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Crescent City Christmas


DennyG
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I've started my 2007 "Escape From Christmas" caper and have the first day's doings posted. I actually left home Friday but that was just jockeying for position. I got some sight seeing in on Saturday and ended the day in a motel featured as a very recent American Road Memory Motel. (I'll be in another, even more recently featured, Memory Motel before the trip is over.) The day before and the day of Christmas are scheduled for New Orleans. I'm not really escaping from Christmas - just the responsibilities of Christmas. Then I'll head up US-61 for a few days in the Delta and will pick up another forum member along the way. I won't reveal his name but I'm sure that, if we pass a rusting Terraplane in a field, he'll be able to tell me what year it was built.

 

Day one is up and the rest will follow with a day (or so) lag at

http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007

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I've started my 2007 "Escape From Christmas" caper and have the first day's doings posted. I actually left home Friday but that was just jockeying for position. I got some sight seeing in on Saturday and ended the day in a motel featured as a very recent American Road Memory Motel. (I'll be in another, even more recently featured, Memory Motel before the trip is over.) The day before and the day of Christmas are scheduled for New Orleans. I'm not really escaping from Christmas - just the responsibilities of Christmas. Then I'll head up US-61 for a few days in the Delta and will pick up another forum member along the way. I won't reveal his name but I'm sure that, if we pass a rusting Terraplane in a field, he'll be able to tell me what year it was built.

 

Day one is up and the rest will follow with a day (or so) lag at

http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007

 

Denny,

 

Maybe it is just my holiday feeling, but this seems to be an extra special trip! I enjoyed your visit to Selma perhaps most of all...but I’m also looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

Thanks for your insights and for sharing the trip.....and give our best to Mr Terraplane when you pick him up!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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Day one is up and the rest will follow with a day (or so) lag at

http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007

I've enjoyed days 1 and 2 so far. The photos from the Federal Highway sure make Alabama look quiet and deserted... But I guess Sundays are like that in the South unless you are near a church?

 

Chris

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Maybe it is just my holiday feeling, but this seems to be an extra special trip!
Looks like you joined this group two days after I got home from last year's holiday outing. 2005 was my first year for holiday rambling and that was limited to Thanksgiving and a post-Christmas departure. That went so well that last year I worked up the courage to vanish before Christmas and that, too, went well. It's even easier the second time. :D

 

My prior year end journals are, of course, still available as is another day of the current outing.

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Looks like you joined this group two days after I got home from last year's holiday outing. .

 

Denny,

 

Right!! And your "real time" comments and advice while we were on the road were terrific, and did a lot to pique my interest in the forum. You're the man!

 

I haven't checked Day Two yet, but comments will follow when I do.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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I've started my 2007 "Escape From Christmas" caper and have the first day's doings posted. I actually left home Friday but that was just jockeying for position. I got some sight seeing in on Saturday and ended the day in a motel featured as a very recent American Road Memory Motel. (I'll be in another, even more recently featured, Memory Motel before the trip is over.) The day before and the day of Christmas are scheduled for New Orleans. I'm not really escaping from Christmas - just the responsibilities of Christmas. Then I'll head up US-61 for a few days in the Delta and will pick up another forum member along the way. I won't reveal his name but I'm sure that, if we pass a rusting Terraplane in a field, he'll be able to tell me what year it was built.

 

Day one is up and the rest will follow with a day (or so) lag at

http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007

 

 

We're enjoying the trip with you, Denny; although, I wouldn't drive 'Lil Red on a dirt road like you travelled on day two. Do you think the red clay will ever come off the undercarriage?

 

Mary Sue asked just the other day if you were out somewhere on a Christmas Cruise. She's envious, as we'll remain at home over the holidays babysitting our granddog Pauncho while our son and family go skiing in CO....Bliss

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...I wouldn't drive 'Lil Red on a dirt road like you travelled on day two. Do you think the red clay will ever come off the undercarriage?
Not all of that unpaved driing was voluntary but, once I was started, going forward seemed much more sensible than trying to turn around in the road. I drove quite slowly and there isn't much clay on the body but the undercarriage could be a different story.
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Denny and others,

 

Just a quick note to let you (and others) know that Ebay has a large number of original photos up for sale this week documenting the civil rights events in and around Selma. They are from the San Francisco Examiner archives and are being sold by sfxarchive. The Edmund Pettus bridge is quite prominent in several photos.

 

In addition, there are some fabulous Lincoln Highway photos from the teens.

 

I promise you won’t be disappointed if you look...but don’t wait too long as they “close” in 3 days!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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What started out as a pretty good idea, at least to me, turned out to be an OUTSTANDING idea. As most know by now I had the great pleasure to share the last half of Denny G's latest road trip. Nothing like "hands-on-training" I say!!!!!!!!! A few emails back and forth to set things up and it was a done deal.

I started with a bus trip to Jackson, to meet up with Denny. (NOTE HERE: Security regulations are ridiculous - they confiscated the only "deadly" weapon I had, my nail clipper, but didn't really check my overnight bag, which was packed - and didn't check my rolled up sleeping bag at all - I could have had an arsenal rolled up in the thing!!!!!!!!)

From Jackson to Tutwiller, from Bentonia to Clarksdale - we visited a B-B-Q place that used a giant tepee for the seating part, we took a wonderful walk thru a petrified forest, we followed a long segment of old U S 49 from Tutwiller to Clarksdale, we shacked up at the Riverside (actually we stayed one night in the ShackUp Inn and one night at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale) and we slept that one night, in the Riverside, with the comforting ghost of Bessie Smith and the history of Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, Ike Turner and other great blues artists.

We had the interesting experience, when checking out of ShackUp Inn, of meeting a father from Birmingham, whose 12 year old son is in a wheelchair, then running into them at breakfast in downtown Clarksdale, again in Helena and they also stayed at the Riverside. Yes, they were also at Ground Zero for the blues show - that was the purpose of their trip. The young lad had gotten interested in Eric Clapton and wanted to experience some blues.

Thanks to Denny's generosity I got to experience the "road" - as we told people, we're just traveling the road - and most knew exactly what we were talking about. We saw a lot of interesting sights and in general had a great time.

Denny's heading north for home today and a part of me would like to be still traveling with him. But, all good things must, and do, come to an end.

I want to publically tell everybody what a great person Denny is - a great big THANKS, Denny. I hope we can do another trip together again sometime.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

Edited by Alex Burr - hester_nec
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I kind of surprised myself by getting home last night so what I've just posted ( http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007/day09 ) is the final day of the trip. I see Alex has already reported in and I agree that we had a good time cruising the Delta. I really enjoyed traveling with Alex through both familiar and unfamiliar country. A good time was had by all - especially that twelve year old blues fan.

 

I'm heading out now to visit a friend then get back home before the amateurs start celebrating. I see I've got a lot of forum posts to catch up on.

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I kind of surprised myself by getting home last night so what I've just posted ( http://www.dennygibson.com/no2007/day09 ) is the final day of the trip. I see Alex has already reported in and I agree that we had a good time cruising the Delta. I really enjoyed traveling with Alex through both familiar and unfamiliar country. A good time was had by all - especially that twelve year old blues fan.

 

I'm heading out now to visit a friend then get back home before the amateurs start celebrating. I see I've got a lot of forum posts to catch up on.

 

Denny (an Alex),

 

Another great trip and report!

 

Your closing comments on day 9 about heading home hit the mark. As much as I enjoy the road, when I get within the last couple of hours of home, my 'ole familiar easy chair comes looking for me!

 

Thanks for another great road adventure! And happy New Year!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

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