Is this the ultimate U.S road trip? BBQs, blues and blissful 見解（をとる）s are the 重要な 成分s of this epic 2,200-mile ride through America's south

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運動ing along the AL-34 主要道路 西方のs, the willow oaks and loblolly pines give way to an old アイロンをかける 橋（渡しをする）.

Suddenly, a 広大な and 広範囲にわたる panorama of the Coosa River opens up for miles in all directions, the water a flat mirror of the cloudless sky.

This is Alabama?and the American South at its most shatteringly beautiful ? but there’s no time to loiter.

My 目的地 is a small shack about six miles up the road, fabled for its barbecued pork 挟むs.

Butts To Go, on the 郊外s of Pell City, is high on my 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of 必須の visits during a 2,200 mile barbecue road trip of the South, taking in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Andrew Harries 乗る，着手するs on a 2,200-mile barbecue road trip of the Southern 部隊d 明言する／公表するs which takes in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina (above)

The 権利 car is 必須の for any grand 小旅行する, and my V8 Mustang is just the 職業: 1970s 警官，（賞などを）獲得する-show looks, a rag 最高の，を越す and an exhaust growl like a Delta bluesman after a night playing a smoke-filled club.

I’m travelling 単独の (with 許可 from my 許すing wife) so there are no arguments about 地図／計画するs, music or the calories I 消費する as I eat my way 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the South.

My trip kicks off in Atlanta, Georgia, where the laid-支援する Darwin Hotel is my base for a couple of days.

Atlanta’s a big city but 平易な to 調査する by bike or on foot thanks to the 22-mile car-解放する／自由な 宙返り飛行 of abandoned 鉄道 line called the Beltline.

There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants along its course, dazzling public artworks and 広大な parks.

I walk to 認める Park for dinner at Das BBQ, where 巨大（な） アイロンをかける smokers sit like steam trains, stripped of their wheels but still puffing from their smokestacks. The beef brisket is divine.

Andrew's trip kicks off in Atlanta, above, where he bases himself at 'the laid-支援する Darwin Hotel' for several days

Barbecue is an 必須の part of Southern life, as celebrity chef Dwayne ‘Big Daddy’ Thompson explains when I visit his restaurant in Bessemer, Alabama, later in the trip: ‘Barbecue is the 初めの soul food and cooking low and slow 許すs the 成分s to get to know each other while your diners do the same.’

From Atlanta, I roar along the I-20 to Birmingham, Alabama ? a city central to the South’s civil 権利s movement.

After a day 調査するing, I 会合，会う three 退役軍人s of the 1963 children’s crusade ? 抗議するs that helped 誘発する／引き起こす the end of U.S. segregation.

Paulette Roby, Terry Collins and Nadine Smith all have 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の tales to tell ? 非，不，無 more so than Nadine.

In May 1963, she walked out of High School to join child 抗議する人s marching on City Hall and was 逮捕（する）d as her classmates were beaten by police.

She was 拘留するd for five days and when finally 許すd a phone call, instead of pleading to get out she asked her parents for clean underwear and a toothbrush. She was just 13 years old.

‘We’re still 直面するing the same fights, only the 円形競技場s have changed,’ 追加するs Terry.

Barbecue is an 必須の part of Southern life, 令状s Andrew. Pictured: A chef 準備するs a dish at Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo World's 選手権 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業-B-Que contest in February

関心 that a second Donald Trump victory would 始める，決める 支援する the civil 権利s movement is 発言する／表明するd by every 黒人／ボイコット American with whom I discuss politics on the trip.

I don’t clock a Trump bumper sticker (‘even my dog hates Biden’) until 運動ing through the flat plains from Birmingham to Florence, Alabama.

Almost every home proudly 飛行機で行くs the 星／主役にするs a nd （土地などの）細長い一片s, but there’s little 調印する of support for the Donald.

In Florence, my base is the Gunrunner, an uber-冷静な／正味の boutique hotel with a popular rooftop 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業.

After a whistlestop 小旅行する of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, in the town of Muscle Shoals, where a host of 星／主役にするs, from Aretha Franklin to 棒 Stewart, made 記録，記録的な／記録するs, it’s time to 攻撃する，衝突する the road again.

