Snow in the South?

28 January, Cullman, Alabama

This is the second time today that we have been in Cullman. Why?  If you listen to the Weather Channel, it was because of the “Polar Vortex”. Talkback radio out of Birmingham called it the “Blizzard of 2014”. The long and short of it was that about 20 million people across the South experienced one of the greatest winter storms on record.

Winter in the southern states is usually a fairly mild affair in comparison to what is experienced in the north. Consequently, your average Southerner has no idea how to deal with snow, black ice and freezing rain. On the most part, the locals realised this and slowed to 10-15 kms/hr on the Interstate. A few ‘good ole boys’, saw the whole thing as a bit of an adventure. They were the ones whose pick-up trucks sat in the snow and ice just off the side of the road every now and then.

We were headed to Birmingham from Decatur, where we had had a great afternoon exploring the historical centre of the city with the help of a couple of locals, in particular, David, the curator of the Old State Bank. David took us on a tour of this historical building which had survived the Civil War Battle of Decatur and gave us a couple of leads on some other local historical gems like the 19^th century village of Mooresville.

 

Heading south, all went well for the first few miles, until we hit the traffic tailback from the ice and snow that had all but stopped all three lanes of the I-65 into Birmingham.

Ducking off the interstate only bought us more grief, so we settled in, with millions of others across the south, to several hours of crawling through black ice and drifting snow. Finally getting to the outskirts of Birmingham, we discovered that all the motels were booked out, so with darkness closing in, we headed back north.

 

So this is why we are back in Cullman, and it isn’t a totally happy return. We had been disappointed earlier in the day when the focus of our initial visit, a reportedly spectacular grotto at a monastery near the town, was closed! At least we were able to find a room here. We had tried motels at four other exits before we finally scored here. The alternative of spending the night in the car like thousands of others stranded in the storm, was extremely unattractive, with temperatures forecast to drop to -10C tonight.

We have kept ourselves amused listening to local Birmingham radio during the emergency. A couple of the announcers were on the air for the best part of 24 hours. The longer it went on the crazier they got. How they managed to talk solidly for that length of time we just can’t imagine. Most of the talkback contributors sounded like Jim Nabors -  Gomer Pyle for those who remember the 1960s TV show.

29 January, Corinth, Mississippi

Bright sunshine greeted us this morning, even though the temperature was around -8C. Surprisingly the southern sun does have a bit of power in it so the sunshine was a welcome relief from the grey icy weather we had yesterday.

We have landed in Corinth on the advice of the people at the Mississippi Welcome centre. We have learnt to avail ourselves of the excellent services provided by these agencies in each state we visit. The only drawback is that we end up with a ton of books and brochures that we have to dispose of.

 

Folk in the South are just so hospitable and easy going and when they hear the Australian accent, they just can’t do enough for us and as we are about the only travellers about in some of these towns, we are getting truly royal treatment.

 

 

 

 

Corinth is a bit of a rarity amongst country towns in the US. We have commented before on the sad decline of the downtown areas of many small towns, but in Corinth the small town centre, clustered around the beautiful old courthouse, is alive and well. Hardly a free parking spot to be had! One of our favourites was the Borroum Drug Store. The business, in the same building, was started in 1865 by AJ Borroum, an ex-Confederate Army surgeon. The family still owns and operates the business today with old AJ’s 83 year old, great-great granddaughter still dispensing just beyond the original soda fountains.

There is so much to do here that we are staying the night!

Nashville Celebrations

26 January, Nashville TN.

The Grand Ole Opry was the original reason for this trip, but our visit to Nashville turned out to be much more than just that.

Some months back, while we were travelling in China we met a young American guy named Andrew, who, when he found out we were heading for Nashville, suggested that we get together while we were in town. So yesterday morning we all headed off to visit one of our favourite spots in Nashville, the Parthenon, yep, the Parthenon, a full scale replica, complete in every detail. We topped off the morning with lunch at the Cracker Barrel, a real Southern tradition. Andrew managed a plate of pancakes and another of bacon and eggs, we were more than satisfied with a sandwich. Andrew is an extremely well-informed guy and we resumed some of the debates about American politics that we commenced on that long bus trip in China.

Later in the afternoon we had a quick catch-up with a cousin of Janita’s, Cynthia, who had driven all the way to Nashville from Chicago just to meet us. Our time was short as the Opry was calling, so we arranged to meet the next day.

For those unfamiliar with the Grand Ole Opry, it is the true heart and soul of country music in the US and arguably the world. The show is broadcast live all over the USA and the world through the internet and has an audience in the tens of millions. This concert was Janita’s birthday present, and yes it was a big one! The Opry is like no other concert. People move around the stage behind the performers, the audience wander in and out to the bar, the performers chat with those in the front rows between acts - it just goes OFF! We chose the winter to come. It is when Janita’s birthday is to start with, but it is also when the Opry is held in the heritage- listed Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville, rather than the shopping mall-like Opry World out of town. The birthday girl had congratulations from the stage, broadcast to radio stations all over the US and on the internet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we met again with Cynthia and another cousin, Lisa who lives just outside Nashville. Lisa and Cynthia’s great grandfather was Janita’s great grandfather’s brother. Cynthia has done an enormous amount of work on the family tree, way back to the family’s common roots in Scotland. All three ladies had a fantastic time looking through old photographs and comparing family likenesses across the US, Scottish and Australian branches of the family. At one point they even decided they had the same knees! Another great southern lunch topped off a fantastic day.

We are immeasurably grateful to both cousins for taking the time to come and meet us. Cynthia drove 9 hours from Chicago through some extremely bad weather. AND she has will turn around tomorrow and repeat the experience.

