Postcript

Highlights?
Really too many to mention, but here goes with some sort of "top 10" (possibly subject to change given more thought and reflection):

• Travelling with and meeting up with old friends (the pleasure is always better shared)
• Preservation Hall, New Orleans
• Monmouth Plantation House, Natchez (beautiful accommodation and THE best - and most expensive - meal of the trip)
• Tallahatchie Flats, Greenwood (quirky but great accommodation - probably about as close to the real Mississippi Delta as we got)
• Natchez Trace Parkway scenic drive
• Sun Studios and Graceland, Memphis (particularly the tour of the home of Elvis, rather less so the adjacent museum)
• Barber Motorsports Museum, Birmingham
• Muscle Shoals Studios
• National Blues Museum and Jeremiah Johnson Band gig, St Louis
• Architecture Foundation River Cruise, Chicago

"Been there, done that"

• Lafayette
• Natchez
• Jackson (and its rather better, in our opinion, neighbour Vicksburg)
• Greenwood
• Nashville
• Birmingham
• Cape Giradeau
• Fort Madison
• Davenport

Been there but would like to return some sunny day

• New Orleans
• Clarksdale
• Memphis
• Chicago (again!)

Missed but "must do" some day

• Red's Blues Club, Clarksdale
• Open top Cadillac tour of Memphis
• Stax museum, Memphis
• Willie Dixon's Blues Foundation museum, Chicago
• Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
• Candle-lit dinner cruise on Lake Michigan, Chicago

Grateful thanks and appreciation again to those that pointed us in the right direction through their own past experience i.e. Martin, Jeff and Linda and to Sam and Jenny at AmeriCan & Worldwide Travel in Tunbridge Wells who put the whole thing together perfectly (and patiently!) and made our little dream come true.

Thanks, too, to those that have joined us by way of reading the blog. The blog was only ever intended as a diary to remind us of where we went, what we did and who we saw along the way and if others enjoyed it, too, that's an added bonus.

Thought for the trip: "Someday isn't a day of the week"   ;0)

Day 23 - Chicago and home

A quick breakfast at the Corner Bakery Cafe on South Michigan Avenue (sampling another of Lashonda's cappuccinos) and then over the road to the Art Institute of Chicago , according to Trip Advisor, the Number 1 museum in the WORLD (actually that depends where you look but it IS pretty impressive whether or not it is actually #1).

Certainly it has some very famous works of art including Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks", Mark Chigall's "America Windows" and Claude Monet's "Stacks of Wheat" to name but three. However, perhaps most appropriate, given the nature of our trip, is Pablo Picasso's "The Old Guitarist"

To be honest, four hours was not enough to give the place justice but time is no longer on our side and Chicago O'Hare airport is calling us for the night flight back to the UK. Having flown out to the USA on a brand new state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner we flew home on the grand-daddy of the skies a Boeing 747-400 "Jumbo Jet" . Remarkably, the original Jumbo first flew nearly 50 years ago - actually before Concorde - and, in its current guise, it is still going strong.

Day 22 - Chicago

Our final full day - breakfast at Yolk on Michigan Avenue before strolling to the Field Museum , the Chicago equivalent of London's Natural History Museum. On the way we walked through the edge of Grant Park and saw the Agora leg sculptures and the final marker post of our Blues Highway trip: Blues Trail Marker
Journey's end.

We had read in advance that the Field Museum was good for half a day and planned to visit Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation museum, site of the old Chess Record label studios, in the afternoon. That will now have to wait for next time as the Field Museum kept us occupied for the full day. Highlights?

• Jan got to see some (stuffed) Passenger Pigeons Once the most abundant bird in North America, they became extinct in 1914 following a remarkably speedy decline in numbers
• Seeing Sue the T Rex dinosaur and the associated Waking the T Rex: The Story of Sue 3D movie and all the other various dinosaur exhibits
• The reconstructed pyramid and associated Egyptian exhibition
• The story of America's heritage from the original settlers, thought to have crossed from Asia, to date

We had dinner at the Eleven City Diner - great Jewish menu and food but the waitress must have been having a bad day. Perhaps she is the daughter of a taxi driver (see below)?

