Trip Journal
Departure date: 02/11/2023
When do you want to go to New Orleans? During Mardi Gras of course! Come back here and enjoy our all our photos and daily journal.
February 11 – 2023 – Saturday- A beautiful sunny day starting our trip to New Orleans. Tonight we stayed at the Double Tree in Mount Vernon, IL.
February 12 – 2023 Sunday, Another sunny day, 58 degrees at Graceland in Memphis. Graceland has so much to see and do. Tour the Mansion, visit the gravesite. Museums and exhibitions galore, one with Elvis’s cars, others with his costumes and personal effects. Also tributes and costumes from other musical stars. It was a most exciting stop before heading to our hotel. Tonight we stayed at the Hollywood Casino with complimentary food and slot play.
February 13 – 2023– Monday A beautiful sunny day reaching into the 70’s. This morning we stopped at the King Railroad Museum in Cleveland Mississippi. It was a great morning rest stop. Back on the road towards Canton Mississippi, our first stop was at the Country Club for lunch. We took a short tour, then stopped in the town square at the museums where multiple movies were filmed, Oh Brother Where Art Though, My Dog Skip, A Time to Kill and more. Today, they were shooting a film for the Lifetime Channel. A neat stop with perfect weather. Tonight we stay at the Hampton Inn in Mc Comb Mississippi .
February 14 – 2023 – Tuesday, Mid 70’s for Valentines Day. It was sunny when we toured the Oak Alley Plantation. On the way in we travelled along the bayou spotting homes built on stilts to avoid the storm surges. The Plantation was beautiful… In New Orleans, the World War II museum is the best museum in the US and it is huge covering 5 buildings filling a block. Tonight at the New Orleans Cooking school, crayfish ettofue was the main course. Our hotel for the next two nights is the Drury Plaza.
February 15 – 2023 –Wednesday The first half of our day was spent on a city tour with a local guide. The route went down St. Charles Street through the French Quarter with a stop at one of the cemeteries. We had free time in the French Quarter for lunch and shopping. Our next stop was at Mardi Gras World. They make a lot of the parade floats here and we are looking forward to watching the parade… Parade weather is great. Light jacket or none at all. It’s hard to get pictures at night that turn out, but we did get a few. Waiting for the parade to start, someone had a grabber so our pre parade activities included enlisting the help of a bystander who helped us harvest some of bead fruit hanging in the trees. Another local then told us that was bad Juju because the trees are defenseless and we would would have bad luck the rest of the night getting beads. She was wrong. Once the parade started beads were everywhere. It was a fun night.
February 16- 2023 Thursday- Today we stopped at Klieberts. It’s a small wildlife park with gators, snakes and birds. A very knowledgeable guide, T-Mike gave us every opportunity to hold and touch nearly every animal in the park. Tonight we are staying at the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, MS.
February 17 – 2023 Friday A cooler day but sunny in the mid 40’s. At the Bass Pro Shop in Memphis everyone had a chance to visit and shop at this unique building. Tonight we’ll stay in Effingham Illinois.
February 18 – 2023 – Saturday-The end to a great trip with some of the best weather ever. What a great experience to attend a New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade. Like no other.
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