The rain’s slamming 負かす／撃墜する and I 運動 past endless miles of 収穫d corn fields on the way to Tupelo, Mississippi, and the Elvis Presley Birthplace.

The museum is in a 罰金 場所 and is nothing like as kitsch as Graceland.

I stop for lunch at Johnnie’s 運動-In nearby. 扱う／治療する yourself like a King by ordering Elvis’s favourite: a dough-burger with all the toppings.

The road trip 含むs a 運動 through the Smoky Mountains に向かって North Carolina. Pictured: the I-40 freeway in North Carolina leadin g to Asheville through the Appalachian Mountains

巡航するing along the US-61 に向かって Clarksdale, Mississippi, for the city’s 年次の Sunflower River Blues Festival, I 位置／汚点／見つけ出す a 調印する for Oxford, and decide to detour for a 巡礼の旅 to the home town of my favourite author, the late Larry Brown.

I want to see the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 駅／配置する where Brown worked as a firefighter before becoming a celebrated Southern writer.

In his memoir On 解雇する／砲火／射撃, Brown 令状s about cooking steak and chicken outside the 駅／配置する where he stayed when on 義務. And sure enough, the 乗組員 were out 支援する, barbecueing lunch that they 招待するd me to 株.

The 歓待 and 親切 shown by these men is typical of people I 会合，会う. Southern folk are renowned for their generosity, good manners and ready humour ? にもかかわらず travelling alone, I was never lonely.

Later, I arrive at the 旅行者s Hotel in Clarksdale, a beautifully 回復するd former rail 労働者s’ flop house. And what’s on a coffee （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する in the ロビー? A 調書をとる／予約する of Larry Brown short stories. How’s that for serendipity?

Clarksdale has a gritty authenticity befitting its status as a Southern blues 資本／首都. I spend a wild night at Ground 無, a music club part owned by film 星／主役にする Morgan Freeman, followed by a hangover-curing Sunday brunch at the Bluesberry Cafe, listening to the live stripped-支援する soul of Lucious Spiller.

After a 飛行機で行くing visit to the brilliant B.B. King museum in Indianola and a glorious 運動 on the arrow-straight roads of the Mississippi Delta, I 始める，決める the satnav for Memphis, Tennessee, for three days of raw politics and 激しく揺するing music.

I stay at the Arrive Hotel, a short walk from the 国家の Civil 権利s Museum.

Built on the same 場所／位置 as the Lorraine Motel, where Dr ツバメ Luther King was assassinated in April 1964, the museum is an powerful experience ? one that ends with the solemnity of Room 306 and the balcony on which he stood as the 致命的な 発射 rang out.

Across the street is the window from which James Earl Ray 解雇する／砲火／射撃d his gun. Later that day, I 運動 to Chattanooga, before stopping at Sevierville ? Dolly Parton’s Tennessee home town.

I’m 調書をとる／予約するd for dinner at the Appalachian, one of the South’s best restaurants ? and barely finish my starter when a group of diners asks me to join them.

Next day, I fill up (a 十分な 戦車／タンク costs about £35) for the best 運動 of the trip: up through the Smoky Mountains and on to North Carolina.

Andrew enjoys 'three days of raw politics and 激しく揺するing music' in Memphis (above), Tennessee

After 炭坑，オーケストラ席 stops in Asheville and Lexington, I 運動 to 明言する／公表する 資本／首都, Raleigh, and the 最高の-冷静な／正味の Longleaf Hotel at the 辛勝する／優位 of the downtown area. It’s a 1950s motel given a 21st Century makeover.

For my last supper, I make a 巡礼の旅 to Sam Jones BBQ.

He’s continuing the 遺産／遺物 of his grandfather whose restaurant opened in 1947 and was 宣言するd one of the best barbecues in the US by 国家の Geographic magazine.

‘Where y’all from?’ asks a woman dining with four pals in the booth next to me ? and before long we’re all in the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業.

That’s how it is in the South: you never know what 楽しみs are just along the road.