Going down to the Crossroads

Years ago, being a big Delta Blues fan, I planned a motorcycle excursion down through the Mississippi Delta, and talked my friend John into coming along. Over the years, we would schedule, cancel and reschedule (always do to my fast-changing life). This year we finally made it down there. It was a 2,000 mile motorcycle trip with an additional 1,100 miles return trip when we finally trailered the bikes (my wife, certifiably crazy for me actually drove the 1,100 distance to New Oreleans to meet us for the Memorial Day weekend before doing most of the driving back agin with us and our bikes).

John preps, Holiday mopes.













Off we go...













It took three days just to get the Memphis and the noirthern tip of the Delta. We stopped to visited relatives of mine in North Carolina, to taste beers and listen to some live country music in Nashville, saw Jack Daniels being brwed in Lynchburg, and to hang out on Beale Street and tour Chez Elvis (and Sun Studio) in Memphis. Over the course of a few days, a lot of BBQ was consumed, A&R in memphis won out as a hands-down favorite. There is no better place for people watching than the (free) continental breakfast at Elvis, Inc's Heartbreak Hotel.

My Aunt Mae in N.C.















Live country at Tootsie's on Broadway in Nashville.















Where Jack Daniel's is distilled.



















The famous Beale Street, long since removed from its historic infamy, is now just a Bourbon St. wannabe.















Graceland, pure '70's nouveau rich.















Our Delta trip really started in Clarksdale, Miss.; and our trip to Clarksdale began the heat spell that just about wiped us out (even the natives were complaining). In Clarskdale, we visited the Delta Blues Museum, Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero juke Joint, and the surrounding areas of Stoval farms (were Muddy Waters once plowed for 22-1/2 cents an hour) and Hopson's plantation (restored to the appearance it had in its share-cropping days) .

Ground Zero (#0 Blues Alley), were John and I got some Mississippi fried catfish and caught some live blues.
















Muddy Water's former cabin and where it used to lay.





























Hopson's Plantation, where the more die-hard blues fan than I can vacation in its restored shotgun shacks.















Our big day in the Delta found his starting in Clarskdale in the morning and criss-crossing back and forth throughout the Delta, slowing working out way south to Vicksburg. It took us 330 miles and 12 hours to travel the 140 mile distance from Calrksdale and Vicksburg. But it was a Blues sight-seeing bonanza.


The site of the old Tutwiler train station. it is here, in 1903, that W.C. handy first witnessed blues music, which he would popularize and introduce to the rest of the world.















Dockery Farms, believed to be the place where dozens of forms of African and European music merge to create the Delta Blues as we know it.















The crossroads from the movie Crossraods; no I'm not kidding, you want a blues crossroads, it fits prefectly, from the cemetry to the burned out trees. We did apparently arrive way too early in the day to strike a deal with the devil.















One of the three Robert Johnson gravesites (we saw them all, and Sonny Boy Williamson I's also) and its caretaker. Having a RJ gravesite seems to be a cashcow for these small, poor churches.



















Another RJ gravesite.




















From here, after having our brains boiling in our helmets all day, we sprinted to Vicksburg. And the next day we blew through Natchez and Baton Rouge and met up with freinds and family in New Orleans. This has gone on forever, so I'll break here.