Have you heard of Durga McBroom?
Yup. Now I see you’re in Scotland too, I will elaborate. I’ve been to T in the Park many, many times, as well as Barrowlands and other such venues. This was my third arena rock concert in the States, and they really are complete piss-heads.
And the smoking was utterly blatant.
Aye. Although I don’t agree with calling anything post-Roger “Pink Floyd”. But that’s a thread for Cafe Society.
She and her sister sang backup for them 1987-1994.
The speed limit signs do have meaning. Most places, the real speed limit is 5 MPH higher than what’s on the signs, and everyone (drivers and cops) knows it. Some places, it’s higher, and some places, the cops will nail everyone going even a smidgen over as a revenue stream, but the locals all know where those places are. But usually, you’ll neither get a ticket nor be an obstruction if you’re doing 5 over.
Being carded at age 50 didn’t used to be typical, but I think a lot of places have adopted a policy of always carding everyone to cover their asses, because they don’t trust the high school kid at the register to say “But he totally looked like he was fifty!”.
And why did you have to go to Kentucky for the eclipse? Nashville itself was in the path of totality.
That’s what I mean. She was a backing singer for David Gilmour, Rick Wright, Nick Mason and friends. 
Nashville only got a minute or so of totality; Hopkinsville was the point of maximum eclipse at 2m 41s.
Nashville is a city with some air pollution and various lighting set to automatically come on when it gets dark.
My tour party basically had exclusive use of a field for setting up tripods, telescopes etc, as well as a tent for shade, and access to rest rooms and food trucks. And scientific advisors on hand doing helpful things like handing out masking tape if you weren’t confident you knew how to switch off the flash on your Smartphone
Being with the tour party meant I was with a bunch of like-minded people I’d had a couple of days to get to know.
And I couldn’t have known this in advance, but in Nashville a cloud passed in front of the sun half way through. There were crystal clear skies in Hopkinsville for the most amazing freaking thing I’ve seen in my entire life.
Yes, I could have just stayed in Nashville. But I’ll be eternally grateful I didn’t.
We had incredibly clear skies in Rigby, Idaho and for 2 minutes of totality the mown hayfield we went to shimmered. It was crazy and beautiful.
You should have picked Natchez, Mississippi if you wanted to see the Old South in action. Vicksburg only has a little of that but Natchez is much smaller, prettier and has grandeur along with a whole lot of very rich people and traditional Southern customs. It has more grand mansions than you can shake a stick at. People always dump on Mississippi and it certainly has major problems as a whole but it still has many places like Oxford and Natchez that are top notch tourist destinations. Vicksburg just doesn’t happen to be one of them unless you are a Civil War battle junky.
What did you think about the heat and humidity in New Orleans during August? I used to live there and even I think it is absolutely brutal during the summer and not something you can ever truly get used to. It must have been a shocker for someone coming from Scotland.
Man I would have loved to hear New Orleans and Tennessee accents navigating a Scottish accent. You all probably could understand each other better than I could understand any of you! 
I would like to witness that too. The funny thing is that a large percentage of white Southerners especially in Tennessee have Scots-Irish heritage so it is like long lost cousins trying to communicate again after being separated for hundreds of years. New Orleans isn’t especially traditionally Southern and has many odd and distinct dialects. Some of them are unique to specific areas of the city and others sound roughly like Northeastern accents with random French words thrown in for good measure. You can run across an occasional Cajun person too but they aren’t as common as most people think.
What did you think of American trains?
Actually, we say “appetizers” on this side of the Pond.
Yup, as I say it’s the one thing I messed up. I saw Vicksburg on a couple of organised tour itineraries and didn’t really follow up with deeper research. Most remiss of me; I’m normally a Tripadvisor addict.
I just found everywhere pretty brutal, to be honest. I just regard it as part of travel. I’ve got a very specific holiday wardrobe, and was coated in Factor 50. I did do that ridiculously Scottish thing of sitting outside sweltering on my balcony when there’s a perfectly air-conditioned hotel room inside…
Expensive! I booked a cheap ticket very far in advance, and the price was still a bit of a shock (not helped by the post-Brexit vote exchange rate). For my return journey I got there in time for an earlier express train, and checked how much it would be to change my ticket - $150!
I was initially confused by the fact my ticket said “reserved seat”, but didn’t give me a carriage and seat number. Apparently “reserved” seats aren’t allocated, like they are in the UK.
Apart from that, it was comfortable, lots of leg room, and a quiet, pleasant journey. And I did get a buzz from the phrase “all aboard”, and the fact that American trains sound just like they do in the movies.
It’s a shame about the lack of trains elsewhere - I was surprised I couldn’t really do the New Orleans - Memphis - Nashville part of my trip by train.
Good taste in concerts. My one single concert I ever attended was Roger Waters: The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking tour in Detroit, 1985 
With regards to the sales tax not baked in the price, isn’t VAT that way in the UK? Whenever I order something from there, the price says “£50 + vat” and suddenly at checkout the price jumps to £70 or so, then when I enter my US address it goes back to £50.
It’s very, very unusual for VAT to be separate, and then usually only where it’s perceived to be a “business to business” transaction. So if you order online from Staples, for example, you can select upfront whether you want VAT included or not.
A bricks and mortar store always includes the VAT. The price on the price ticket is what you get charged at the till.
On the flip side, I visited London a month or so pre-Brexit and had a few $30 glasses of wine!