Epic railjourney across the southern united states. This is the mighty mississippi. The economic backbone of early america, Running North to south for more than 2000 miles, carrying the people and cargo that helped to turn this country from a Fledgling Upstart into a powerhouse. For much of the 19th century, steamboats like this ruled the river. But in 1879, construction began on a transcontinental train line, that would link the newfound prosperity with the isolated far west. Connecting the Gulf Of Mexico with the pacific ocean. On this journey ill be following the railroad that pushed The American Dream along the mexican border all the way to california. Every trip is unique. Its a moving city. And i will be meeting some of the people who help define this unique, diverse and fascinating part of the country. Horn blares. New orleans, my first port of call. Right now in the middle of one of its annual street parties, the french quarter festival. Jazz music plays. The area gets its name from when the french founded the city in 1718, as a strategic port on the Mississippi And Gulf of mexico. The spanish also ran the city, before it was bought by the us in 1803. And you can see all these influences in new 0rleans� world famous architecture, food and music. Jazz music plays. That is New Orleans exactly how i imagined it. A Brass Band going down the street and a whole crowd following them, getting into the vibe. Fantastic. Jazz music continues. Now the city might be best known for jazz, but you can also find a type of music here that ive never encountered before. Zydeco music plays. Chubby carrier is a Grammy Award Winner and the third generation of a legendary zydeco playing family. The music, zydeco, Tell Me about it. Zydeco music, a lot of people get it mixed up with cajun music. But if you hear Zydeco Music youre going to hear more of blues, rn� b, Soul And Rock � n� roll all mixed into one. Zydeco music continues. This, chubby says, is the expression of louisianas back creole community. It is a bit of african, a bit of french and some caribbean all mixed up. And apart from the accordion, chubby says the essential instrument of the Zydeco Sound is the one that evolved from his grandmothers washboard. Music continues. This was my grandmothers Washing Machine. This was her Washing Machine back in the day. And you hear that rhythm . The buttons on your shirt were making the little sound, and the grandmother was washing clothes at the time, and of course the daddy who was playing says hey, that thing sounds good, it might fit with the accordion. Bring it over here she said you must be out of your mind, this is how i do my laundry. Cani . You should try it, man, yes, yes, yes. It is all percussion in zydeco. Plays washboard. You have the rhythm going like this and everything, thats it thats it. But when you hit the board you lose it. Why . I dont know. Music continues. The streets are packed, and theres a jubilant atmosphere here. But it has been hard won. It has taken more than a decade for Tourist Numbers to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Music has helped the city get its mojo back, and festivals like this are busier than ever. I feel lucky to have a ringside view. When he point that camera to you, i want you to shake your booty like your mama gave it to you. Crowd cheers. We are going to send this back to london and let them know how we do it in New Orleans, all right . Zydeco music plays. And then after my frankly disastrous ten minute lesson, this happens. Slower Zydeco Music plays. Bbc travel here, london, england, yall. Crowd cheers. And the party goes on long into the night, but i have got an early start, and a very long trip ahead of me. Music continues. So that was New Orleans, in all its flamboyant glory. It is eight in the morning, and today im heading west. Thank you so much. And the service i am taking is the Sunset Limited train line. The route dates back to 1894, and stretches some 2000 Miles Coast to coast from new 0rlea Ns to los angeles, passing through five different us states. An odyssey, really. So this is a route steeped in history, but i am hoping its also going to Tell Me something about contemporary america, too. Right up the stairs. Thank you. Back in the day, several railroad franchises joined up to create this pan american rail network. And along the route, significant landmarks, historical and natural, reveal themselves to passengers. This is a view of the Mississippi River on huey p long bridge. We are right in the middle of two lanes of traffic, which is a weird feeling. It gets rocky, doesnt it sometimes . One of the tricks with moving down the train is to keep your feet about Shoulder Width apart, and keep one hand free so you can touch things as you are going through, whether it is the back of the seats, or we have the Grab Irons which you can use. Have you ever fallen on a customer . Yes. Laughs. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, our next Station Stop will be new iberia approxiately 30 minutes. Train Supervisor Bruce is a veteran of the Sunset Limited line. The railroad was what granted the united states. It opened up transportation from East To West and that was the big thing, was transportation of both goods and people. The train might have been instrumental in the creation of modern day america, but Today Rail Use is way below that of Air And Road travel, which are often cheaper and quicker. So why would anyone take the train . You have areas that you basically dont have planes flying into it, you dont have Greyhound Buses going to so these isolated places in texas especially and new mexico, this is the lifeblood to get transportation through. Every trip is unique. Its a moving city. You have people giving birth, you have people. Thats happened . Oh yeah. 0n the train. Sometimes we are an hour away from civilisation and babies dont wait. Laughs. They cheer. 