Jackson

Thursday 23^rd June

Greyhound station in New Orleans is the nicest we have seen. Large modern clean building which it shares with Amtrak, the rail system.

We still can't get over the cheap prices here. Today I bought two coffees from Subway for $1-70. And at some stations when you buy a coffee they offer you a refill for 25 cents. I have drunk more coffee lately than I usually do. And it is all the good stuff too. There is virtually no instant coffee. You can buy it in supermarkets but there is not much choice. Bit hard for us when we are travelling round.....we don't have room for a coffeemaker in the backpack. 

Moving on…..to Jackson Mississippi. By train this time. Strangely the bus does not take you directly to Jackson from New Orleans so we thought we would try something different.

And what a difference travelling by train. There is enough leg room to hold a party between the seats!!.

And you don't have to stay in your seats. There is an observation deck and a dining car where you can come and go as you please.

And Mike managed to sus out where to get a beer while I wasn't looking.....typical!!

We met another Australian couple on board, from Cairns. They are over here for only 3 weeks and on their way to Memphis.

We arrived in Jackson mid afternoon. We had booked a hotel and got directions from google maps. Well that didn't turn out well. Turns out there is a fair ground where there is suppose to be a road.

We backtracked, asked directions and ended up a long way from where we were suppose to go.

And it was soooo hot, even for me. We must have walked for miles. And it was so quiet, hardly anyone around. Very few cars and almost nobody on foot. Eventually we found a supermarket intending to find a cab number from someone.

This couple, hearing our story, offered to take us to our destination instead so we gratefully accepted. They threw our packs in "the truck" and off we went. Very nice of them to go out of their way for strangers.

One bonus of getting lost - we got to see much of downtown Jackson. It is full of old buildings....lots of history. Very neat, tidy city from what we have seen.

Fast food for dinner tonight. There are at least 6 choices within a two minute walk from our hotel. Topped off with root beer and lemonade. Very local!!

We have decided to only stay one night in Jackson. We were going straight to Memphis but accomodation is hard to find due to the coming weekend.

We have several options but have decided to head west instead....to Vicksburg. Lots of history there. Mike looking forward to it.