Well, every good thing has to end some time. We left Port Washington for a great dinner in Milwaukee at Butch’s, the number one place for steak in Milwaukee.

The next day, we traveled back to Chicago to have a last day of rest before we had to go back home. Chicago Blues Festival takes place this weekend, so we had the opportunity to take a look at this on our last day.

Dinner for the last 2 nights was traditional. Due for a real Chicago deep dish pizza on friday. On saturday, we had some trouble to decide what we wanted, so the choice was made for us. We didn’t get a table at many of the restaurants that we tried to get in as they were completely booked, and finally, we got to the first restaurant we ever ate in Chicago, the Vermilion. It is a kind of indian fusion cuisine. Of course, we had the tasting menu and it was the perfect dinner for our last night.

So that’s it…. we will be boarding the plane in a couple of hours and be home tomorrow.

We hope that you had fun reading this blog over the last 2 weeks. We tried to share as many experiences as possible. You will find some of the mentioned products on americana.lu pretty soon, and you will discover some of the recipes on rtl.lu over the next months.

write you next time…

take care

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After a good night sleep, we started our morning with a big breakfast at Kalmes Restaurant. After that, we met with Jim Kalmes to get some insights on the famous Seasoning he produces, get some recipes to bring back home, and get some foto opportunities in the kitchen to see the Pros work.

After getting some Seasonings for americana.lu, we hit the road again in direction of a town called Belgium, Wisconsin. When we arrived, we got a tour of the latest exhibition on Luxembourg imigration in the US. We met with the staff of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society and of course, with Kevin Wester, the CEO. It’s a remarkable work that they are doing and they are helping to keep the Luxembourg Spirit alive in America.

Today started in Kansas City. After a windy night, the sky seems to clear up again a bit. A short drive through the city was enough to see what was to see. After that, we had to get rolling because we had some 500 miles ahead of us.

A short stop had to be done in St. Charles, which is famous for 2 things. The Bridges of Madison County that were part of the same named movie, and for being the birthplace of the one and only real Cowboy, John Wayne.

Shortly after passing the stateline to Iowa, we did our second stop in the state capital Des Moines.

After that, we headed directly to St. Donatus where we arrived with a delay caused by the long mileage and the stops in between. When we arrived at the Kalmes Restaurant, our friends of the St. Donatus Luxembourg Heritage Society were already there to welcome us. We had a great evening with them talking about so many lovely things. It was again, a wonderful stay at the Gehlen House, meeting everybody, having a great meal and some drinks.

Well, today was marked by very big contrasts. We started the day at the Presidential Library in Little Rock where we got an inside look into former President Clintons presidency. After that, we had 450 miles ahead of us, so we started as soon as possible.

On our way, we passed Joplin MO, which is best known due to the terrible tornado that hit the city several weeks ago. As we were passing through the city, we had to get an impression of the damage, as we already passed Joplin last year on our Route66 trip. We can only say that we are still shocked about what we saw. When you see the pictures on TV, you don’t even get close to anything the reality is. We post some of the pictures and hope we can show a bit of the catastrophy and help understand how terrible the situation is over here.

Despite the situation, people struck us with hope and willingness to fight this misery.

Today, we are with our thoughts with the people who lost their lifes in this tragedy and leave you with these impressions.

First stop today: Dallas, which was the biggest surprise so far. We didn’t expect anything from this city, but we have to admit that it is a very beautiful city with a lot of history. Of course, we visited the John F. Kennedy Plaza. We had some lunch, did a small tour of the city and went back on the road.

The weather was changing very quickly from sunny and very warm to cloudy, rain and thunderstorms. We had our realtime satelite tornado warner activated all the time to be sure not to get into trouble.

After a short break in “Hope” Arkansas, the birth place of former US President William J. Clinton, we drove to Little Rock, the state capital and city where Mr. Clinton was Governor before being elected President.

Starting the morning in San Antonio, our first stop was Austin where we stopped for lunch at Stubb’s BBQ joint to test the qualityof the food and the BBQ sauces. After we regained strenght, we drove to the state capitol where we witnessed 2 demonstrations that were also featured on Fox News later that day. The state capitol of Austin is the tallest in the United States.

On the road again, we had to drive a short detour to pass through Crawford, the current residence of former US President George W. Bush.

In the evening, we arrived at Fort Worth where we spent the night. We enjoyed a nice Rodeo Show with real Cowboys and a good dinner and some drinks in the largest club in the world, Billy Bob’s Texan.

We started the day by visiting the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Having gotten many insights into space exploration, we headed the road through Texas to our next stop San Antonio which we arrived at in early evening. We had the chance to visit The Alamo, site of the worst defeat of the Texans. The riverwalk is highly recommended for a drink, a bite and the rest of the evening. A visit to Ripley’s “Believe it or not” was a must for us. After that, a simple beer at the “Howling at the Moon” Bar was OK to close the evening.

Starting in the morning in New Orleans, we wanted to visit at least one estate from the early cooton producing times. After that, we were very surpised seeing a sign with directions to the “Tabasco”-factory. We didn’t hesitate long and just took the exit on the highway and followed the sign, to finally learn that “Tabasco” sauce is coming from the US from a small island. We took the tour to see how it’s made and of course, visited the gift shop for research.

After that, the highway took us to Houston in the evening to get something to eat and have a drink.

In the morning, we had the obligation to visit Graceland, the Home of the King, Elvis Presley. A tour through his mansion, his car collection and his airplanes gave us a good impression on his life.

After this, we entered Lousisiana. On both sides of the road, we could see the water of the flooding still being pretty high. Arriving in New Orleans, we started our tour of the city, were impressed by the look of some of the buildings, but a bit disappointed by the fact that it seems to be a place for spring break and not for good jazz music. We had our dinner at K Paul Prudhomme’s Lousianna kitchen and were amazed. After that, to finally find a place to hear some Jazz, we had to go to a german bar……

After leaving Nashville in the morning, we stopped for breakfast at a sonic drive-in which was a very new experience for us, as they are a real old-fashioned drive-in. We then drove to Lynchburg, the home of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. We visited the Distillery where we got very important insights into what makes this Whiskey so special, and believe us, it really IS special.

After this visit, we continued our trip through different smaller towns to end up in Memphis where we could see the consequences of the flooding around the city. Fortunately, the city centre was saved and we could get a good impression of downtown Memphis. We had our dinner at “The Majestic” we we could taste the smoking techniques of meat of the south. Very delicious

After that dinner, we made a tour of the different blues cafés to enjoy the local music scene.