Heading South
April 15 - 23

Indianapolis to Miami, via St. Louis. Not intuitive but we have two weeks and needed to visit Terry's sister and mother (who is in Highland healing a broken arm).

First interesting stop. Terre Haute, IN. Found the Clabber Girl Museum. Never heard of it before but there was a billboard. . . Nice little place with interesting artifacts. Clabber Girl was how the Hulman family got it's money back in the 1800s.

Spent a day lazing around Jan and Ale's place (they're hosting this web site by the way). Took a bunch of horse pictures. This is Psyches Royal Dream. One of 15 horses in their stables/backyard - Alvarado Stables. A randy stallion at that.

While heading to New Orleans, we crossed the Mississippi on 4 different ferry's. All these were ones' we hadn't yet been on.

Road Food by the Sterns have led us to quite a few good eating places. One of the best is Does Eat Place in Greenville, MS. A $32 T-Bone for two was almost 2" thick and tender as tissue. Just ignore the atmosphere - run-down ramshackle shack in the wrong side of a very poor town. But you may sit about 3 feet from the stove where they iron skillet french fries.

Can anyone explain how Mississippi determines it's load limits?

Old houses are one of Terry's goals. This one, Rosemont, is both old and historical - Jefferson Davis' boyhood home in Woodville, MS (this is the third of Davis's homes we've been to - Jackson and Biloxi are the others).

This one was called "White Castle" by the planter who had 7,000 acres of cotton, 8 sons, and 1 daughter. It's in White Castle, LA right on the Mississippi river. Now called Nottoway by it's B&B owner.

South of New Orleans, this Victorian, Southdown, was the manor house of a 20,000 acre sugar cane plantation. The second floor was added after the civil war. It's now owned by the Houma, LA historical society and the volunteer guide-ladies were great. Very few rooms, though, had furniture. Most were filled with typical local exhibits.

Bourbon Street. 'Nuff said. Bob cruised three nights (Terry sacked out the second night).

Our third day in the Big Easy we walked all day and still cruised the street at night. You'll recognize Jackson Square.

Terry does old houses and Bob, of course, does bars. Along the way we stopped at a few brewpubs:

