Road Trip Day 5

2006 Road Trip Vacation – Wednesday 2006-09-27

• Before I literally forget everything from last night, I stayed in the Best Western a couple of blocks from Beale street – my love for live music pretty much held me here… after I found a room.. well the first place I looked didn’t have any vacancies so I walked around a bit and found my room – after checking in I walked back to Beale street and went to a place called Silky O’Sullivan’s where a band was playing – the Mojo Queen – dunno her name, but because I was taking pictures she asked me to send her some – I wound up buying a CD which she autographed as well as giving me a portrait and business card with big lipstick print lips on it… she was really good – the band was awesome – they had played for other bands – the base played had played for the Chi-lites – they were all very nice too… one of the things about Beale street yesterday was that it was really empty - being Tuesday and not summer… I got a kick out watching a couple of girls grooving to their men… one was really begging for attention… I wandered about – drank some beer – went to a park with a band playing – don’t remember what their name is and bought one of their CD’s too… with the band members signatures… but I tell you what… the panhandling here is about as aggressive as I’ve seen anywhere – and they have their act down, but they do have things that give them away – there was these two guys working together – one claimed to be from cedar rapids Iowa – but because I wasn’t buying him beers he started in on me with “Hey, I’m just short on cash… look… here’s my paycheck…” and he showed me a $600 check, but I noticed it was from some place in Memphis even though he tried to hide that part… he said he’d worked a job here and was on his way to Atlanta… the guy he was with was making out to be from Chicago and what gave him away was his volunteering to show me Elvis, and I believe he’d shown me Elvis – but I don’t care – I don’t wanna see Elvis – and I don’t need to pay to have someone show me Elvis – but I did buy him a beer and told him I was from Chicago and said I’d heard it all and seen it all and even told him what gave him away… and of course they acted all offended, but I later saw them working up a girl and saw her fishing in her purse for money – I thought about getting her out of there, but I thought that to be a bad idea ultimately… I went to another bar and sat at a table with some people from Georgia and of course being a yankee they started to play a game by spinning a yarn about 5 walking ducks in a hotel nearby and we got laughing so hard at one point that my new cd actually fell out onto the ground and I stomped it… I didn’t buy a cd at the 3^rd place, but they were pretty good – then I went and had a buffalo chicken sandwich at hooters and called it a night – it was before 9pm and I pretty much conked out… it was a good night…
• I decided to take 61 south out of Memphis – one of the things I’m going to be doing is trying to gauge the weather – it’s clear, but there are supposed to be storms tonight – it’s supposed to be a little more scenic and I’ll make judgments as I go through Mississippi
• Lisa called me this morning about 8:30 as I was getting out of the shower and trying to pack – she wanted to know if I were alive which was cool – the connection kept dropping which was annoying – she seemed to be in a good mood which was cool… she said that Alex had been accepted to UIC which is awesome
• I don’t know why this strikes me funny but Johnny Cochran has billboards down here with his mug pictured on the billboard with his hand on his chin and head poised as though he’s contemplating – looks ridiculous…
• It’s 9:18 – oh here it is… I’m driving into Mississippi right now…
• I’m passing Tunica and there are a lot of casinos… I didn’t realize gambling was big in Mississippi – the Georgians that were pulling my leg last night said they were coming to tunica to gamble today
• I just saw a sign for something called the Tate log house… I think this is tunica
• It’s a pretty little town – I’m sure the area is greatly bolstered by the area casinos…

• It seems to be a friendly little place.. people wave – I checked out the Tate house… these Tates came much later than my Tates… they apparently bought the house in 1880 and it was built in 1860 something… as I pulled up a lady was opening the house… so I went in and talked to her a bit – she was actually raised in a small home similar to this… not cypress like this one… she said there were 11 kinds in her family – 6 boys and 5 girls… said they fed the chickens through the floor!... a lot has changed since her childhood – she said if she had a dollar for every piece of cotton she’d picked she’d own the cabin not work in it… she reminded me of my wife’s grandma Esther… spoke like her… dressed like her – polyester jacket and pant suit… nice blouse… hair the same – it could have been her sister!

