“Rollin’ on the Mississippi River” + New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville Tour
A group of 40 excited PROBUS travelers have just returned from what can only be described as a fabulous 12-day adventure through the American South.
We flew into New Orleans on a busy November weekend, enjoyed some fine local cuisine and two city tours including a walk through the French Quarter. Free time allowed us to individually experience some fine jazz performances in restaurants and famous clubs all around Bourbon St. Some of us visited Mardi Gras World to see where they make those fantastic creative floats and displays used for their world famous parades. Most were lucky to enjoy some famous “Beignets”, a local sweet treat !
Staying at the Hilton Riverside Hotel made it convenient for us to board our boat “The American Queen” to begin the cruise portion of our trip on the 3rd day. This working paddlewheel steamboat, built in 1995, is a recreation and modelled after the famous 19th Century Riverboats. It was our home for the next 7 days. Travelling north on the Mississippi River we visited 6 different ports enjoying tours of famous mansions, plantations, museums and for some, a special visit to the historic Vicksburg Civil War battlefield. Although none of us had experienced a boat trip quite like this before, it was generally agreed this cruise provided us great food, unbelievable entertainment and as good or better staff service any of us had enjoyed on any previous cruise. An absolutely outstanding voyage !
Our cruise ended on a cold Monday am in Memphis. Very cold, couldn’t this weather have waited?
A morning stop at Graceland in Memphis was most impressive. The place is an enormous tourist attraction, two hours here was hardly enough time to see everything. The Grilled P.B.& B. (peanut butter and banana) sandwich I had for lunch was surpassed only by the P.B. & B. ice cream I had for dessert.
Next was a bus ride from Memphis to Nashville to conclude our adventure. We stayed at the Opry Land Resort. An absolute MONSTER Hotel, over 2880 rooms and the place was completely decked out for Christmas. After a lovely dinner at the Crystal gazebo, we departed the hotel for the evening “Twinkling Tennessee Christmas Tour”. Seeing Christmas lights and decorations displayed on some of Nashville’s finest residences was truly an amazing spectacle, a great way to end a very long travel day.
The last full day provided us a Nashville City Tour in the a.m. followed by a BBQ lunch and music show at the famous Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville restaurant where we were entertained by Jimmy Dean Hicks. The afternoon offered a chance to experience the Country Music Hall of Fame, again, 2 hours here could easily have been an ALL DAY visit for many of us. A quick return to the hotel to get ready for an evening “Grand Ole Opry Show” at the original Ryman Theatre in downtown Nashville. Multiple singers & entertainers provided several emotion filled moments for us, a truly memorable concert.
The following day was back to reality for us, a smooth return flight to T.O. on Air Canada.
Many thanks to all our participants for helping make this our best PROBUS trip yet. (Until the next one!)
RICK & DEANE