The South

After New Orleans, we traveled up through Mississippi stoping in Natchez and Oxford. We camped at a trailerpark along the river (camping anywhere other than in a national park means being the only tent surrounded by a sea of RVs). We waited as we were bombarded by yet another thunderstorm, and admired the stretched out rainbow that it left along the surface of the Mississippi.
We tried the barbeque in Memphis as well as checking out The King's diggs and visiting the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr was fatally shot. From there, we tore through Tennesse on our way to Williamsburgh, Virginia.
Before hitting Virginia, much of the south looked very similar: poor and dirty. Almost depressingly so. In the larger cities there were young boys performing tricks and stunts for passerbys who would fill their bags with coins. The kids would then pick up the bags and promptly take them over to older kids sitting on stoops smoking, before returning to the street to perform some more.
In the large cities, policemen would absolutely fill the few blocks which attracted tourists, but were hardly seen anywhere else in the city. The cities themselves were filled with trash, had roads that were torn apart and, save for touristy downtowns, often had little in the way of businesses that weren't fast-food joints or gas stations.
The smaller towns (although surely not better off in economic terms) actually looked much better and exhibited more charm than their larger counterparts. There were public gardens, small businesses, and gorgeous mansions.