Heading South

Tomorrow, May 18th, I begin a two back-to-back tours of the Deep South. I'm doing the tours for Newmarket Holidays http://www.newmarketholidays.co.uk/ and my two groups are from the UK. Our tour will take us through the region of America where the "Birth of the Blues" is not just a song title, and where they put the "country" in country music. The area is rich in Civil War history and much of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's took place there.

We'll travel through 4 states: Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. I pick up the first group at the Atlanta, GA airport and we travel to Montgomery, AL to spend one night. In the morning we head south through Alabama and then drive west along the Gulf Coast into Mississippi. We travel on to Louisiana and "The Big Easy" where jazz was born with the help of people like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Pete Fountain. We spend 2 nights in New Orleans and we'll enjoy a Dinner Jazz Cruise aboard the Steamboat Natchez, a guided City Tour, and a Swamp Tour of the bayou. We'll explore the French Quarter, maybe visit a jazz club or two. Hurricane Katrina left her calling card here but New Orleans is back in action.

Then, in Mississippi again, we'll head north to Tupelo and visit the Birthplace of Elvis Presley. We'll then enter Tennessee and spend 2 nights in Memphis. We'll visit the blues clubs on Beale Street and take a tour of Elvis' Graceland and Sun Studio where he recorded his first hit, "That's Alright".

After Memphis we head for Nashville, the Capital of Tennessee and the Capital of Country Music. We'll tour Studio B and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and there will be some major shopping opportunities at the Opry Mills Outlet Mall. After two nights in Nashville we head south back to Atlanta Airport where I say goodbye to group 1 and greet group 2 and do the same trip all over again.

It's a jam-packed tour and I will post here each night so check back for pictures and details.