0n we roll as we cross into texas and are joined by a group of Train Buffs on a day trip. So you are mostly here because of these two . Yes, He Saw Thomas The Train one time when he was about two years old, and since then he has been all about trains. Join the club laughs. I actually have a couple of 1 8 Scale Amtrak cars, and since i got them i thought they looked so good, that i was waiting for a long time to ride on amtrak, and i was thinking it was like, time to hit the tracks. Some people dont get into the smaller areas, the smaller towns, so by going through the back areas, you have an opportunity to expand the mind, because once the mind expands it can never return to its original dimension. My next stop is the city of san antonio. But not before the Sunset Limited lives up to its name. San antonio is a modern, prosperous city. In fact now it is americas seventh largest. It is very cosmopolitan, and in many ways not stereotypically texa n. But it has one historical attraction which gets to the very heart of what it means to be american, and more especially, texan. This is the alamo, a legendary site in us history, where in 1836 a small group of troops fighting for Texan Independence were laid siege by a much larger mexican army. The texan forces held out for 13 days before they were overwhelmed and killed. Dr winders, bruce, how are you . But Historian Bruce says it would be simplistic to see it as baddie mexicans versus goodie americans. This is a story about people. This is a story about two nations, this is a story about the idea of what should government be like . Its really the convergence of mexican history and us history. The battle became a symbol of historic resistance, and the struggle for independence, which the texans won later that year. Company, prepare to load � em 12 times. Ready . Load today, the alamo is one of the states top tourist attractions, and re enactors help visitors make sense of its complex past. Fire rifle fire. Applause. So, ive been talked into having the full alamo experience, here. But, ryan, Tell Me. Yep. There is a point of this, isnt there . Right. This living history. Absolutely. So as people come in here, and they can see how we would have cooked coffee, how we would cook meat over the fire, the kind of foods that we would have had here. Parched Corn And Beef was the food they had to eat during the battle. And so what we try to do is just let people in on that side of history, give them kind of a taste, the same emotional experience. What do you think was the mood of the people who were in this situation, waiting, in a sense, for the mexicans to come . This was home for them. This was the chance for a new life. And so in that, they were willing to fight for something greater than themselves which is kind of that, in in my view, Thats Kind of the amazing feeling you get any battlefield site. This Epic Fight For Freedom from mexico might be part of the folklore of san antonio, but Hispanic Influence is also a huge part of the citys current identity. Were only two and a half hours drive from the border, and Contemporary Mexicana is celebrated here, like loteria. When you win, what do we say . Loteria what dont we say . Bingo alright. Bingo. So, if you say bingo, i i wont hear it. We dont use that b word. You say loteria. Alright . Does anybody else have any questions . You join a team, put the T Shirt on, and realise this is about family, community and winning. El diablo. El diablo the devil. Youve got the devil. The devil. Next card, El Venado the deer. El venado. I think you had it. There it is. Did i . Oh yeah, El Venado the deer excellent. El melon. El melon the cantaloupe. You you youve got the melon. I havent got the melon. 0h, we got loteria over here lets check it. 0h, someones won already yes, you got a winner. Congratulations. Applause. Alright, now. New game. We all know loteria. Its important to us because my grandmother didnt know english. I didnt know spanish growing up. I wasnt taught spanish all that much. I was taught tex mex. So playing with my grandma, it gave us quality time together, because we were both learning. She didnt know english, i didnt know spanish. So right there we had a connection during the game. Hola, hello everyone. Im from london. Im going to bring you luck. Ok . You ready for this . Im going to bring you all luck. Hows my team doing . Very good El Barril the barrel how we doing out there . Anyone close . Anyone close to winning . Loteria we have loteria are you sure . Seguro . Ok. Applause. Let him know he did good, this is his First Time playing right . YourFirst Time . Yeah, yeah, First Time. His very First Time playing. So lets maybe lets let him win. Whats it like being Mexican American . Whats that like . I wouldnt change it. I love being tex mex. I love being from texas. Im all about texas. I have a shirt that says i just lucky legal. Which is true, a lot of people are just lucky legal. Were not illegals. You know, our just because were darker its hot out its hot in texas. Our ancestors are from there, but we were born here, in the united states so dont try to send us back somewhere were not even from. Train horn blares. The next day, and a few more stops down the train line, deep into southern texas, and you find yourself even closer to the mexican border the last frontier, some call it. Alpine station is the jumping off point to one of americas most remote National Parks. We drive through a vista that feels straight out of a western. They call it Big Bend after a twist in the legendary river here that today separates the usa from mexico the Rio Grande. This is the Rio Grande welcome to the border yeah. This year marks the centenary of the foundation of the national Park Service in the usa. And what a spectacular asset they are. So just to get our geography sorted, erin, where is mexico, where is the usa . So we have mexico over here. There. Yeah . Texas over here. Yeah . The actual border is the deepest current in the river. This would be the spot where some politicians in the us want to build a border wall. Not sure how theyd manage that here. And its notjust this spectacular border with mexico that makes the park unique. So the Chihuahuan Desert the Chihuahuan Desert extends north into new mexico, but this park definitely contains the biggest chunk of the Chihuahuan Desert. And then theres the chisos mountains, and you get up in the high mountains and you get different species of animals like black bears, and mountain lions, and trees. So youve got a big diversity in the flora and fauna. Seven one zero. Ranger doing Foot Patrol in the pantherjunction area. And theres more to this wild corner of the earth than its incredible