On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:39:19 -0700 (PDT), MajorOz
wrote:

On Jul 9, 2:10*am, "asadi" wrote:
...Well my sister in law and her husband are visiting from Germany. At first
he wanted to go to Myrtle Beach, Miami Florida, then travel route 66 and
some of highway 101 in California.....in two weeks.

So after telling him to Mapquest and look a the distances involved he has
calmed down very much.

Now we are thinking of Nashville and a few other country spots...he really
wants to see "small town" America. *I am thinking of New Orleans....then up
north to the Shenandoah Valley .

I know small towns and such but I have never been to New Orleans so if you
guys could give me a tip on a campground close by or some place to go or
some music to hear...I would a appreciate it....

John

New Orleans is a waste of time and money. If they are looking for
music, avoid the Memphis, Nashville, NO stuff and concentrate on the
Blues Trail. Go to Greenville MS, spend a night or three at some of
the black blues juke joints,

Um, when's the last time you were in Greenville? There are a few true juke
joints left in the area, but Viking, the casinos, the Deltafest, etc., have
yuppified and tourista-ed it, IMO, considerably. Now, if you're talking the
whole general area, on both sides of the river, and down into LA, then, yeah,
that's something pretty cool to consider. The only thing I'd say is to really
experience it, you need at least 5-6 days...preferably in the spring or fall. I
would also take issue with NO being a waste of time and money. There are
probably as many good places to hear music and eat good food in NO as there are
in a 30-40-mile radius of Greenville...which is not to say the Delta is a bad
idea, just to say that NO isn't, either.

I will say this - in the Delta, you won't need to be nearly as cautious as NO as
far as just walking into any ol' place. I can't really think of any place up
there (but I'm sure there are some) where you'd truly be in real danger, but I
can think of at least a dozen right off in the general NO area, and at least a
couple that an unknown white boy and a couple from Germany_will_ have an issue -
how it resolves will be partly up to the white boy and his party, but partly up
to fate, and at least one that while I'd almost certainly be OK, I probably
still wouldn't go nowadays, even with friends of the, um, proper look - no point
in tempting fate THAT much...

And while Memphis and Nashville are pretty touristy, they have their good
points, too, but I'd rank them, in this situation, well below NO and the Delta
as possible destinations.

TC,
R