Aussie visiting the South in April - what to see

Lone Star Gun Range in Lockhart, Texas. It is just south of Austin. They have a .50 Barrett you can rent.

Collectors Firearms when you roll through Houston..

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/

If your trek from NO to west Georgia involves Interstate 20 get off the Anniston, AL exit and check out the Berman Museum of World History.

http://www.bermanmuseum.org/pages/?pageID=27

Lot of blades, armor and firerarms. Lots of ancient and unusual stuff.

You need to come a little more to the west as in West Texas. Say El Paso Texas. We even have a mountian range with 100+ miles of hiking and mountian biking trails all within the city limits.

Get some good Barbeque. In Memphis I could tell you where, but some Texans could maybe have some suggestions.

You could perhaps arrange for a one day wild boar hunt some place in Tx.

The Alamo is a national monument, but might not mean as much to an Aussie.

Hot air balloon ride isn't just an American phenom, but always fun.

If you care about the Kennedy assassination, go to the site that it happened.

Find a range where you could shoot some full auto or .50 cal or a bunch of pistols.

All just ideas.

TX Ranger Museum in Waco TX.

steve- said:

last time i went I asked for advise on a car forum (I am a car and bike nut also) and got some great tips - some of the hidden food joints were out of this world - literally).

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Check out Barber Motor Sports Park just east of Birmingham, AL ,Near Leeds, AL. There is a good motorcycle museum there.

Savannah, GA is an interesting place to visit. Similar, but different, from New Orleans. Lots of good eating in Savannah. Lots of historical things in the area. Beautiful city.

The USS Alabama, a battleship, is moored in Mobile, AL and open for touring.

If you are interested in the American Civil War, the Shiloh Battlefield park is interesting. It is just north of Corinth, MS, near Pittsburg Landing, TN. It is a two or three hour drive east of Memphis. There are Civil War sites all over the south. Several in the Atlanta, GA, and Chattanooga, TN, areas

Enjoy your trip

TX Ranger Museum in Waco TX.

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First place I thought of. A must see!

If you're going to Corpus Christi, you should see the USS Lexington, a decommissioned aircraft carrier.

I'm not sure if you're into it, and what your schedule looks like, but if you can find a professional rodeo event to go to, they're worth seeing at least once.

Depends on your route through the Southeast. From Corpus I would assume you are coming on I-10 into southern Mississippi and Alabama but you may be headed north through the central regions as well. On the southern route you will have Biloxi MS if you like gambling. In Mobile AL you can tour the USS Alabama and eat at Dreamland. The beaches across MS, AL and into NW FL are the prettiest in the world. Of course you will be going through New Orleans where you can spend a month and not see all the sights. Tallahassee FL is off of I-10 if you want to see that city. Okeefenokee swamp in south Georgia and if you really want to see the scenery you can canoe the Suwanee river.

Yes the Franklin Mountians State Park is within the city limits of El Paso Texas. Its some 26,000 acres give or take a square mile or two. There is also Hueco Tanks State Park which is one of the best rock climbing sites in the world. There is also a limit on how many vistors are allowed. I would suggest contacting the park for reservations if you plan to visit it.

April is also a perfect month to visit. Good temps and clear skys.

Book a hog hunt in Texas. There are no shortage of oinkers down here, farmers are begging you to shoot em. Plenty of guide service available. If you really want to get serious, book a helicopter hog hunt. Looks amazing.

Be very careful in New Orleans. There are places you do not want to find. Stay in the tourist areas and eat great food. As said, casinos on the MS gulf coast, not much of anything in western GA aside from Fort Benning and Americus, GA, home of former President Carter.

Should you wish, Eufala, AL, just west of the GA state line on the shores of Lake Eufala, is a quaint beautiful Southern city.

Have a good trip.

