Travel stories, photos and videos

How funny!

Lovely. Though it is a mess to navigate when it’s a metre deep on the road!

After spending 6 months in the pleasantly cool summer of the northern US, we decided it was time to escape the brutal winter, and returned to New Orleans two days ago. With temperatures very similar to those in BsAs, we were very happy to watch the temperature rise as we drove the 1500 km south.

Rice ...Getting out of Michigan before the snow gets to deep. Did you travel down I55?

We went straight down I-65 from the outskirts of Chicago, to Indianapolis, to Louisville, then Nashville and points south.

@Rice...Glad you had a safe journey!!!!

I-65 to Birmingham, AL, I-20/I-59 over to Meridian, MS and I-59 into the Big Easy. Been on these roads a few times. Glad they made

it safely,

Thanks! We also added a couple of detours: at Athens, AL we left I-65 and spent a week in my sister’s unoccupied place on the Tennessee River. From there, we drove down the Natchez Trace for a week in Batesville, MS, not far from you, daniel , before taking I-55 on down to New Orleans.

Traveling by car, it is so much easier to try to be COVID-safe than flying, something we’re just not yet willing to do. But the slower progress by car raises the question of overnight hotels, not to mention stopping for the occasional coffee. We were able to avoid both, thanks to family and colleagues who invited us to stay in their unoccupied houses, and bringing our own thermos and sandwiches to avoid food stops.

It’s definitely more of a challenge to change locations than it was a year ago, when, incidentally, we were packing up and saying good-byes in Buenos Aires, fully expecting to return in a matter of months, as in the past 15 years. Now we wonder how long it will eventually be.

@Rice.....Give me a notice the next time you are around Batesville, we can try to arrange a meeting!!!!

Let’s definitely do that when we no longer have to wear masks and can sit within shouting distance!

You are near Senatobia, right?

Quote from Rice

Let’s definitely do that when we no longer have to wear masks and can sit within shouting distance!

You are near Senatobia, right?

@Rice...I am about an hour due west of Batesville, MS

Oh! I didn’t quite understand that. During the past 4 years, we worked in Batesville 5-6 months per year. Now we drive through there once a year for our annual medical and dental exams, and stay in the house that was “ours” when we worked there. We always love going to that house, which has a patio the width of the house with feeders that attract many kinds of birds from the woods adjacent to a long, sloping lawn. We’ve seen deer, squirrels, raccoons and foxes. No armadillos yet, but they have dug up our flowers so we know they are around.

@Rice...Sounds like a future adventure!!!! Squirrels have really been working on our pecan tree this year, a deer almost ran over my wife a couple of years ago, while she was

walking the dog. Raccoons are everywhere, some armadillos, know around here, as a possum on a half shell, they do taste decent, better than a raccoon. When going to Batesville,

I sometime pull my trailer over to Lowe's for supplies, I usually go through Sardis and stay on HWY 51 for the few miles south to Batesville.

I well know the route you describe, daniel . But I have to say I’ve never tasted raccoon OR armadillo. Or even possum. Louisiana is so overrun by nutria that the state ran a contest for the best nutria. Sadly, nobody won.

We’ve enjoyed alligator sauce piquant, deep fried alligator bites (“tastes like chicken,” of course), and alligator sausage. But never nutria.

How about some fine dining, Mr Bean style!!! The wife and I really enjoyed this one!!!!

daniel , this was not only entertaining but instructive. I’ve learned new places to hide bits of food I can’t eat, and most important, I’ve learned that when someone at the next table is playing with his langostinos, I’ll make sure my purse is closed up and placed out of oyster-dumping range.

How about Moscow , a nice wee town in the county of Ayrshire....