• Gordon Biersch - Memphis, TN - Closed its doors about a month ago.
• Bosco's Squared - Memphis, TN - One of three of the chain out of Nashville. Inviting lunch and dinner place with brick interior and virtually no parking. Large but intimately narrow bar. Eight 3oz samplers for $8.
  • Tennessee Cream Ale - Light but full malt. Bright yellow
  • Flaming Stone - A "stienbrau" with a heated stone from the pizza oven put in the boil for carmalization. Clean. Their signature beer. Perle and Tettnang hops. Virtually no smokiness.
  • Kung Fu Junior - Malty and acrid.
  • Midtown Brown - Sweetish southern brown with a smidgen of chocolate. Fuggles and EK Goldings hops. Sort of a nut brown.
  • Honey Wheat - Hint of honey. Hefe. Pale yellow. Quite pleasant. American style but with a hint of banana so not sure of the yeast used.
  • Bombay IPA - Nondescript bitterness. Centennial hops mask the Cascades hops grapefruitiness. 52 IBA.
  • Isle of Sky Scottish Ale - Dark to style. Horizon and Glacier hops. Very acceptable. Not overly sweet. Middle of style flavor but no aroma.
  • London Porter - Almost opaque. Hint of red. Sweetish. Fuggles and EK Goldings. Some residual sugars give it some graininess. Not world class stuff.
• While in Memphis, eat a Corky's BBQ. The vaunted Leonards on the SE side is a pale second best.
• Zea Rotisserie & Brewery - Metairie, LA - Shopping mall brewpub with a quiet afternoon crowd of homebrewers around the bar. Smiling service. Seven 5oz samplers for $6. Brewing vessels behind glass in the dining area. Real ale is on tap every Tuesday and Wednesday (we got lucky).
  • Clearview Light - Named for the mall. Tasty and hearty suitable intro beer.
  • Zea Lager Dark Beer - Unfiltered and hazy but not dark by any means. Balanced. OK.
  • Category 5 Strong Ale - An unhoppy but bitter APA. Not a strong ale.
  • Cask Conditioned APA - Appropriately warm. Appropriately cloudy. Appropriately bitter of Cascades. Not overblown. A winner.
  • IPA - EK Goldings. Brilliant copper. Flowery bitter aftertaste but enough malt to balance. Excellent to strong end of style.
  • Pontchartrain Porter - Chocolately and sweet. Translucent cordovan. Good dessert beer, like a dark chocolate mousse.
  • Abbey Road Belgian Ale - Seasonal - Mandatory candy sugar dominates this beatiful Belgian blonde. Mundane name though. A+.
• Brewhouse Grill - New Orleans - The defunct Acadian Brewing at Carrolton and Canal has reopened as a much bigger place since dining instead of brewing fills the old garage bays. When we stopped in they had none of theirs on tap yet but a Amber and a Helles Bock were due out "any day now".
• Crescent City - New Orleans - 3 blocks from Jackson Square on tourist side of the French Quarter. Rent must be astronomical. Good night parties also.
  • Pilsner
  • Weiss - A bit of German banana/clove.
  • Red Stallion - Hoppy Vienna amber.
  • Black Forest Munich Dunkle - Light aroma overpowered by malt from copper open mash tun that was directly behind the bar. Their signature.
  • Roggen - Seasonal - Dunkle Krystal Weisen with 25% rye and 15% wheat. First time this 15year brewer made a rye and he didn't like the clumpy mess it made. Some rye comes through when warmed. A nice dry weisen.
• Mr Jim's Cannon Brewpub - Mobile, AL - A sister to the original Cannon BP in Columbia, GA. This is where Port City Brewery was located years back. It was closed and deteriorated for 2 years before being revived by the new owner in late 2003. Unfortunately what once was a party street is no longer hip and they are still fighting to bring back the crowds. Serving tanks behind sliding glass doors behind the bar. Mash tun, brew kettle, hot liquor tank, and reservoir are directly above.
  • Middle Bay Light
  • Special Op's Pale Ale - American dry hopped IPA.
  • Iron Clad Stout - On nitro.
  • Red Jacket Ale - Deep red-brown. Clean. Light end of style. Some caramel malt comes through. Cluster, Willamette, and Cascade balance nicely.
  • Bienville Pale Lager - An "American Pilsner". Heavier than mainstream and maybe a bit creamy. Very similar taste though and no aroma. A smidgen of oxidation in the aftertaste.
• McGuires - Pensacola, FL - A typical busy Friday in this dollar-bill-strewn madhouse. Pipers and drums walking through. Still trendy after all these years.
  • Raspberry Wheat
  • Red
  • Light
  • Stout
  • IPA
  • Porter - Black, cold, sweet, and mild. Inoffensive. Popular with the local Navy guys.

New Orleans has some surprises like Cooter Browns at St. Charles and Carrolton and The Alibi just a half block off of Bourbon St and a block off Canal. Just east of the French Quarter on Frenchman St. is dba, one of a 2-bar chain (the other is in Manhattan). The first 4 boards are the beer list plus there's 20 taps. There's more cognacs on the board than vodkas. Too bad the 2-man band wasn't up to snuff.

dba

Found Gary Brown at Papa Joe's - the best blues band in town that night. Solid bass man with a strange disinterested glaze. Brown on alto, bari, and most vocals. Drummer. Lead guitar and keyboard guy did good solos but Brown couldn't keep himself from walking all over them. The guy has jump. Brown just formed these 5 a month or so ago.

In Pensacola, FL the USS Oriskany is being stripped down to be sunk as an artificial diving reef. Sort of a sad sight.

Also spotted: