Road Trip To Texas - Day 4 & 5

Jack Daniel's Visitor Centre

Waking up in a Nashville car park early in the morning to a bird singing in my ear hole was not the best start to the day and it was told in the most polite way possible to sod off. After grabbing a bite to eat at the local fast food joint we set off to Lynchburg for an education tour, this time we were to learn the history of Mr Jack Daniel's. 

Lynchburg is a very small town of 5-6 thousand people and there is nothing to do here; something the distillery tells us at the beginning of the tour. The reason being that they don't want anything to 

distract them from their whiskey making. As we approached the visitors centre we were welcomed with Jack Daniel's rocking chairs and used barrels everywhere. Upon opening the door we were inundated with information regarding the history of the drink and how it's made. The funny thing however is that the county in which Lynchburg is situated is dry so we weren't allowed any free tasters. The fact that it was Easter Sunday didn't exactly help either.

Our tour guide was a guy called Dusty and couldn't be anymore stereotypically southern if he tried. Wearing his dungarees and JD baseball cap, Dusty slurred his words and often forgot what he was talking about. He picked his ears as he talked and made numerous hand gestures when he couldn't think of the right word. It turns out that he works at the local elementary school as a teacher during the week and he does the tours at weekends. I guess it is very much a family thing as his grandfather was the master distiller in his day. 

Leaving Lynchburg we headed south to Birmingham, Alabama. On the journey I learned on the radio that the white man is enslaved and must be freed by the black man. Apparently the black man is the most unforgiving of men and needs to let go of the past and let free the white man. As the two presenters were discussing this very odd subject an email came in asking them about latinos. The answer was that he wasn't aware that they were enslaved but they must concentrate on freeing the white man first. The reason for this is that there is no country in the world that is run well by a non white male. If your country is run by anything other than a white male, it isn't run correctly. When they tried to think of a hispanic country that was led well they came up with Spain. I was astounded that they allowed this on the radio.

Arriving in Alabama it was noticeable that the road kill got a little bigger. No longer were there racoons on the side of the road, but dogs. A lot of dogs. Entering Birmingham at 5pm was strange, it was like a zombie film. The streets were deserted, the wind picked up just enough for the traffic lights to swing in the air, and all the buildings were derelict. The first sign of life was a queue of homeless people waiting for the shelter to open up. Looking for somewhere to eat we had a look at the 100 places to eat in Alabama leaflet we picked up at the welcome centre. Setting Phoney to the destination we were taken to yet another derelict building with no sign of life. Trying to get out of the city was simple as you could stop in the middle of the road, look up directions and have no need to worry that you are in the way as we were the only car on the streets.

Leaving Alabama we headed to New Orleans for some jazz and blues music. Despite the smell of sewage invading your nostrils every now and then, it really is a pretty place. As we wandered around Bourbon Street we noticed that you are allowed to drink in the street and that pubs had little window bars for you to order to take away. The homeless people here, and there are a lot of them, were loving it as they sat in the sun and drank the days away. They don't even try to hide their habits as they would bluntly ask for money for beer or weed; honesty is the best policy. One particular homeless man shouted to Evan that he always has been, will be, and currently is absolutely, utterly, and completely wasted. Then he fell over.

Wikipedia

New Orleans

La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris (1763). During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port to smuggle aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched the southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1801, when it reverted to French control. Nearly all of the surviving 18th century architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from this Spanish period. (The most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent.) Napoleon sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, Irish, Germans and Africans. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city.