Deep South Tour - Fall 2011 - Day 1

I am returning to Blogging having recently enjoyed three weeks in the Southern States of America and realizing that I missed the mental exercise of writing.
We were in the Deep South from Sunday the 16th of October to Sunday the 6th of November.
Our route was Atlanta, Georgia to Asheville, North Carolina to Chattanooga, Tennessee to Nashville to Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi to Natchez to Lafayette, Louisiana to New Orleans to Montgomery, Alabama to Savannah GA to Charleston, South Carolina and finally back to Atlanta.
That’s seven states towards our ongoing quest to visit every state of the union and twelve towns/hotels. My Multimap research indicated that just from hotel to hotel the mileage would be 2480 with a travelling time of 38 hours but we knew that we would drive about on non-travelling days and we planned detours to see attractions enroute so the mileage was always going to exceed this estimate. We had twelve traveling days to cover the 2400plus miles so it was pretty much 200 miles per travelling day average.
Julia did an amazing amount of research prior to our trip and on the basis of her work she was granted naming rights to the tour, she came up with “Civil War, Civil Rights, Jazz and Blues”. Her title stood up well to the experience we shared.
Our vacation was planned for us by American Sky and despite a few quibbles here and there we can heartily recommend them, their basic tour was 14 days, we added to it and tweaked it without ever defeating them. Everything was correctly booked and we were expected by everyone on the itinerary.
We set off from Derby to London Heathrow on Sunday 16th of October; we flew out at 15.00 so we ensured that we allowed plenty of time by leaving home soon after 9.00 for the two and a half hour drive. One of the small frustrations was that we had already set the SatNav up for the USA so we navigated with older methods. With the haunting experience of having missed our flight on the way to New England last year we had also discussed with Purple Parking how, if we were running late, we could go direct to the airport and have them collect the car from there. Nothing of this sort was required, the journey went well and we were in the departure lounge with plenty of time to spare.
We travelled with British Airways this time, we have never looked to specify the airline but I have to say it matched up poorly to Virgin Atlantic, our carrier to Boston last year. Like every other flight we travel on, the plane was full and, however close to exactly 24 hours before flight time we check in, our seats are always in the last three rows. This flight we were placed behind a large party who were doing a Railroad tour similar to our fly drive in part. They had a travelling courier who knew some of the flight crew and it was interesting to hear that they described our plane as “tired” which it demonstrated by my seat refusing to lock in the upright position and the in-flight entertainment system having to be rebooted twice before we could enjoy a film.
I had a small instance of karma, not something I believe in but, when the young woman who had battered my ankles with her large carry-on case all the way down the aircraft was struck on the head by a henpecked man trying to force his equally large case into the already full locker above her head. He demonstrated the world’s most insincere apology despite her having received a pretty solid blow due to his ineptitude. We then enjoyed his wife taking over the job and redistributing other people’s luggage to lockers far and wide in order to reunite their baggage in one cozy location.
When I observe the English middle class of that type I try to feel some sympathy that they have fallen on hard times and now have to share with such common folk as us.
The time zones were on our side and it was only 1900 local time when we arrived in the mighty city which is Atlanta International Airport. We got through immigration and shortly after claimed our hold luggage only to have to pass through customs with it and surrender it again to a baggage carousel, I tried to explain that we had arrived and were not flying on but I was quickly corrected, this procedure was simply to get the bags across the airport and we found ourselves traveling on a monorail several stops to the main hub.
It has always been my intention to spend our first night in the USA as near to the airport as possible if we are collecting a hire car and moving on the following day. I am at a loss as to how I fail so thoroughly to convey this part of my plan to those involved in booking our accommodation. This time we found ourselves on another train dragging our wheeled bags and carrying our hand luggage, my back pack and Julia’s handbag, purse to our American friends. We passed through a stop labeled Airport Hotels but journeyed on to the Car Hire centre. I would have preferred to be checking into a hotel as we were claiming our hire car looking forward to a journey of twelve miles in the dark hoping that the SatNav had the USA correctly loaded and could pick up a signal before we were lost.
Our Dollar Car Hire voucher entitled us to a Compact car – we had upgraded from Economy – and we noted that we had Platinum insurance. We were amused therefore to be offered an insurance package which covered roadside assistance which we declined, if platinum was less than recommended what would they have called this package? Diamond Encrusted!
Having passed through the office side of the operation we followed signs to the garage, there we handed over some paperwork and were told to pick any car from the C aisle. We picked a Ford Focus, partly because we are considering swapping to one next year but we should have been prepared to check out some more cars before deciding. Just by opening the trunks we might have found one with no “lip” to lift the bags over and that would have made me less concerned about hurting my back with the lifting.
The SatNav was fine but it refused to accept that 300 Spring Street existed but a mixture of luck and good management saw us arrive by about 2140. At check-in we presented our voucher to the tired guy behind the desk, he was very welcoming and we warmed to each other when he asked how we were paying the 15$ for overnight parking and we told him that we were expecting the cost having read it on the internet. He was delighted with us agreeing that it appeared on their website as this was denied by most of his customers causing considerable aggravation. He was so pleased that he paid the charge himself.
The hotel served its purpose and we decided to get to bed rather than eat again.
We had just decided against unpacking to find our travel kettle to make tea and reluctantly settled for sharing a soda from the vending machine when the room phone rang. Our friend Sheila from New Orleans had tracked us down and was welcoming us to the states.