New Orleans, LA - Biking Through Isaac (illustration)

Yes, we did.  Through town, down to the Moonwalk (river walk on the Mississippi), and through the Quarter.  We had to call it quits, though, once things started flying at our heads.

My nod to the city and bikers who hosted me during Hurricane Isaac, a la the Icon series.  Just for fun.

New Orleans, LA - City Icons (illustration)

I bopped around the French Quarter during my entire stay in NOLA, which is right on the Mississippi River. No complaints from me, even with the hurricane!

From left to right: homage to the city's French history and Mardis Gras (beads were like ornaments in everything from railings to tree limbs), the Crescent City Connection (twin cantilever bridges), painters set up around Jackson Square, the green and white-striped canvas roof of Cafe du Monde, the statue of General Jackson in the Square, the famous Natchez steam sternwheeler and it's calliope pipes and double stacks, and the Saint Louis Cathedral.

I was lucky enough to catch the calliope in action one afternoon and the happy jazz tunes puffing out of the steamer added a little pep to my pedaling.  I actually knew the words to one of them (thanks to a few years living with grandparents), and joined in with a few sidewalk musicians who bongoed or tapped in rhythm.  The Quarter along the river front became one of my favourite spots in America.

Mobile, AL - City Icons (illustration)

Mobile is Azalea City--everywhere I went, when I asked people what they considered to be a city icon, almost every time the answer started with "Oh, you have to get the azaleas!"  So I did.

From left to right: the city's favorite flowering shrub, Bellingrath Gardens, Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, the government building (designed to look like a sailing ship), two of the city's tallest skyline features (RSA Battle House Tower and Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel), the fountain at Bienville Square, and some of the park with its Spanish Moss-draped live oaks.

Everyone should see Mobile at some time in their lives--it's beautiful.  I only recommend the trip occur in the spring (April), when the azaleas are actually in bloom.  (Heh!)

Nashville, TN - city icons

As I left Nashville I thought about how I wanted to lay out the city icons and almost immediately I came to realize I wanted to lay all these out into one continuous image; I had a layout in mind before I hit the last exit out of town.  When Jose and I worked out the travel arrangements we calculated on having "passenger time" to work on stuff in the car, and I missed having that opportunity yesterday while I had to wait SEVEN HOURS to finally reach a place a stopping point for the day.

But, I got it done.  The portable scanner I'm using is throwing off the colors, making them too bright and exaggerating the imperfections in the ink layers, which I can't seem to fix in the image software I have (per my understanding).  This doesn't appear as richly colored as the real deal, which is unfortunate because THIS image I want to recolor, but the real one looks awesome.  I'll rescan all of these once I'm home again.

From left to right: Visitor's Center; Hall of Fame antenna; the new Music City Center; four buildings from The District: Tootsie's (purple), Jack's BBQ, a random filler, BB King's Restaurant and Blues Club; the original Grand Ole Opry house, the new Grand Ole Opry mega-mix; the Cumberland River; and the large art sculpture across the river I didn't get the name of.

Knoxville, TN - World's Fair Park

World's Fair Park and the Sunsphere.  Knoxville, TN

Coming to LOTR merchandise soon!