Holidays and absences [3]

{{ Thats one hell of a trip Lance. And yes dont forget the elephants or the irony will kill us! You can almost see the thoughts behind that monkeys eyes, so human. }}

So not really much commentary on this one other than we finished with a few days in Zanzibar to relax by the beach. A few days was about 3 months too short!!

But anyway, here are some elephants! The last picture on here was in Lake Manyara and is the only time I have heard an elephant trumpet in real life!!!! Was also the smallest elephant (the one in between the legs) which was probably one a couple of weeks old.

How about some pictures from Zanzibar?!

There isn't really much to show... we pretty much stayed at our place for the whole thing other than a trip down to the beach and out on a kayak.

I have a phone picture from the bedroom....



And a sunset.



That's it.

Still pretty good. Looks like you weren't in the main town.

No, we were in a small resort on the north-west coast about an hour from Stone Town. We considered some sight seeing but we really just wanted to do nothing for a few days.

But yes, it was very nice!

wow! that room is incredible!

Mrs Figg wrote:wow! that room is incredible!

The villa thing was pretty cool itself. Odd, but cool

Halfy - we are officially booked. Flying in to Toronto and out of Austin 3 weeks later.

We have been watching 'what to do...' type videos for all of out intended destinations and Austin seemed a little light on things. Also seems to be a lot around about how safe the city is, particularly the main area at night.

Any thoughts?

We will probably stay booking hotels at the weekend yo make sure we get in some decent places. We had been considering staying somewhere else in the Texas area for a day or two and just finishing up with a full night in the city.

That's why I recommended a stay in San Antonio to do the River Walk.  One good night of music on Sixth Street in Austin may be enough, though you may like it enough to do a second.  If you have the extra time do visit Enchanted Rock on a weekday, will get crowded on a weekend. And Gruene Hall.

Don't you mean Chicago instead of Toronto?  But with 3 weeks I suppose you could get in the extra city.

Yeah, we added a week on to pass through Niagara Falls and go to a Cedar Point theme park on the way to Chicago. Also, Toronto looks really nice!

Makes sense about Austin then. We had some spare days and was considering finding a nice ranch to stay on to recover from all the driving. We will be flying out from there so will probably do a night, full day and night before we fly in Austin.

Going to stay looking at getting hotels booked up this weekend so hopefully beat any possible crowds for popular places!

I think you saw my hotel recommendations on my long post. If not going with the Driskill in Austin you might be tempted by one of the hotels by the river that has rooftop bars or pools.

A hill country ranch would be cool. Find one that has a spring fed swimming hole. There's also plenty of places that rent canoes for float trips. Oo...hold up. I *might* have a possibility for you. A place near Bastrop on the river has air BnB with basically free boats for your use. Saw it while going down the river: you'd have to call 1 - 219-405-0723. Don't know if they have a website so it's a bit of a shot in the dark.
It's not hill country though, and I think you might be happier in the hill country.

This is essentially going to be our route:



Big drives from Chicago to Nashville and NO to Austin that we might look to break up. The route given is just Google maps so not sure if we are missing anything the we shouldn't miss on the way!

{{ Now lets see how my knowledge of the US based on tv and stereotypes does here- Texas- big hats, oil, racists and far right politics and a lot of god botherers, Louisiana they'll make you squeal like a piggy Mississippi, paddle boats, racists, young boys running amok with no shoes on and a tendency to use two letters in a word where one would have done fine, Tennessee and Kentucky must be ok and probably settled by Scots as they are good for a proper drink, Indiana, hope you like basketball, Chicago, its windy probably bad place for a brolly, Ohio hope you like farms, New York, Halfy and apparently a Squad of some sort and a reasonable chance of getting shot, probably by the police. }}

The Canadian side of Niagara falls is far superior to the US side, so I'd only stop at the canadian side.

Stop for a meal or night in Louisville.  Find a place known for Southern food, and loosen your belt.  I know neither of you are drinkers, but you should perhaps still go to a distillery and taste some high quality bourbon. Sip and inhale, don't gulp: think of treating perfume like a drink.

I wish there was something between New Orleans and Houston, but there just ain't.  Keep your eyes peeled for small family run businesses and eateries - you may be pleasantly surprised.  Lake Charles may have some place to sit down overlooking the lake, though a quick glance at the map doesn't turn up anything obvious.

Give Galveston a try, but only if you are starved for a change of scenery and it fits your schedule to go a bit off track.  it would let you stop by NASA mission control center, which is a minor thrill and they have some museum type stuff.

Oh, and the Science Museum at Cleveland is fantastic - very hands on and well put together.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Now lets see how my knowledge of the US based on tv and stereotypes does here- Texas- big hats, oil, racists and far right politics and a lot of god botherers, Louisiana they'll make you squeal like a piggy Mississippi, paddle boats, racists, young boys running amok with no shoes on and a tendency to use two letters in a word where one would have done fine, Tennessee and Kentucky must be ok and probably settled by Scots as they are good for a proper drink, Indiana, hope you like basketball, Chicago, its windy probably bad place for a brolly, Ohio hope you like farms, New York, Halfy and apparently a Squad of some sort and a reasonable chance of getting shot, probably by the police. }}

I'll let you know next year about some of them!

Avoid Louisiana.

I am going to New Orleans....

You know nothing, Figgy and Petty Snow. New Orleans is one of the most interesting cities in the country, at least if music is what interests you.

I hope you are lucky as you were in Africa Lance. Catching a wedding (or a funeral) "second line" in New Orleans is like catching the wildebeest crossing the river.

{{ Or you like squealing like a piggy! Im with Figg on this one run, just not for the swamps, or probably the hills either as they probably have eyes! }}

Deliverance was mainly filmed in Georgia and Alabama, BTW.  Anybody who knows Louisiana would recognize just how much of that film feels nothing like it.  A full day's drive, different geography and culture.  No idea why you think it was Louisiana.  It just wasn't, and the film never said it was.  The famous music is wrong for Loisiana, the accents....I mean, honestly.

If you haven't already gotten your hotel in Memphis, you might consider this converted train station:

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/memphis-central-station-hotel

This is the same station that the train they call "The City of New Orleans" stops at.

ok if you hear a banjo, just run.  

If they hear banjo music in Louisiana, it will likely be something like this.