New Orleans and Texas Big Time
February 12 - March 2, 2009
19 days
Welcome Reception in Minot, North Dakota. Travel through Custer’s country with its beauty and diversity. Stop at Mitchell, South Dakota to view the Doll Museum and the Corn Palace: Decorated with murals made from multi-colored corn cobs, sorghum, wheat, rye, and native grasses. Follow Missouri River valley passing productive farm land and Jesse James’ territory, St. Joseph. Travel southeast to Memphis, Tennessee. View “Mountain Top” sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. (assassinated in 1968). Visit revitalized Beale Street (in Memphis), birthplace of the “BLUES”.
B.B. King's place on Beale Street
Pass by cotton and soybean growing areas throughout Mississippi. At Vicksburg, stop at National Military Park, a civil war site. Drive east to Jackson, then south through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In New Orleans, enjoy a guided tour of the city, spend time along Bourbon Street including the French Quarter. Cruise the Mississippi River in steamboat Natchez.
Miltenberger House in the French Quarter of New Orleans
Enjoy creole cajun meal and music before watching the exhilarating Mardi Gras Parade. Stay downtown New Orleans, close to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. Spend a free day in New Orleans.
Scenes from the Mardi Gras Parade
Soak in atmosphere and elegance of the Old South: enjoy magnolia and moss-draped cypress trees on a swamp tour in bijoux with alligators, noon meal and music with a cajun band. Tour cotton plantation and mansion (a national historic landmark).
A plantation mansion in Louisiana
Free Day in Baton Rouge. Cross southern region of Louisiana, past rice fields. Stop at Lafayette. Tour Vermillion Ville, a cajun / creole heritage folk park. Drive to Houston, the cattle, cotton and oil capital. Tour Johnson Space Center: Hands-on experiences and astronaut training center. Travel to San Antonio, Texas. Enjoy morning cruise on Yanaguana River, tour “The Alamo” site - known as cradle of Texas liberty where Davy Crokett and 188 others died in battle.
The Alamo site in San Antonio, Texas
Stay for three nights in the Rio Grande Valley at McAllen, Texas. Visit South Padre Island: long, sand island north of Corpus Christi. Travel north past San Antonio and Austin to Waco, Texas. Drive to Dallas: Visit the sight where John F. Kennedy was shot. Head to Oklahoma City to tour Cowboy Hall of Fame. Continue north to Wichita, Kansas and to Kansas City. Drive along Missouri River to Sioux City, then to Watertown SD. Travel to Fargo and then to Minot for Wind-up Banquet and Social.
Note: Itinerary subject to change.
Contact us for price information or about any other questions you may have.
Photo Credits: B.B. King's Place on Beale by Sleestak66 on Flickr Creative Commons, French Quarter - Miltenberger House (New Orleans) by David Paul Ohmer on Flickr Creative Commons, Mardi Gras Parade collage: {Up Royal by Editor B, IMG_1531 by Toast to Life, Mardi Gras - 06 by Versatile Aure, and IMGP5495-1 by Toast to Life, all on Flickr Creative Commons}, IMG_0096 (plantation mansion) by mhowry on Flickr Creative Commons, Alamo, San Antonio by AndrewEick on Flickr Creative Commons.