Day 41: New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi, to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama

Miles: 9,613

States: 28 (Mississippi and Alabama)

We visited two state capitals today. Downtown Jackson is a ghost town, but there's a very cute arts district - we had lunch there. Fried green tomatoes, shrimp gumbo, and red beans and rice with andouille. It was fantastic. One of those meals where you say "yum" with every bite.

We got to Selma around 5, just as the voting rights museum was closing. Our grand plan had been to visit the museum, then drive the march route from Selma to Montgomery - March, 1965, Bloody Sunday in Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Dr. King led 3,000 marchers to Montgomery, by which time their numbers had swelled to 25,000. Since the museum was closed, we drove more ignorant than we hoped. But we rolled down the windows and sang along to music from the 60s, some of it about social turmoil and upheaval.

Downtown Montgomery was very quiet as well - I guess that's what we get for going to the deep south on a weekend. We drove around the downtown area and took pictures - of the capitol, of the civil rights memorial, of the church where Dr. King was a pastor for many years.

Today we're headed to Birmingham, then towards home. I'm so ready to be home, even if it's just for a few days.

Day 40: New Orleans, Louisiana

After our Thursday night dinner of shrimp gumbo, jambalaya with andouille, and po boys at the famous Mother's, we were in the New Orleans frame of mind.

Friday morning, Andrew and I walked to the French Quarter for hot beignets and cold cafe-au-laits. We ate them on a park bench overlooking the Mississippi, with a red train rolling by and a big tour boat playing kitchy music on the river. We met up with Parker, a good friend from high school, to explore. We walked down to the French Market and gawked at alligator heads, penis mardi gras beads, and weird, cheap knicknacks. The French Quarter has gorgeous old homes with intricate ironwork and lots of greenery - so picturesque. And of course we explored Burbon Street. We counted 14 strip joints on our 5-ish block walk. And they're vulgar even during the day, with photographic advertisements for live sex acts and creative strip shows. I'm not sure how that's all legal.

We took the St. Charles street car through the Garden District, with its beautiful old homes, to an old fashioned lunch counter - Camilla's. The wait staff performed admirably and the food was delicious. (Club sandwiches loaded with fresh, real turkey, "dressed" burgers, omelets smothered in chili, milk shakes with Blue Bell ice cream...)

Notable: the trees in the Garden District are hung with Mardi Gras beads year round. It's hard to tell in this photo unless you zoom in.