• Turning off 61 South to 49 west my hope is to catch 1 south…
• There are a lot of tin structures around here – no barns of wood – tin – I assume it’s tin cause it’s all rusty – a lot of rusty structures…
• Alright coming up on intersection with hw1 turning south on hwy one – looks like a delta museum down here…
• The cotton bails here aren’t what I’d thought they’d look like – they’re more like big cotton bricks in the fields with plastic covers and writing on them…. Seem to have people’s names on them

• This part of Mississippi is flat and pretty much cotton fields and tree groves… once in a while wet lands and bogs… if it were beans and corn it might look a lot like northern Illinois…

• One of the rituals at that Irish bar I went to last night is the feeding of the goats… where the owner trots through the bar ringing a big bell and a couple of wait staff come and feed the goats… the bartender was a tattooed guy I noticed was studying calculus so we started talking and he said he was trying to get back into school in the spring… biochemical engineering – he was from Mississippi – gonna go to Memphis state so he was brushing up…
• Getting off the road to go to Desoto lake… need to find a place to go to the bathroom…. Also the bartender said the owner of the bar is a feisty redhed who owns several successful businesses in Memphis – is a physical therapist and he spoke of her in high regard
• The road to Desoto that has a sign that takes me onto a gravel road which isn’t helping my bladder but I’m hoping to resolve that soon
• So, my voice recorder filled up a little while ago – Desoto park basically turned into a boat ramp with a road and a bunch of cabins and trailer homes – likely a resort lake – stopped through some town – don’t know what the name of it was and got some fried chicken of course, the southern staple… had to speak slowly and clearly to be understood – came out to this place called the great river road state park – at my lunch – cleared out some journal messages… and I’m going to see if I can take some pix now…

• It costs three dollars to get into the great river road park… meh
• I’m finding a lot of beaten up shacks that people still live in northern Mississippi – as I travel further south the homes seem to be getting nicer… manicured yards, well maintained homes…
• I just came through Greensville – this stretch of road is about as boring as Nebraska – this is just a means to the end with the end hopefully the gulf – I’m hoping that as I get closer to Vicksburg the scenery gets more interesting…
• I’m tempted to cross over to Arkansas and see if it’s any more interesting there…

• Well stripy pajama road workers probably means inmates doing the road work which is kinda interesting because it’s right outside an elementary school with lots of little kids running around outside – not sure that I’d see this back home…
• Out here in the middle of nowhere Mississippi is a town called grace, and the only thing I saw there is a gas station with gas priced at $2.53/gallon!
• There’s a stretch of road here where all along the road on either side are large ponds… and one of the things the lady at the tate cabin had said is that the cotton farms are being replaced by fish ponds – beans, rice and fish ponds… I had to ask her to repeat that a couple of time because I wasn’t expecting to hear fish ponds!
• Turning onto 14 West…
• Alright this is turning into 61 South and I’m in some town called onward…
• So it’s 3pm and I just saw the 1^st Mississippi state patrol car since I entered Mississippi – only other police I’ve seen have been locals when I’ve stopped to get gas… I’m about 9 miles north of Vicksburg
• 3:30 and I’m in the Vicksburg national military park… really nice staff.. gave me a route to follow through the city of Vicksburg – 26 thousand people here – going to do the driving tour through the park and check out where the siege of Vicksburg occurred.

• I’m completely overwhelmed… I had no concept as to the size, volume, and just massiveness of this battle… a sign said that Illinois had over 36 thousand troops here – over half of the union forces…

• Leaving Vicksburg… historic translates to run-down… in so many of these places… it wasn’t too bad… but there really wasn’t anything that held my interest there… I’m heading south on 61.. it’s about 5:30 so I don’t know how much more drive time I have tonight… I don’t know anything about Natchez so I may pull out the ole travel guide and see if there will be a place to stay anywhere along the way…
• This area south of Vicksburg is quite a bit different than that north of Vicksburg, this is hilly and treed and reminds me a lot of… .uh… I don’t know what it reminds me of but it’s really hilly lol

• I’m in port Gibson and it’s what I imagined southern cities to look like – wide main streets – lined with canopied tress – pillared houses – good old southern grace…

I’d called my parents while I was in Vicksburg military park and talked to them as I took photos… my mom being a mother was doing her best to put the fear of the unknown in me and translating the map of Mississippi into any number of dangerous scenarios I should watch out for (I love you mom)…. By the time I’d hung up the call, she actually had me worried about what I might be driving into as I proceeded south from Vicksburg… of course the Hollywood image of Mississippi delta towns only works the imagination into a paranoid frenzy… funnily, and happily, almost immediately I noticed that south of Vicksburg was a completely different world than that north of Vicksburg… north – poor and rural – south – manicured and urban (or suburban)… I made it to Natchez just as the sun was setting quickly found a hotel with high speed internet… only $44/night! I get to my room and here these little sounds like stuff falling from the ceiling… I looked and looked and saw nothing… then… out of the corner of my eye I see a flying cricket! Damnation! I start to move the furniture around and the pests are everywhere! I’m disgusted, but I figure I can endure as long as they stay off the bed… and about 2 hours later as I’m transcribing this… I see a cricket on my bed – gah! I got a new room, but since these damn things are like a locust plague outside I don’t know if it matters which room I’m in… so far I’ve only seen one live one in the new room… but… unfortunately the internet service isn’t working here…