The lady who knew
After our visit to St. Louis,
we turned south. Or at least tried to turn south. When we left the hotel
parking lot early in the morning, it
turned out that the road that we exited to was one-way
... in the wrong direction. We therefore had to drive around the hotel, and we
must havbe made a wrong turn because suddenly we found ourselves crossing the Mississippi
in an easterly direction, that is back to Illinois. As we were on a motorway, we couldn't just turn back, so
we had to continue to the first possible exit. Here we left the motorway, but
once more the road we exited to was a one-way in the wrong direction, so we had
to drive around for a bit, in a less than fashionable neighborhood in East St. Louis.
Finally we managed to get back to the motorway and back across the Mississippi, so we
could get south. The Interstate runs along the Mississippi, but so far away from
it that
you can not see the river at all, so there was no particular reason to make any stops
until we reached the mandatory Welcome Center right after the Arkansas state
line. Here we got a map of Arkansas, which we studied for a while to decide out
how far we would go. Simultaneously we also lconsulted a hotel brochure, and we
agreed that the city of Pine Bluff, sounded like an interesting place to stay
for the night. The town is situated about 65
miles south of Little Rock. Even today I remember the Arkansas capital best from a novel I read in
elementary school about the segregation between blacks and whites in
the 1960's. Who
wrote the book and what it was called, I don't remember but if was a Danish
author and the protagonist was
a young African-American girl.
We continued on the interstate south to
around Memphis in Tennessee. Here we turned west again. As we approached Little
Rock it started to rain. The weather had been hot and very humid all day and
and our aircondition wasn't working properly, so a little rain was welcomed.
But a few miles outside Little rock the rain turned into a thunderstorm and at
one time it was quite bad, though not as bad as in Mississippi two years before. Despite the rain and thunder
we arrived safely in Pine
Bluff, where we also found a nice hotel. Fortunately it stopped raining just long
enough for me to carry the luggage from the car to the room without getting wet.
At the
reception desk were two girls who were very interested in knowing where we came
from. They were somewhat surprised that we came from so far away from and one of
the
girls said she had traveled extensively in America, but had never been outside
the country. After checking in at the hotel it had started raining heavyly again
so we took the car and drove a short distance to a large shopping mall. Dorte simply had to have some
new shirts and jeans, so she got that. We also found a restaurant, that looked
interesting, and we were apparently not the only ones that thought so, because we had to wait about
30 minutes to get
a table. But when we finally got inside the restaurant, whose name I have
forgotten, was incredibly cozy and the food was excellent. Then we returned to
our hotel and relaxed until bedtime.
From Pine Bluff we were heading south to Opelousas, Louisiana. But oh woe oh horror,
there is simply no interstates that crosses the border between Arkansas and
Louisiana, and no intersatess means no welcome centers. We therefore had two choices. We
could drive east into Tennessee and find an interstate there, or we
could go southwest, into Texas and then to Louisiana, but we decided to take an
ordinary U.S. Highway south and just manage without a welcome center. So we just
took U.S. Route 65 south, and it was a good
example of how the highways are not always freeways. Just outside Pine Bluff the
highway had four lanes, and a 60 miles per hour speed limit. Soon after though
it narrowed down two lanes, and then the speed limit dropped to 50 miles. Later it
dropped even more, eg through the cities, where it often
was down to 35 miles, so we didn't go very fast on our way south. But then we
had time to enjoy the road's surroundings that was very beautiful. We saw a lot
of the redwinged blackbirds that we had already seen in St. Louis, and
in the ditches along the roadside were plenty of herons and great erets as well
as golden egrets. As always there was plenty of "road kill" along the road. It is
everywhere, along with large quantities of exploded tires. The
animals we saw here were especially squirrels, opossums and raccoons, but as we got
farther south, we also saw armadillos and we are actually passed a single dead turtle,
so it's not only in Georgia, there are turtles on the road.
Even if it was a very pretty road (U.S.
Route 65 is actually a scenic route all the way from Pine Bluff
till it meets with I-20 near Tallulah, Louisiana), there was a downside to it. No
rest areas and thus no toilets. Gradually the need for such a facility arose, but
of course at a time when there was neither a gas station nor anything like that
around. We were therefore quite needy
when we finally reached the town of Lake Providence just south of the
Louisiana state line, which incidentally we had crossed almost without realizing it. Here
we could choose between two posssibilities; a "cotton museum" and a Visitor Center. We agreed
that both places must have the necessary facilities, and our choice fell on the
visitor center, primarily because
we got to that first.
The place was run by an elderly lady, who either must have been psychic, been
accustomed to visitors only coming for one reason - or maybe she was able to
read our body language when we entered the place. Literally the first word she ever uttered was "Do you need to use the restroom?" And
at the same time she
pointed in the direction of this facility. When we had done what we had to do, we returned to the lady who apparently thought that now that
we had "made room", we needed a refill, so she offered us both freshly squeezed,
homemade lemonade, coffee or iced tea. While we drank the
juice of freshly squeezed lemons and limes (she pressed while we lwaited),
mixed with sugar and water, we had a chat with the lady, who like so many others
would like know where we came from. Unlike most others we had met in the U.S.
though, she actually knew
Denmark - and even knew where in the world it was! It turned out that she had worked
for a
Danish furniture company's Puerto Rico branch. The lady took her task as
information staff seriously, and asked where we
were headed. When we replied that we were going to Opelousas farther south in
Louisiana, she initially looked quite puzzled, as if she thought "What will tourists
do there?" But she recovered herself quickly, not least because we explained
that it was only a stop on the road to New Orleans. Then she began to pull down leaflets from the shelves and
told us about things we absolutely had to
see along the way, and we thanked her for her helpfulness, and didn't visit a
single spot of those she recommended, as we already had our own plans, and they
would take us in another direction.
