USA Road Trip 8 : LA, Vegas, SF

We flew into LA for the Hollywood Fringe Festival, which was fun but very small and by no means international. Julie, Vivienne and Stephen joined us for the weekend. The shows were a mixed bag but we did find some good restaurants and a fabulous bar called Sassafras. We loved our Sunday morning visit to the LACMA ( Art Museum ) too. On Monday 20 June, we flew to Las Vegas for five nights. As usual we stayed at The Flamingo because we like the old style casinos and it's good to be in the centre of The Strip, so that most places are walkable.Most days Vegas temperatures hit 48C mid- afternoon and at 1 am it was still 38C. At this stage I have to give a big shout out to UBER and their wonderful drivers who are cheaper and quicker than any taxi anywhere; ride sharing has revolutionised city travel for us! As you know, we don't gamble but we love the shows. Each morning we have a very late start with Gail popping down to Starbucks for two extra large coffees. Then it's a lunch special at one of the top restaurants, followed by an afternoon magic or variety show and a couple of other shows back to back in the evening. In between there may be time for drinks and a snack. Late night live music in one of the casino bars finishes off the evening.
On Saturday we flew to San Jose to stay with Stephan and Andrea for a few nights. We enjoyed all the summer parties and BBQs.We also went to the new SFMOMA( more art); recently reopened after a three year refurbishment.

Mel's Diner, Hollywood

	LACMA I like your ism but is it art? V Theatre, Planet Hollywood, Vegas Band at Carnaval, Harrahs,Vegas Paris Paris, Vegas SFMOMA -More Anish Kapoor. Is it flat?

USA Road Trip 7 : Bonnaroo and beyond

On the drive down to Charleston we stopped for lunch in Florence, SC for lunch at Wholly Smokin'.(BBQ 16 ) We spent the weekend at the Spoleto Arts Festival with Joan and Raymond. Charleston has some really good restaurants and after our shows we also caught some live music. Next stop was Savannah, Georgia. It's a beautiful southern city but we caught it during a tropical storm and had to hole up in the motel room for most of the day. In our quest for live music every night, Mondays are often the hardest and so it was we found ourselves in a suburban dive bar called The Wormhole for open mic night.
Atlanta is a good city to spend a few days if you like museums. We chose the High Museum of Art and World of Coke. We round off our stay with dinner at Daddy D'z (BBQ 17) and two evenings of pretty cool funk and blues music.
On Thursday 9 June, we drove to Murfeesboro, TN, where the Embassy Suites was going to be our Bonaroo escape for the next 4 days. We loved the regular shuttle bus service back to a comfy airconditioned room and a fabulous king sized bed. Bonnaroo is a massive music festival held on a farm in Manchester, TN, which is about 60 miles south of Nashville. 85 000 people camping out for 4 days! ( 85000 friendly, happy people all just having a good time ) There are more than eight stages, hundreds of bands performing, all very well organised, in 110F heat - we loved it. We saw so much great music, but Jason Mraz and John Mayer with Dead and Co were my favourites. I even enjoyed Macklemore and Ryan Lewis! There were plenty of food trucks including Hamageddon (BBQ  18 ) and we had lunch in town one day at Jim n Nicks. ( BBQ 19 )
Our last stop before flying west was the Chatanooga Music Festival but I do have to mention Sonnies ( BBQ 20) in Shelbyville as one of the best and Sticky Fingers ( BBQ 21) in Chatanooga.

Daddy D'z

Anish Kapoor Art

BBQ at Bonaroo

Neil chilling at Bonaroo

USA Road Trip 6 : Nashville, Kentucky...

Nashville : Home of country music and the Grand Ole Opry. We did manage to find plenty of different genres of live music amongst the country bands playing in the bars on Broadway and beyond. And in any case I quite like a bit of country rock myself. We loved the Country Music Hall of Fame too. We ate at Arnold's ( BBQ 13 ) In Nashville it's canteen style and they call lunch "A Meat and Three" referring to the choice of one meat serving and a choice of sides.

Broadway

After a couple of days in Nashville we headed north into Kentucky; first stop Bowling Green for a visit to the Corvette Museum. Since 1981 every Corvette ever made has rolled off the assembly line in Bowling Green. We spent the night in Bardstown, the Bourbon capital of the world. The whole area has a carmelly air about it. It's not possible to visit more than a couple of distilleries, so we toured Willett and Heaven Hills. We especially drove to Frankfort, the State Capitol; because it's the namesake (same spelling) of the town near our farm in South Africa. We ate lunch at Staxx ( BBQ 14 ) and toured another distillery; Buffalo Trace. Then it was on to Lexington; the horsey part of the US. Once again we were a bit disappointed to find yet another small, generic city just like so many others all over America. I am sure it's just fine to grow up here, all neat and pretty, with a slightly trendy downtown and just enough of a selection of bars and fine dining restaurants as not to get too bored. And good amenities and services and plenty of strip malls but no real soul. And sometimes you should be careful what you wish for..

