It was just a one night stand. We hit Tupelo, Elvis' birthplace, and Memphis. Graceland is quite interesting, but the Sun tour was the highlight.  Didn't really have time for the Stax Museum.

2007, two years after Katrina, I drove in New Orleans and missed the turn off the freeway to get to the French Quarter etc. I ended up out in a fairly deserted stripway, totally lost, when I spotted a gas station. I pulled in and bought a map. As I headed back to the (hired) car, I saw that it was more or less surrounded by a group of large-ish African-American men. I said excuse me, and they moved slightly out of the way to let me get in.

Knock on the window.

Me 'hi'

Guy: 'hey, trying to raise some money with my CD here, my uncle in hospital' (Proffers CDR with sharpied title written on disc, no cover)

Me: Uh, OK, how much?'

Guy: 'Ten dollars'

Me: (realising I only have a 50) 'you got change?'

Guy: yeah, think so (fishes around, gives me back 40)

Me: 'can you direct back downtown?'

Guy: 'sure'

Directions given, handshakes........ mightily relieved me decides he's gonna stay in 'touristy' downtown after all.

CD was terrible BTW.

I stopped to ask an old bloke for directions once in a rough part of Glasgow.

My passenger rolled down his window and before I could even get a word out this old man (respectable enough looking) had reached in the window, grabbed the packet of cigarettes on the dash and ran off in the opposite direction shouting "sorry pal!".

These things can and do happen anywhere.  The cause is poverty I suppose.

I learned my lesson in Glasgow the hard way. I got really, really drunk. Foolishly, my friend and I decided to part ways to get home. After a few blocks of stumbling I noticed 4 guys tailing me. They said something and I decided to respond in like manner. Heavily accented gibberish followed with a knife pulled by one as another skillfully lifted my bag off of my shoulder and ran. Thankfully, the rest followed him and left me shaken, but unharmed.

I lost a lot of stuff, though. Some very important (to me) papers I was working on, a nice pair of leather gloves, my backup pair of glasses (which are insanely expensive), and my keys. I would have been really screwed if my wallet hadn't been in my jacket. The next day I went to the police to make a complaint and I was pressured into not doing so. I had no information on who they were, or even where it occurred. I was so drunk that even then the officer asked me if I had been drinking that very morning...it was coming off of me that bad.

Sounds like you got the full tourist experience Jeff

Love New Orleans, oyster po' boys, muffulettas, sausage po' boys, gumbo, etouffee, lots of tall cold drinks and beers, wandering around the Quarter ... never had any problems myself but it's like any city, there are neighborhoods you don't blithely traipse into unless you're looking for trouble.

All you do there is drink and eat, and you don't need fancy restaurants to get the best of what the city has to offer, including the great bread.  Creole food!

For those thinking of a trip there, look at Delirious New Orleans, which contains many great pictures of the city's idiosyncratic signage.