When we visited Chicago 7 years ago we put this in the blog:

"We had only been in Chicago for 36 hours but all four of us felt that it was a city that we would return to without a moments hesitation - warm, friendly people (except the grumpy tax drivers), fantastic architecture and just too many places to see in such a brief stay."

Well, we've had another good go at it - tomorrow, before we head to the airport for our flight home, we plan to visit The Art Institute of Chicago but it will still leave us with plenty to do and see should we be fortunate enough to visit again.

Day 21 - Chicago

Breakfast at the Corner Bakery Cafe (just like we did 7 years ago) and then a walk north along Michigan Avenue to the river front to book a trip on the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise - a most excellent and informative 90 minutes gently cruising up and down all three arms of the "Y" shaped river system around which downtown Chicago is built.

A quick walk to the Navy Pier where we lunched at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville followed by our second boat trip of the day, this time out on to Lake Michigan for a 40 minute Classic Tour with Shoreline Sightseeing - again, interesting and informative and it was fascinating to see how tiny our 15 storey Essex Inn hotel appears viewed from the lake surrounded, as it is, by numerous skyscrapers.

Continuing the theme of our Blues Highway trip, we visited the Rolling Stones Exhibitionism as it just happened to open on the Navy Pier in Chicago last Saturday for a 4 month stay, having previously been on display in London (New York is next). Very slickly put together, it traces the rise of the Stones to international mega-stardom with several interactive and static displays. Another 90 minutes well spent.

Finally we called in at Pizano's on Madison Street where we had our first meal 7 years ago when we arrived in Chicago to commence our Route 66 road trip. It hasn't changed and the pizzas still taste great!

Day 20 - Chicago

Our first stop of the day was our second visit to an Antique Archaeology store, as featured in the US TV series American Pickers, this time on the outskirts of Davenport at Le Claire, another town immediately adjacent to the Mississippi. Having picked up some souvenirs (to decorate Jan's "man cave") we headed due east 175 miles along I-88 towards our final destination, the USA's 3rd largest city, Chicago, Illinois.

Our hotel for the next three nights is the Essex Inn on South Michigan Avenue. Having checked in we took a somewhat tortuous 4.5 mile drive through downtown Chicago to return our rental car having added a total of 2,375 miles over the past 17 days since we collected it in New Orleans on Saturday, 1st April. We have spent a little over $200/£160 on fuel - about one third what we would have spent covering a similar mileage in the UK.

This being the home of the pizza, our evening meal was enjoyed at Lou Malnati's pizzeria in South State Street  :0)

Day 19 - Davenport

Another 100 miles north today up Highway 61 to Davenport to meet up for the afternoon with more of Chris and Tracey's friends from their 2015 Sturgis trip; Jeff Malloy, Terry Newland, Paul Waggener and Doug Dunlap. We met at our overnight accommodation, the Staybridge Suites , that just happened to be next to a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream store......it would have been rude not to partake.

We all drove down to the park by the Mississippi and spent an enjoyable couple of hours chatting and laughing (a lot). They had travelled 300+ miles/5 hours from Omaha, Nebraska, to meet up with us - what great friends they truly are.

We dined at the Texas Roadhouse (a new one on us) and visited the Cold Stone Creamery again before retiring (well, Chris did anyway).

Day 18 - Fort Madison

North and west out of St Louis broadly following Highway 61 for 200 miles in to the 8th, and final, state that we will be travelling through this trip, Iowa, and to the small city (11,000 population) of Fort Madison on the west bank of the Mississippi where we stay the night at the Boulders Inn and Suites Hotel

Some statistics about Fort Madison:

1. Average house price is $52,000 i.e. just over (at current rates) £40,000!
2. Average rental value is $300 per month
3. Average yearly household income is $34,318 i.e. roughly £25,000

Easy to see why many middle town Americans have considerably more disposable income, after housing costs, than the average UK household.

We drove down to River View Park for a stroll along the river front. While we were there 3 very long freight trains passed us on the adjacent track - apparently over 80 trains pass through each day, some up to 2 1/2 miles long. We ate dinner at the Palms Supper Club opposite the hotel.