Two Weeks
14 days · ~1700 miles · from Memphis
The whole lower South in one loop: Delta blues, Grant's campaign, River Road reckonings, Cajun Saturdays, the Gulf at porch speed, Hank's highway and the movement's capitals. Leave Memphis on a Friday and day 9 lands on Fred's Saturday all by itself. The trip of a lifetime, no interstate required.
This trip chains: The Blues Highway · Grant's Vicksburg Campaign · River Road & the Felicianas · Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie · US 90: The Creole Coast · Hank's Lost Highway · The Civil Rights Trail
Lorraine Motel, then 61 south. Juke night one.
Dockery, Indianola, Sumner & Money's history, Johnson's grave at dusk.
Tamales in Greenville, teddy bears at Onward, Margaret's Grocery, bluff sunset.
The full 1863 loop: NMP, Cairo, Raymond, Jackson's museums, Champion Hill.
Windsor Ruins, Port Gibson, Emerald Mound detour, Longwood and the Forks of the Road.
Rosemont, Woodville, the Myrtles' ghosts, Port Hudson's siege lines. Short miles, long porches.
Whitney (booked ahead), Oak Alley, Donaldsonville's museum — into the city by evening.
No driving. The atlas grants clemency.
Timed for Saturday: Fred's Lounge at 9, Savoy jam at 10, Breaux Bridge zydeco brunch, Liberty Theater at 6. Overnight Lafayette.
Avery Island, LeJeune's hot bread, Franklin's oaks, Morgan City's rigs — back via the wetlands.
Bay St. Louis, the median lighthouse, Walter Anderson's secret room.
Africatown morning (unhurried), Carnival Museum, Dew Drop dog, Eastern Shore sunset.
US 31 north with Hank on: Georgiana's boyhood home, Priester's pecans, the death Cadillac, his grave at Oakwood.
Legacy Museum morning — it will reframe the whole loop — then Selma's bridge westbound, and the long two-lane home (or overnight Birmingham and add the 16th Street pilgrimage).