Rickhouses ( bonded warehouses full of whiskey barrels)

Our next stop, back in Tenessee, was Gatlinburg/ Pigeon Forge, "Gateway to the Smokey Mountains" and home to Dollywood and hundreds more tacky attractions, themed dinner shows and overpriced attractions. There are miles and miles of motels and chain restaurnats and very slow traffic. Driving into the Smoky Mountans National Park was busy but it is not too hard to find a road less travelled. En route to Pigeon Forge we did stop for lunch in Corbin, KY at the original KFC. It's an inspiring story for the oldies because Colonel Sanders was 65 years old when he set out in his car with only the money from his social secuity cheque and his secret recipe to franchise his fried chicken.

First KFC

Smoky Mountains

Asheville, NC is altogether a better city, rather hippy and alternate with lots of pubs and live music. We even attended amateur burlesque night at a local co-operative theatre. For lunch we had wonderful pulled pork and ribs at Little Pigs ( BBQ 15 ). The chatty, old owner then gave us complimentary fried chicken and lemon meringue pie, which we felt obligated to eat on top of all the rest. Then it was on to Charlotte and Lake Norman to stay with Joan and Raymund and Chapel Hill to stay with Adrian and Margaret and little Oliver.

USA Road trip 5: More Music

On Monday 16 May we drove from Dallas to Hot Springs, Arkansas. In Texarkana,where the state line runs through the middle of town, we had one of the best all round BBQs so far. Naaman's (BBQ 10) started out as a food truck but now they are housed in an old gas station just off the highway. They still have the pit going in the truck parked outside. Hot Springs,which still has Victorian style bathhouses, hotels and salons lining the main street is rather down at heel these days. We probably would have enjoyed it a little more during the gangster days of prohibition. We did find a bar with live music on a Monday evening, at least. The next day it was on to Little Rock, a quiet, generic US city with a small nightlife area developed next to the river. We had lunch the next day at The Whole Hog (BBQ 11) The owners here like to enter BBQ competitions so the place is full of trophys; and the food was good!  That night we saw Dave Mathews in concert.

Naaman's BBQ

Dave Mathews

Thursday 19th May was another "drive all day" trip back down to New Orleans. This time we were able to spend the days roaming around the streets of the French Quarter and the evenings bar hopping on Bourbon St. We enjoyed the historic restaurants Napoleons and Antiones. On Saturday, Stephen and Vivienne flew in for the weekend. Bourbon street is very busy on weekend nights but there are so many bars and bands to choose from. Just buy a drink and pull up a stool or hit the dance floor."Don't Stop Believing" by Journey is the ultimate cover band anthem and the favourite drunken patron sing-along song of all time. I bet you are now humming it, right! We enjoyed a Sunday brunch of Loaded Bloody Marys and swing music at Bamboula's on Frenchmen St, followed by walking in the Garden District and more fun at the Rock N Bowl. It's been years since any of us played 10 pin bowling and it's all the more fun with a live band and dance floor too!

The Wailers

Blue Dog Window, Marriot Hotel

French Quarter

Brunch on Frenchmen St

With Stephen and Vivienne at Duelling Pianos

On Tuesday 24 May we drove to Tupelo MS, birthplace of Elvis Presley. We stopped for lunch at Squealers (BBQ 12) in Meridian,MS. That night the only live music in Tupelo was at Steele's Dive Bar. By 10pm we were the only customers left enjoying the music of Michael Thomas.This was the 33rd night in a row we had seen live music and would go on to 41 consecutive nights of live music before a 2 night break to visit family.There are so many talented musicians out there and most we have seen so far are just eeking out a living playing for tips in bars and restaurants. We really enjoy these encounters with all sorts of local people and in the South everyone is so friendly.
From Tupelo we drove the Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville via Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Florence and Tuscumbria - "The Shoals" where so much amazing music has been recorded over the last 50 or 60 years. In 1969 the Rolling Stones famously holed up here for a few days and recorded "Wild Horses" It is not very touristy but you can drive by some old landmarks like Fame Studios.

the tough life of a muso, working for love not money

Fame Studios, The Shoals