, so we worked out an overnight trip for the day after our trip to Philadelphia.

To get there, we had to jump on an Amtrak train to Boston's South Station and then on a short bus ride to Portland. I think it was about seven hours of travel all up, including a one hour layover in Boston.

When we arrived in Portland, the first thing we did was clean ourselves up and chill for an hour. Then we headed out for dinner and drinks at Buck's Naked BBQ.

I, of course, ate more than I should've. But come on! A plate of fried chicken, pulled pork, brisket, sweet potato fries, mac and cheese and cornbread... I've gotta have a bit of everything!

Once we were done, we sat at the bar for a few more drinks, chatting with the bartender before we headed back to the hotel, me with a food baby in my belly.

A couple of hours later, while watching Hot Fuzz on TV, the fire alarm at the hotel started going off. I decided I just needed pants and tried to evacuate without a shirt, but Cherie threw one at me as we headed down the stairs.

Of course, once we got to the street, there were plenty of idiots who were still in their hotel rooms staring down at us and five fire engines and a police car. You'd think seeing the emergency services would be a sign that it's probably time to go downstairs, but no.

Turns out a hot water pipe had burst and had the steam had set off the fire alarm, or so we were told, so nothing too serious thankfully.

The next day we had coffee at Speckled Ax, the most hipster coffee house I've ever seen, including what I've seen at home, which is saying something being from the pretentious coffee capital of the world, Melbourne. Drip coffees, flannel shirts, thick frame glasses and MacBooks everywhere! But the coffee was good!

We walked down towards to the piers and stopped in at Duck Fat, a highly regarded and small and cozy restaurant about a block away from the piers. Being close to the Canadian border, poutine was on the menu, which we immediately decided to go for. Along with that, Cherie chose a pork belly panini, we shared some duck fat fried chips and drank the best damn milkshakes I've ever had.

The walk down Commercial Street afterwards was beautiful. Portland has a lot of little alleys full of shops and cafes, almost resembling Melbourne, and it pulls off the "seaside city" image really well. It gives it a warm, relaxed, laid-back feeling, which was a nice change from the bigger cities we'd been visiting.

To add to our relaxing getaway in Portland, we did a cruise of Casco Bay for a couple of hours. In that time, it went from hot and sunny to windy and cold and back again. But the views were very pretty, and we got to see a lot of lighthouses and islands while learning a little history about the area.

Before the day was over and we had to make our way back to Connecticut, we stopped into Eventide for some oysters, clam chowder and lobster rolls. The food was a bit pricy, but it was brilliant. The lobster roll was the front runner for us. It came on a steamed roll, which was fluffy and doughy, but in a good way, and it was no more than three bites big, so we ordered two before catching a taxi back to the bus terminal.

In Boston, we got the most detailed sob story from a guy who wanted money to get home. Apparently he had the absolute worst string of bad luck any human being in the world could ever have.

The train ride home was mostly quiet and peaceful. We'd had a few long and busy days, so we were both looking forward to having a much slower day to recharge a bit and catch up on some sleep.

Philadelphia

In the middle of all of our day trips to NYC, we decided to fit in a day trip to Philadelphia.

Last year I did a day trip on my own, but all I did was go to Iron Sport Gym in Glenolden to meet Steve Pulcinella, lift some weights, and the eat my fill of food back at 30th Street Station before heading back to NYC, so I never got to see any sights or explore anything else Philly has to offer.

Because we didn't try to book them in advance, Amtrak tickets were ridiculously expensive for just a daytrip, so we decided to take the scenic, more adventurous route: local trains.

The first train was from Stamford, Connecticut to Grand Central Station. We then took the subway shuttle across to Times Square/42nd St.

Then the 1 train downtown to Penn Station/34th St where we bought New Jersey Transit tickets to 30th Street Station, Philadelphia.

The next train got us all the way to Trenton, New Jersey, where we had to quickly swap onto a SEPTA train to go all the way to 30th Street Station.

Five trains, one way. On the upside, it was about half the price of Amtrak tickets, and only an extra 30-60 minutes of travel. It was also more fun ;)

30th Street Station is beautiful, and probably my favorite train station of the ones I've visited. It has a similar style to Grand Central, only with a lot less people running through it.

So we quickly grabbed a map and started walking down Market St towards the downtown area.

From there we bought tickets to a hop on hop off bus tour and made our way through a lot of Philly's history; the museums, the Rocky steps, old town Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell.

If there's anything that surprised me, it was old town Philly. The old style buildings were a sight worth seeing, as was hearing the history behind some of the plaques and markings on the buildings. It's a very pretty area to explore. And Benjamin Franklin had his hand in a lot of its history.