diversity of living species. Big bendd has more Dinosaur Fossils than any other National Park over 90 different species have been discovered here, dating back 80 Million years. This is called a coprolite, which is fossilised dinosaur faecal material. Dinosaur poo is what you mean. This is dinosaur poo, that would be correct. Wow. And that is fossilised that stays like that. Hard as a rock. For millions of millions of years. Wow. Thats the First Time ive held dinosaur poo. A new exhibit dedicated to the dinosaurs is opening at the park in september. It will include these giant bronze casts of fossils. This one is a crocodilian. This is Deinosuchus Riograndensis we call it the Big Bendd supercroc. You can see from its size its a well named species. Ive seen crocodiles today, and theyre pretty scary. But this is massive this is huge. Right . With about a six foot long skull, it would have had somewhere around a A0 Foot long length for the entire animal. Sometimes we find scarring in other Fossil Bones from deinosuchus teeth. So he literally ate dinosaurs. He ate dinosaurs incredible, isnt it . The landscape here may have remained unchanged for millennia, but the fact it contains 118 miles of Border Zone is more relevant today than ever. A hundred years ago, the people in this region the Border Wasnt a significant part of daily life, the river was. So we had families that would live on the united States Side with cousins in mexico. There would be crossing, there would be floodplain farming. There would be a multinational community here. Because the boundry was not considered to be a significant part of daily life. Now weve made it a significant part of our politics. Jeanette and i head off to get a high Vantage Point of the Rio Grande river and a mexican town across the border. We have a community of boquillas, mexico, over here, which hasjust a couple of hundred people. But beyond that, if we get into the hills over there, thats protected land in mexico. People can legally move between the two countries at an official Crossing Point in the river. There are also schemes where both sides work together to protect the environment. Sometimes they help us out with protecting our resources from wildfire, and sometimes we partner together to remove evasive species, to help make the entire Rio Grande a better place. So the first half of My Trek Across The Southern Stretch of the usa ends, literally, a stones throw from mexico. Its wonderfully tranquil here, so it seems kind of odd that this place has found itself at the Front Line of politics. Im going to relish my last moments of serenity, because next week ill be continuing myjourney west, where things start getting strange. You and i have just started something that we cant stop. There is no big oops button down here. Theres only one problem, right . What was that . We are on this thing, and theres no one to turn it off. Does that mean we are on here, like, forever . Well, in theory, that could happen. Hello there. Western scotland was the warmest part of the country on tuesday and it will be again on wednesday. We had cooler, cloudier conditions in some parts of the country, mind you, particularly here in the midlands, and that cloud is still around in the same place at the moment. High pressure still in charge, keeping it dry, but weve got more cloud coming down across the North Sea Thatll push further inland during the day. But we start with some Mist And Fog patches in scotland and northern ireland, then The Sunshine comes out in many areas. Theres the cloud coming in off the North Sea, into eastern england, through the midlands and towards parts of wales. And well have more cloud again across the Northern Isles of scotland, but also, Cloudier Skies in the northeast of mainland scotland, perhaps even into the borders as well. Elsewhere in scotland, The Sun will be out and its going to be warm 26 degrees again around glasgow. And in The Sunshine in northern ireland, 2a celsius. Could make 2a in cumbria as well. Cloudier, cooler weather, though, for northeast england through lincolnshire, the midlands, into east wales, but also for East Anglia. Sunshine more likely across southern counties of england, though in the southeast, its still quite a chilly wind blowing, and weve got all this cloud coming further inland during the evening. So, a lot of cloud, i think, at headingley for the first day of the test match. Its going to be dry. Itll be dry for day two on thursday, but it will feel quite a bit cooler. Now, we saw all the cloud in the North Sea. Its actually on that Weather Front there, very weak. Its pushing inland during wednesday night. A little light Rain Or Drizzle here and there, and by the time we get to thursday morning, its cloudy and damp across wales and the southwest. But the cloud should thin and break. Sunshine comes out across many western parts of the uk, but therell be more cloud blown in by a strong wind off the North Sea into Eastern Scotland for a while, but more especially across eastern parts of england. And here, temperatures may be no better than 16 or 17 degrees. Further west in The Sunshine, it will be warmer, although not quite as warm as wednesday. With that Weather Front out of the way by The End of the week, we still have High Pressure in charge. Still a Cool Breeze coming in around some of those North Sea coasts, and well see some cloud developing, particularly inland across england and wales on friday. More in the way of sunshine for scotland and northern ireland, and the weather should brighten up a bit more across East Anglia and the southeast. But temperatures are going to be near 18 20 celsius at The End of the week. Welcome to Bbc News im David Eades our top stories. President biden holds firm on his afghan Withdrawal Deadline he tells G7 Leaders any delay increases the threat of violent attacks. Each day of operation brings added risk to our troops, but the completion by August 31 depends upon the taliban continuing to cooperate. In kabul continued desperation at the airport as the taliban now say no more afghans will be allowed there. Also in the programme a crucial court ruling expected in brazil that could have a dramatic impact on both lives and landscape. And tributes to the rolling Stones Drummer Charlie watts whos died at the age of 80