Alabama & Louisiana

First week of January.

Monday my client and I flew into Birmingham Alabama. With the heavy rain the drive to Jasper Alabama at night was difficult. My client was glad to have me along to help navigate the winding and unfamiliarly roads.

Supper at Jim & Nicks Bar-B-Que was fantastic. The pulled pork was as good as I have ever eaten. Fried green tomatoes was a regional side item. If you have never had fried green tomatoes make sure you are in the south the first time your order them. They do them right! Rarely do I order dessert but at Jim & Nicks they make their own pies. I have a hard time passing up home made coconut cream pie. It was outstanding! I would recommend eating here. Clickhere to learn more about Jim & Nicks

Stayed in Jasper AL at my “home away from home” (Holiday Inn Express).

Tuesday the rain continued. It was interesting to see waterfalls coming down out of the hill and forest. They received 3 to 5 inches that day.

My client made a stop in Cullman AL and then on to Russellville AL. He would spend most of the next 2 days with a customer in Russellville. Nice people, the kind you wouldn’t mind being your family.

Stayed in Florence AL a couple of nights. It was an older Holiday Inn. It was okay but could sure use some updating. The bed was good though.

Alabama & Mexican Food – yep, your right that’s not a good combination but my client and his associate just had to try it. Rancho Viejo, it wasn’t bad but it really not a good idea to eat Mexican food in Alabama.

The second night in Florence we ate at a well noted steakhouse. Dale's Steakhouse is recognized by National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Beef Industry Council and Certified Angus Beef as a highly recommended place to eat. One of their trademarks is that all the waiters are black and wear red dinner jackets. The steaks and the service were very good. If you are in Florence I recommend this place. Click to read about Dale's Steakhouse.

Late Thursday evening my client and I drove from Russellville to Birmingham to catch a late flight to New Orleans. Another good flight on Southwest Airlines. On arrival in New Orleans we met up with another customer at a newly remodeled Crown Plaza (part of the Holiday Inn family). In fact it was so newly remodeled that we were some of the first guest to stay there. A great hour of conversation with my client’s customer and then a deserved good night of sleep.

Early Friday we were off to Baton Rouge LA with the customer on board for a symposium at the LSU campus. Beautiful drive on an elevated highway along the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. One can certainly understand how a hurricane can flood that country so easily.

When we arrived in Baton Rouge my client and his customer were very glad to have me along as I navigated them to the symposium, hotel and various errands they had to run. The roads aren’t straight and the street signs are hard to see. The LSU campus if very pretty. It looks like a great place to attend college. Click to read about LSU.

I took them to Chilies for lunch, can’t believe they both ordered the same thing. Could be they travel together too much. For supper that evening the symposium host prepared top sirloin jambalaya. I really enjoyed watching them make it from scratch. I’ll have to try making this myself when I get home.

Saturday we wrapped up the symposium and drove back to New Orleans. We enjoyed supper and entertainment in the French Quarter. The food at La Bayou was native tourist. They fried everything. Oh well, the people watching on Bourbon Street was entertaining. You see a little of everything there. The better restaurants are a couple of streets either side of Bourbon Street. I will try to do a better job of recommending them next time. Sometimes its hard to out guess my clients eating preference sometimes. They did get to enjoy some nice music while they were there.

Sunday we had a pretty early flight on Southwest Airlines back to Amarillo. A few hours of rest and reload the bags and get ready for next week.