Footnote: There was one spot on our list that we almost forgot. Line dancing at the Wildhorse Saloon. Our last night stand in Nashville.

 

 

22 January, American Airlines Flt 2409 to Dallas/Fort Worth

Los Angeles generally gets fairly bad raps from travellers, but we have always found it interesting, if a little hectic. This is our third trip and we are still able to find new things to see and do, along with a few perennial favourites that call us back.

Our hosts, Paul’s sister, Anne-Marie and her family, had never visited one of our favourites, the Pueblo de Los Angeles in the Downtown area. This little block or so of old buildings, some surviving from the early days of Mexican settlement of the area, is a time capsule that allows one to escape the craziness that is Downtown LA and experience a small slice of life as it was. Right at the centre of the old Pueblo is a small courtyard that is straight out of a 19^th century Mexican village.

The main attractions are centred on Olvera Street, where the largely Hispanic crowds browse market stalls selling every imaginable Spanish-themed souvenir. ’Hole in the wall’ eateries dispense authentic Mexican food alongside more up-market restaurants. On a very warm and sunny winter’s day, it was easy to forget that we were in the midst of sprawling LA. For an added bonus, we slipped across the road to Union Station, an authentic Art Deco experience. Although much smaller than other grand stations in the US, LA’s Union Station and its surrounds also have the power to transport visitors back to a different era, one in which it is easy to imagine the great movie stars of the 30’s and 40’s sitting in the First Class waiting area for the call to board the ‘Californian Zephyr’ for all points east. Voted tourist guides par excellence by the locals, we called the day a success.

 

 

A new discovery for us was the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA. On a previous visit, we had visited the Getty Art Museum, an architectural masterpiece, but a little disappointing from the art standpoint. The LACMA was a real find. Extremely well laid out, the collection was large enough to cover the full gambit of traditional and contemporary art without being so large as to be overwhelming. The Picasso and French Impressionists’ collections, two of our favourites, were particularly well represented. An enormous installation of rolling model cars and trains was not operating on the day of our visit. We may just have to go back!

We topped the day off with a quick visit to Rodeo Drive and a cruise through Beverly Hills.

Our trip to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) this morning was a might stressful, with an accident on the I-405 causing our entrance to the Interstate to be temporarily closed. After crawling along in a six lane jam, we finally found an alternative route and made the deadline for our car hire drop-off with just seconds to spare.

While we have a much higher regard for LA than most travellers, we do share the almost universal dislike for (LAX). The place is a nightmare! Poorly signed, inefficient and overcrowded. Recent experiences of far more modern airports in Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai have probably spoiled us.

 23 January, Little Rock Arkansas

Full-on driving day today, Dallas to Little Rock is about 600 kms, but on a US Interstate that distance is a bit of a doddle.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, DFW to the ‘in crowd’, makes LAX look like a Third World terminal. As with all things in Texas, it is enormous and yet amazingly efficient. For our arrival yesterday, the list of connecting flights out of Dallas took three arrival boards to display, but our luggage was on the turntable by the time we had walked through the mall-sized shopping and eating concession area. As with some other US cities, the hire car offices are located in a mammoth specialist centre located just off the airport proper. It all works like clockwork. Ten points DFW.

 

How we ever got around before GPS, we’ll never know. The freeway system around Dallas is complex, but because it has been well designed and built to cope with the traffic load, it moves fast! Well, we can’t complain about fast freeway traffic after our experience getting to LAX yesterday, but fast freeway traffic requires FAST reaction times, so when the GPS voice says, ‘in 300 metres take the exit 34, turn sharp left and enter the motorway, stay in the left lane, in 200 metres, exit right…’ you had better be on the ball when barrelling along at 120 kms/hr in 5 lanes of traffic. Not to crow too much, but we are getting much better at this after a lot of wrong turns and tense moments in the past between driver and navigator.

Our trip through East Texas and Arkansas was just a simple drive-through to achieve our first goal, Nashville. From what we have seen from the Interstate, we aren’t missing much. Guess the grey sky and sub-zero temperatures aren’t helping much, but it is only going to get worse over the next couple of days as an unusual weather pattern pushes Arctic air way down into the southern states. We expect -5C here in Little Rock for our departure tomorrow and -10C in Nashville. Even Florida has been experiencing some ice on windscreens! Lucky we aren’t in Chicago where it is -23C!

24 January, Nashville, TN.

Music City USA, home at last, home at last. Dramatic, but not really all that true. We are big fans of all sorts of music, country is just a bit of a new thing and the roots of this genre on our playlist lie in our visit to Nashville seven years back, when we did what you must do in Nashville and visited the Grand Ole Opry. Although we had heard and read of the Grand Ole Opry, we were probably further motivated by the movie, A Prairie Home Companion starring Meryl Streep. The experience was great fun and for years after we got home, we tuned in to the internet broadcast of the Opry Live.

So here we are to celebrate a significant birthday, in the way we have tended to do of late – the last big one was celebrated in Juneau, Alaska.

The last leg of our trip took us through Memphis and even though we were determined to just drive straight through to Nashville, express, we couldn’t resist the temptation for a quick drive-through of downtown Memphis. Ten minutes tops, and we had done the sights. We remembered our way around fairly well. We had risen to -13C this morning, so we were not too keen on a walk around. All looks good for tomorrow, sunny and all the way up to 5C maximum during the day and down to -5C for our big night out.  (By the way, our room was changed on check-in as level 2’s floors freeze, so here we are on level 4 with a lovely view of the state’s Capitol building.)