Now we could of course have chosen to proceed directly
to
Opelousas, but it
would have been too easy. So when US-65 met Interstate 20 near the town of
Tallulah, we turned east on the interstate, crossed the Mississippi and
drove into the state of the same name. Not to visit a welcome center, nay, no,
oh oh. We would be cultural as well as historical and visit yet another battleground! This
time the Vicksburg National Military Park, scene of one of the longest sieges on
the western front during the civil war, but also of the first major victory for
the Union troops. We therefore stopped at the park's visitor center and bought a
ticket for us and the car. We drove around the park but it was not as exiting as
I had hoped. Only one building was left, that had existed in 1863, when the battle took place. Everything else was gone - of
course apart from later added monuments. Most interesting in the park was
the view of the Mississippi and an old armored gunboat, Cairo, from the Civil War (known
as an ironclad). The ship was the first ship in history, that was sunk by a
naval mine. It happened in the Yazoo River in 1862, and Cairo was recovered in
1956 and is now exhibited in Vicksburg.
From Vicksburg we headed south and took
U.S. Highway 61, known as "The Blues Highway". My knowledge of Highway
61 comes actually from
music, from Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited". I'm particularly fond
of a recording with
Johnny Winter, but I digress.
It was en route south on Highway 61, that the car's air condition system broke
completely down, so the only air conditioning we had on the rest
of the holiday was to open the windows. That did not much good, as the outside temperature
was in the 90'es. We left the road in Natchez, but made no stop here, apart from a refueling
of
the car and the ice box. Now that the air condition system no
longer worked, ice-cold water was the most cooling, we could get. At Natchez we
crossed the Mississippi, and continued on U.S. 84 to the city of Alexandria, where we changed to I-49
for the last stretch to Opelousas.
We had booked hotel from home, so now it was just
about to locate it. This was rather easy, as it was placed right next to an
exit from the interstatel. Getting to it was entirely another matter. I have previously told about our problems with I-10 Service Road
in New Orleans, which we couldn't find (No
alligators at the roadside on the
25th anniversary tour.). Also this hotel was on a service road, but this
time we had no troulbes at all locating the actual road. It was actually very easy, but when we
reached the right exit from the highway we were both so busy looking out for the
hotel, that I did not turn on to the service road, when we exited the interstate. Instead
I continued on an access ramp, and then we were back on the
Interstate, that we had just left. We had to
drive about 9 miles to the next exit, where we could turn around and go back. The second time we hit
the right road however, and then drove straight to the hotel. It was rather
late when we arrived and
there was apparently a big party going on at the hotel. What was celebrated, we
don't
know, but there were many people, all dressed up and in a very festive
mood.
When
we had carried the suitcases to the room, we just took a quick shower and then
left again to get
something to eat. From home we had read, that Opelousas was an exciting city with lots
places, where you could listen to cajun and zydeco music (my interest, not
Dorte's). Opelousas is called both the "Gateway
to Acadiana," which is the area where the cajuns and their music comes from,
and also "World Capital of Zydeco", but we where too tired after a
long day of driving, so we decided just to eat, and the go back to the hotel.
We found a place a little further down the service road, that looked OK. It was
a Ryan's Grill and Bakery,
another of America's many chain restaurants, but one which we had never tried
before. When we entered we were met by a lady at a cash register, which was
slightly surprising as we are used to pay after having eaten. She asked
what we would like to drink, and we chose a Coke for me and iced tea for Dorte. Then she
asked for $ 21 all inclusive, and asked whether we would leave a tip.
We would like to, so I said $ 5, and it was addeed to the bill, which I paid for with my credit card.
We were then handed the five dollars in cash, so we could give
them to the waitress later.
"All inclusive" proved to be a dinner buffet. There was a great salad buffet with everything your heart could desire of different kinds of lettuce and accessories in the form of croutons, bacon, ham, cheese, vegetables and a rich selection of dressings. But now people do not live by salad alone. Therefore, there was a 25 feet long counter with chicken dishes with accessories. An equally long counter with fish dishes and accessories. And finally a great dessert buffet with pastries, cheese, ice cream, fresh and stewed fruit, pie, and not least a soft ice machine. Besides these buffet counters there was a carvery, where a chef cut pieces of beef fillet, fried ham and stuffed turkey. And if you were still hungry there was a second chef who grilled large, inch-thick T-bone steaks to the customer's desire, and/or grilled crabs.
Unfortunately, our appetite did not live up to the offering. But I
ate lots of salad, a little fish and a little chicken. What Dorte got I don't remember, but
I do remeber, that she visited the dessert buffet, which i didn't. When we could squeeze
nothing more down we were offered coffee, which I accepted and got a giant mug.
After this giant meal, we returned to the hotel to relax.