TN, GA, AL, MS, LA

April 26, 2012 - Chattanooga, TN to New Orleans, LA - 498 miles

Weather - sunny, high 80s

Today we got up early, ate breakfast and then got on I-59 South and drove. If you look at a map you will see that this highway takes you through all of our states today. We had a great stop for lunch at Nicki's West in Birmingham, AL as you might have seen in our pictures. We emailed back and forth with our New Orleans host, Emile Dumesnil, all day from the truck and he mentioned that we were all going to a garden party that evening. Luckily, this Victory Tour packing strategy included some fancy duds so we were able to stop at a rest area before New Orleans and throw on our garden party attire. We arrived at the home of Emile and Katherine's friend in the Garden District and joined a very nice event. The setting was beautiful, the musicians were great and the food was as tasty as you would expect in New Orleans. I am going to highly compliment the crawfish étouffée. We were thrilled to run into our old friends, Stuart and Renee Peck, who happened to live across the street. We have played some very serious croquet with the Pecks at Manomet and have dined out with them in Maine and it was great to see them.

After the party, Jayne and Dan went to the 11:30 show at Cafe Istanbul with Katherine to see her friend, Evan Christopher, play the clarinet with a great group. It was clarinet, bass, electric guitar, drums and trumpet. The music was so good we stayed until 1:30! We settled into Emile and Katherine's guest room on their property after another great day.

Happy to be in NOLA!


What a day!