Unfortunately all the pictures are on my camera and not my phone, so I can't upload any here at the moment.

And of course, we stopped to chow down on some awesome Philly cheesesteaks at Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies and Cheesesteaks in Reading Terminal Market before heading home, catching a local train back to 30th Street Station, and five more to get back to Norwalk.

So eleven trains, a bus tour and some Philly cheesesteaks later and we had experienced beautiful Philadelphia in one very long day.

As tired as we were, we had an early start the next morning for our overnight trip to Portland, Maine.

New York

Cherie and I spent about 12 days at her brother and his wife's place in Norwalk, Connecticut, so any time we wanted to go to New York City, we had to jump on a Metro-North train to get into Grand Central Station.

Grand Central is beautiful and ridiculously chaotic with the hundreds of people who are moving through the main concourse at every time of the day.

I never really realised just how big Central Park was until we did a bus tour of uptown Manhattan. It's huge! A ridiculous 51 blocks long, and 3 blocks wide. The bus tour was two hours long and went from the south-west corner of the park all the way up to Harlem, across to the upper east side and back down to the hectic downtown area again.

It was actually really nice to just sit back for a couple of hours and enjoy the ride without trying to get from one place to another via the subway.

Oh and about the subway; if you're ever visiting NYC and need to get around, learn the subway. It's really not that hard with a map, even though it seems overwhelming at first. On our last holiday to the US, I let Cherie get us around on the subway. This time I actually took the time to figure it out for myself.

Times Square was amazing in the evening, as always. I got to see it last year, and I knew what it was like, but the pure magnitude of everything still surprised me.

We hit up a few bars, McSorley's Old Ale House probably being the highlight of the lot for me. In a nutshell, it's a very old Irish pub where you get two choices of beer; light or dark. And each round is two glasses of beer.

We ended up having about five rounds each, which sounds like a lot at two glasses a round, but the glasses are small.

The great part about the bar is you're seated wherever you fit, even if it's with complete strangers. We got to chat with a couple who were crawling a bunch of the oldest pubs in the city for the guy's birthday.

Food was always great, as it usually is in the US. The highlight was definitely Crif Dogs in NoHo. By far the best hot dogs I've had in the country. I had two chili dogs, and Cherie and James had the chihuahua, a bacon-wrapped dog topped off with avocado and sour cream.

At some point Cherie's friend, James, arrived to travel with us, so the last couple of day trips were with him aswell.

Those were the highlights of New York for me.

I've still gotta catch up on Philly and Portland, Maine. We're currently road-tripping through the south, heading to Mississippi tomorrow, so hopefully while on the road, I can catch up a bit!

San Francisco and Chicago

We're almost half way through our holiday in the US now and I figure it's time for a couple of posts. I'm typing this all on my phone so there's bound to be a few mistakes.

First off; San Francisco.

We spent a few days in San Francisco and it was amazing. Our first meal at Lou's Fish Shack was crab and fish tacos with black beans with some local beers to wash it all down. The taste of it all, even with the jet lag barrelling down hard, was amazing for a first meal after nearly 24 hours of mind-numbing travel.

The Golden Gate Bridge was breath-taking. I know thousands of people drive over it everyday and probably think it's just a hunk of metal, but I was blown away by the magnitude of it. The lingering fog added to its appeal, just barely covering the tops of the bridge.

We also did the typical touristy shit, like walking around Pier 39, a hop on hop off bus tour and we spent almost every night battling jet lag. I also managed to get a cold, which made sleeping just a little bit harder.

Chicago was as beautiful as I remember from our last visit.

As a result of slight time zone differences and bad traffic, we only ended up with two nights and one full day in Chicago, so we didn't get to do all we had hoped to do, but still ended up having a great time.

Our first meal was a cajun feast at Heaven on Seven for a late dinner. We filled our bellies with crab cakes, gumbo, BBQ and pecan pie and chased it with more beer. Cherie had finally found her favorite American beer, Abita Purple Haze.

The next day, we walked around North Michigan Ave, shopping and eating.

That night, I was lucky enough to meet up with my brother, Aaron, who has been travelling around the US since early June, and Erik, our life-long friend who currently lives in Boston. We went on a bit of a pub crawl in the uptown area with a couple of Erik's friends. At some point we stopped into Portillo's Hot Dogs for some food.

In the meantime, Cherie caught up with her friend Megan, who is travelling around the americas with her boyfriend, Scott, for a few drinks of their own.

By the end of the night, we had all caught up at the Kerryman Hotel for yet more beers.

The next morning Cherie and I hopped on another flight, very hung over, bound for her brother's home in Norwalk, Connecticut.