RMD

Atlanta has the world's biggest aquarium if you make it that far east; a nice zoo too. It also has the World of Coke for whatever that is worth. I guess if you can't get enough Coke in your life, you can go try all the different slight regional recipe variations they make around the world. Chattanooga, TN has a really nice aquarium too. Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga is a really big location for hanggliding and has a big hanggliding school there (I think the biggest in the country in terms of students trained). There is a nice little canoe paddle you can arrange around there for a day trip for the Tennessee River Gorge. Nashville, TN is really fun, especially if you like country music. The Country Music Hall of Fame is there, as is the Grand Ole Opry. Jack Daniels Distillery would be on your way roughly between Chattanooga and Nashville, and is really cool. The Ocoee River and Whitewater Center in North Georgia/Tennessee is great kayaking and where they enhanced the river for the competition in the 1996 Olympics. If you make it up that way, you are in the area of some of the best hiking in the south and the US's most visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains where you'd have really good odds of seeing black bears in the wild. Amicolola Falls State Park in GA holds the southern terminus to the Appalachian Trail. The Pinhoti, Bartram, and Benton McKaye Trails are all interconnected around that area too, all kind of making a network of trails running from Alabama all the way to Maine (AT). You'd also be in the neighborhood of the Blue Ridge Parkway which would be an awesome motorcycle ride (follows part of the AT), and there is also the Tail of the Dragon which is a popular motocycle ride (300 switchbacks in 8 miles with the occasional wrecked bike left in the trees), but I'm probably talking you a bit further NE than you are meaning to go. The whole Tennessee/NC border is great country though.

Thru the Gulf Coast, Biloxi, Mississippi is a famous riverboat gambling place. Destin, Florida is famous for its white sand beaches. If you're in the area there is the Dothan, Alabama national peanut festival in early April. If you're into music history (especially the origins of rock music), the Mississippi delta is where a lot of the musicians came from that inspired the early blues-rock explosion in Britain that eventually became rock like we know today. Guys like Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson who wrote "Crossroads" that Clapton liked so much.

I've hiked Big Bend a little in the past. It's kind of three parks in one with the Chisos Mountains up in the clouds, the surrounding desert area, and the river canyon which is pretty neat. It is almost as far west as you are talking about going east though. I've lived off and on in Atlanta and Houston most of my life besides a little time in Tennessee, and from Houston, Big Bend is about 12 hours west. Atlanta is about 14 hours east. Lost Maples State Park is a nice little stop over north of San Antonio. It is famous for the fall leaves turning, but you could spend a night there with about 20 miles or so of trail you can do. There are a lot of good one-day attractions around Austin like Enchanted Rock and Hamilton Pooll is a must-see. I'll take a bit of flak for it, but in the time I have lived in Texas, I always found it a bit disappointing for a hiker. There isn't much public land there (national parks, state parks, etc), and the really noteworthy public natural attractions are mostly spread out across the very big state. The Hill Country and southwestern parts of Texas are pretty though, just not a lot of places you can spend a whole lot of time without having to move on. Corpus Christi is a really big spot for wind-water sports like wind surfing, sailing, and kite surfing.

If you made it over to Georgia I'd help show you around, but I'm actually getting read to start a north-bound Appalachian Trail thru-hike in April.

Check out Barber Motor Sports Park just east of Birmingham, AL ,Near Leeds, AL.

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Yep, and it's right past the Bass Pro Shop....

Keep heading East and check out the CMP Store in Anniston, AL.

Wow, deja vu. Scroll down to post #16: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=706395&highlight=new+zealand

That was actually at Lone Star in Lockhart.

If you want great barbeque hit up the Salt Lick in Austin.

The Alamo in San Antonio.

If you want to make a day trip to southeast GA, the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum is probably the best I have ever been to. Take a look -> http://mightyeighth.org/ <-

And the museum at Warner Robbins air force base near Macon, GA.

If you were coming through Florida, Central Florida to be exact I'd offer you a day of shooting with me in Ocala. Always willing and wanting to let folks from overseas have themselves a day at the range they might not otherwise get back home, heck I'd even cover the ammo in exchange for pics. If you know anyone coming my way PM and I'll see what I can do about meeting up with them.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the southern hospitality. At my lakehouse I'd be grilling deer steaks with butter and garlic plus my own mix of seasonings with my personally done up pulled pork.

If you get to west Texas, you may also consider a trip up to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. There is a web site for tour information.

Mtcreek, Forgot to mention those.

Section of I-20 from Birmingham to Atlanta....the Barber motorcycle museum and Bass Pro there together in Leeds, then on east to Anniston to the CMP Store and the Berman....then the Atlanta Aquarium....and if Steve has never seen the mountains of N Ga/Se Tn that is a no brainer. If my final destination was Atlanta area I would take the time to go north a few hours and at least day trip through the mountains.