And we are home!

Off we go! 12hr drive home!

Woke up in New Orleans, will go to bed in Hayti, MO. Staying at the Drury. Tomorrow: home

Ah, another day another town. Which? We shall see...

At first what we thought might be a fun town is becoming...

Yes, a rodeo clown

Huh, not everyday you see a man with aspergers and a rodeo clown check into a hotel together.

Rain let up, headed back to hotel. Ankle deep water, streets flooded.

At least an inch of standing water below us

Eating beignets under an awning, during a downpour!

Just checked in, our room not ready- for ten bucks extra got a corner balcony room. Very unique town!

New Orleans today. Hotel St. Marie. "steps" away from the French Quarter. Might even try seafood!

% Boomtown casino. Off the strip, but worth it. 5 bucks in free play. Actually free, too. No money required. We didn't win, but we didn't lose! New Orleans

% tomorrow...

Ate at Marie Mahoneys. An old school dinning establishment. Scared at first with all the sea food, but we were able to find steak. Very good!

Rain? What rain? Hit the beach, took some shells. Chilled by the pool - got burned! Off to dinner.

Morning in Biloxi. Sunny for now. Experts say rain.

Gulfport, sunny, sand. No swimmers

On our way to Biloxi: already a full day of "roadside attractions" including a trip to the crossroads where blues legend Robert Johnson allegedly sold hi

. Definite highlight was breakfast at Waffle House!

s soul to the devil in the town of Clarksdale. Oh-we also visited the Yazoo city witch's grave. No one would argue that MS is full of colorful local lore

charge for wireless.

Hooray for iPhones.

Love to Mom and Dad, both sides!

Chris and Amanda

Cotton fields. Lots of them. Actually look like
Cotton balls on a plant.

Tunica. Our saving grace. 20mins out of Memphis. A casino town. Vegas without

caste system to the south nut I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Cheered when we crossed into Arkansas. Who would do that? People leaving Missouri.

Day 2.

Four states; four hours.

Memphis is better in theory than in reality. It has the charm St. Louis lacks, but just as bad. Seems to be some sort

we are seeing " Dixie queens". Oddities of the deep south abound.

Tennessee. Came over the river into Memphis- now headed south. Bars on all the windows everywhere, distinct industrial smell. No dairy queens- instead

We just crossed into Arkansas. Looks like rain. Speed limits are strictly enforced!

Don't Meet me in St. Louis, Louis!

Ah, road trips...so many twists and turns and interesting finds.

Like this house and picket fence.  It's Mark Twain's childhood home in Hannibal, Mo!
Across the street is his father's law office.

Behind me, somewhere, is some guy with a ventriloquist puppet.  No he wasn't a ventriloquist, as his mouth moved more than the dummy's, but he was nice - said hello, and welcomed us to Hannibal.

This part of town was...well, creepy.

It's hard to put it in words, but let me put it this way: you know in the movies when the characters enter a town and they just know something isn't right, but they don't know what...until it's too late.  This part of Hannibal is THAT town.

As icing on the cake, there were two kids walking around - one as Huck Finn and the other as Becky.  They didn't look to be enjoying their "roles."

We moved on...quickly.

St. Louis, Mo...

St. Louis was not what we expected.  I'm not sure what we expected...but this wasn't it.

For some reason I thought there would be a skyline...buildings, etc.  There wasn't.  Waterloo, Ia has bigger buildings.  Yep, we drove by the Arch, but had to drive by 100 Corvettes to do so as there was some sort of show going on.  This slowed traffic down a bit...little did we know that "traffic" would be our issue.

St. Louis is dirty too.  I know cities aren't naturally clean...but St. Louis was noticeably dirty.

We didn't bother seeing much more of the arch.  We were hungry.  We ate at a place called "Big Daddy's." Decent food.

Then the problems started...

All we had to do was get on 55 South and we would be on our way to Memphis.  Simple right?

Not so!

55 has many on ramps from the city, for sure.  One of them would have made us go by the Vett show and we didn't want to do that.  So we found another ramp...only to find it closed.  Oh, there was no warning that it was closed, until you came upon the ramp and almost ran into the sign.

As for a detour...there was none.  Evidently in St. Louis, they can't be bothered with detouring you around their fair city.

We did located another ramp - as did our fellow travellers - only to find THAT ramp closed too!  The heck!

And nope, there were no detour signs at this one either.

Tough luck Charlie!

After much circling around and cursing we did find another exit, and THIS one was open.  We gunned it, before they changed their minds!

I will say, thanks to having a map feature on our phones saved our sanity - it was able to locate the ramps for us.

This event had left us a bit exhausted.  Neither of us could bear much more of driving around.  So despite our best laid plans, we decided to stop at Cape Girardeau.

A very interesting town in it's own right, but it's NO St. Louis.

It is interesting as poverty is much more visible.  We drove around Cape G. and had crossed a highway and into...well a ghetto as we had never seen before - well not me anyway.

"Run down" isn't a word to describe it.

For all the crap I give Minneapolis from time to time...the "oldness" of the buildings and sections of neighborhoods was...different...

All the while, the city, like any other city tries to look like every other city...hiding it's flaws, trying to push back what it doesn't want you to see.

Funny too, because there are an awful lot of churches too.

We are in our room now, watching TV...cable TV no less! A true luxury for us!

Tomorrow: Memphis!

It's early...

Getting an early start - 4:30 am - S. Minneapolis.

Next Stop?????

A Sacred Journey...

In but a few hours or more, me and Amanda will embark on a journey...

There is no plan - other than "head south."

Where we will go...is still a mystery.

We invite God to share in our journey, to show us what he would like us to know, to learn, to share...

This will not be a long journey...but we hope it will be enlightening...