This blog is annoying

You have to start from the bottom and work your way up for it to make sense!
Hope you are all having a good weekend, I am in the middle of putting stuff on eBay - hopefully it will be enough to cover the cost of some of our flights! I will keep you posted, all my sales are due to start on Thursday and I will post the link here.

Katy

Our holiday wishlist

We've put together a list of things we would like to arrange in time for going away, and we're hard at work saving up for them. If you usually buy one of us a Christmas or birthday present, please consider putting some money towards one of the things on our list, we would be ever so grateful!

Let us know what it is you would like to treat us to, and you can use PayPal to help us out if you want to pay online. We'll send you a photo and a postcard of us enjoying your gift while we're away to say thank you.

If you can think of anything that should be on our list and isn't - let us know! We'll be updating this list as we save up and receive any gifts, so you'll know what we still need before we set off.

Gift (Price) x Quantity Required

Entry to Graceland (£16) x 2
Rand McNally Road Atlas thank you secret santa!
Mountain Trail Map thank you Jan and Tommy!
Film developing and CD (£12) x 15
New Orleans guidebook thank you Jan and Tommy!
1GB picture card (£35) x 1
Sunscreen (£12) x 3
Aftersun (£12) x 2
First Aid Kit thank you secret santa!
Help us offset our flights by planting trees with Carbonneutral.com (£26.50) x 1
Help us offset our driving by planting trees with Carbonneutral.com (£12.50) x 1
Travel insurance for Josie (£58) x 1
Pack-mate roll bags (£12) x 2

Boots vouchers for spending at the airport on travel essentials!
WH Smith vouchers for spending at the airport on holiday reading! (thank you Clare for one of these!)

Dinner and jazz riverboat cruise in New Orleans ($50) x 2
Souvenirs from Katy, Texas ($3) x 6
Six pack of diet coke and ice for the drive! ($3) x 6
Morning coffee ($2) x 32
Entry to the Country Music Hall of Fame ($16) x 2
10 gallons of gas ($35) x 10
Entry to Dollywood ($20) x 1 (thank you Anna and Jamie for one of these)
Night in a mountain lodge thank you Katy's dad!
Champagne for the first night ($40) x 1
Hurricane cocktails in New Orleans ($8) x 4
A day driving a convertible ($60) x 2
Parking and toll money ($20) x 15
Lost River Cave tour ($15) x 1 (thank you Anna and Jamie for one of these)
Laundry money ($12) x 2
Alligator swamp tour ($15) x 1 (thank you Anna and Jamie for one of these)
A night in a 5 star hotel (with Duck Parade!) ($200) x 1
A night in a motel/mid-range hotel ($100) x 12
Very nice dinner somewhere in Lower Manhattan ($80) x 1
Traditional Cajun dinner ($40) x 1
Traditional Creole dinner ($40) x 1
Dinner at BB Kings in Nashville ($70) x 1
Brunch in a diner ($12) x 8

We are fully aware that some of these are a bit cheeky, so there is a nice range of stuff so you can pick out something you like the sound of. You're only 30 once, I suppose! And there will be a full report on everything posted here either while we're away or within a few days of getting back, so you know where your presents went and how much we enjoyed them. We will also keep you posted so that you know what we still need at all times. You can also help us out by clicking on the ads at the top of the page.

Thank you thank you thank you!

Where will we visit?

We've been busy planning our itinery and have planned out where we're going to visit. We'll be spending nearly three weeks in the States in total, and spending two to three days in each of the places we're planning to visit.

When we leave the UK, we'll be flying into New York. From here, we're going to take a flight down to Charlotte, North Carolina, and catch up on some sleep before hiring a car next day and heading for Pigeon Forge.

We want to hit Dollywood, then spend some time exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Top on the list of priorities, after this, is renting an amazing cabin and staying there for at least three nights, enjoying the great outdoors.

From there, we'll be heading for Nashville. We want to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry and experience the nightlife. A day trip from our time in Nashville will be to the Lost River Cave, reminds me a bit of the Blue John Mine a bit closer to home.

It seems only right to head for Memphis after Nashville, and after Dollywood, it's only fair that we pay Elvis a visit. From Memphis, our next destination will be Tupelo, birthplace of the King.

A long leisurely drive down through Mississippi will be next, calling in on antebellum houses and remnants of the historic south. This part of our trip is the least planned for the time being, and we're counting on readers to submit ideas for things to see and places to stay.

Before heading to New Orleans to 'laissez les bon temps roulez', we'll be taking a major detour to Katy, TX. Well, why not? We plan to spend three or so days in New Orleans at the end of our trip, ditch the car and enjoy everything the city has to offer. We're particularly looking forward to beignets, gumbo and the most potent cocktails I can find!

Of course, no trip to the States would be complete without a good old night out in New York, and fingers crossed, some shopping in the East Village. And then we'll be heading for home - phew!

If you have any recommendations for where to stay and what to do in Memphis, Nashville, or New Orleans, post a comment or drop us a line. We look forward to hearing from you.

Contact us!

You can get in touch with us at greatescape2007@googlemail.com, or you can post a comment here. We're looking forward to hearing from you, especially if you have hints and tips for our travels. We particularly want to know about must-sees and must-dos in Nashville, Memphis, anywhere en route from Tupelo, MS, to Kentwood, LA, and things to do in New Orleans. Also it would be helpful to know where to avoid, including tourist trap rip-offs and flea-bitten hotels. We'll be posting more details about exactly where we want to visit as we continue to plan.

Welcome to our blog!

Next year, to celebrate being 30, Katy and Josie will be travelling across Tennessee and beyond. We've been friends for nearly 15 years and have travelled around California and Nevada together, where we had such a brilliant time we've been planning to do it again for years. This time we're going to see Dollywood and Graceland where last time it was Elvis lookalikes, and Tom Jones who were the big draw!

We're also swapping the Greyhound bus for a hire car, and doing a proper American road trip all over the deep south. As the planning for trips like this is always half the fun, we thought we'd include our friends and families on that bit as well as posting as we go along on our trip as well. We hope to post loads of photos and stories so we can really make this an adventure to remember. You'd think we were going for three months, but it's actually more like three weeks - that's a long time on the road!