Sun 26th – New Orleans

Sun 26^th – New Orleans

Cafe Du Monde.. line up too long

Jackson Sq from the Mississippi River

Couple of goofy looking tourists

On the Natchez paddle steamer with Cafe Beignet

A jam packed day. We got up early and headed to the main building in the RV Park to watch a 40 minute video on Hurricane Katrina -  the build up and the aftermath and the reasons why there was so much damage. It was scary in many ways to see how much human activity on this earth has, is, and will continue to affect the weather, wildlife and our very existence on this planet.  So much devastation and hardship for the people in this beautiful city only 9 short years ago. The re-build continues but they are a long way from completing it.. if they ever really do. At 10 am we hopped the shuttle provided by the RV park for the trip into New Orleans proper, dropping us off in the French Quarter, we walked over to the famous ‘Café Du Monde for beignets, but were disappointed to see the line up that extended for blocks… so we opted to do that another time. We picked up some beignets from the ‘café Beignet’ and will look forward to comparing them with the ‘real deal’ another day!! We boarded on the Natchez paddle steam boat for a 2 hour cruise up and down the Mississippi river. It was a beautiful day, 27 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and we totally enjoyed the cruise, visiting the engine room to see the amazing way the whole paddle boat system works. There was a Jazz band playing for the last hour, so we felt rather immersed in the whole experience.

Steam driven paddle wheel

Cruising the Mississippi on the Natchez

New Orleans skyline

Katrina debris

Paddle mechanics

After the cruise, we wandered along the waterfront, chatted with some other people (one guy from Liverpool) and found out some information from some locals, that helped us in our explorations. We headed up Bourbon Street for the obligatory New Orleans experience. There is a Saints/packers game on later tonight and the street was filled with tourists, many of whom where wearing Green Bay Packers green … what an eclectic crowd… many of whom were well on their way to a massive hangover. Generally a huge long street party all along Bourbon street.  Loud and actually lots of fun… but just a bit too much noise and wild party people for us. Janice bought the obligatory t-shirt, we stopped for one ‘huge ass’ beer and hightailed it out to a quieter area of town… Frenchmen Street. This a less known area of New Orleans right next to the French Quarter and seems to be a more authentic New Orleans experience. Jazz clubs and restaurants abounding and filled with music lovers. locals and those wanting some good Cajun food.  We popped in to a restaurant / bar (The Marigny Brasserie)and tried the fried oysters (not bad) and awesome crawfish linguine… Oh my…. A taste sensation!!! We followed that with a stop at a Jazz bar that was an absolute dive from the outside with amazing talented Jazz inside… The Spotted Cat! Go there if you get the chance… very cool!!! Tired to the bone we took the last shuttle back to the RV park for an early night. 

Those tourists again!!

Steam calliope(top of steamboat) can play 32 notes

Bourbon Street

Statues on Bourbon street (Fats D. on left)

Thirst quencher on a hot day.. grateful for shuttle

Party atmosphere on Bourbon st

Love the Spanish style buildings

Spotted Cat on Frenchmen St

Inside the Spotted Cat. Great Jazz

Play a tune and relieve yourself - washroom in the Spotted Cat

Frenchmen St at night

Sat Oct 25   … Clarksdale to Indianola and New Orleans.

Good to be in Indianola

Convenient Parking at BB King Museum

We packed up early and were on the road by 8:30am heading to New Orleans via Indianola (BB King country) to check out the BB King Museum. It is so exciting being here in the heart of the Mississippi Delta… being in the area where the blues was born and raised! It is so flat and the landscape is overwhelmingly rural with field after field of cotton… it looks like fields of snow and the cotton balls blow around and look like snow on the side of the road. Miles and miles of flat fields. We chatted about the plight of the slaves and questioning how human beings so recently in our history could enslave a whole race and keep them from being recognized, even as citizens, until the mid 1960’s. We have received nothing but kindness and friendliness from everyone we have encountered down here. It truly is a complete cultural change, and we love it.
The people are generally warm, friendly and caring, regardless of their skin colour.
Anyway we arrived at the BB King Museum at exactly 10am when they open, and managed to park right on the street in front of the building… perfect. The tour of the museum started with a short video giving much of the life history of this amazing musician. By the age of nine his father had left and then his mother died. His grandmother and various aunts cared for him but he was basically on his own. The great adversity he faced throughout his young life and the kind and generous man he has become, is inspiring. 

BB's Sharecropper Home

Anyway we wandered for 90 minutes around the museum… watching videos, seeing various artifacts from his full life and learning more than we ever knew about BB’s life. We bought the DVD “The life of Riley” – he was born Riley King.

The story behind "Lucille"

We learned how he became BB and what it stands for … look it up or take the trek to Indianola, Mississippi to find out!!
The Museum was well worth the extra time getting there instead of going directly to New Orleans.
We continued our journey for an additional six hours passing through the delta and into Louisiana and arrived at Pontchartrain RV resort and Marina at 5:30.  Looks like a great place but VERY dusty!! We had a bite to eat and checked out the brochures to decided what we want to see while we are here for the next 3 days / 4 nights.

Bridge into New Orleans, Louisiana from Mississippi

Fri Oct 24th - Memphis to Clarksdale, Mississippi - The Crossroads

The visitors centre is an old Rlwy Stn

Fri Oct 24 -  Clarksdale, Mississippi - The Crossroads

The start of The Blues

Here we are!

Our Site at The Expo Grounds. Great

We had a leisurely start to the pack up in Memphis and drove the 2 hours to Clarksdale, arriving around mid day. We had some fun trying to find the non existent Chamber of Commerce location, only to find out by phone that they no longer handle the RV sites at the Expo Centre. Anyway we drove in turning west at “The Crossroads” Hwy 61 and 49 and, for the uninitiated, look up Robert Johnson! He sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads.
We got to the Expo grounds and found full hook ups, got an envelope off the rack, enclosed the $20 and dropped it into the lock box - brilliant system and the cheapest full service hook up of the last two years.

The crossroads where Johnson 'sold his soul' is widely understood to be located at the junction of Hwy 61 and Hwy 49.

Robert Johnson was here!!!! We think!!!!

Robert Johnson might have been here

A great find in Rosedale at the Crossroads (2)

Now there is a discrepancy about where the actual crossroads is. A latest concept is that it is at the junction of Hwy 1 and 8 in Rosedale some 39 miles away. After all Rosedale not Clarksville is mentioned in the lyrics. Off we went to Rosedale. To be fair, Derek doesn’t want to miss any chance that he can improve his guitar playing. So we got the bases covered!!!  At the junction is Leo’s at the Levee, a dubious café but a rare gem, just wrapping up their small buffet…wow awesome catfish, fall of the bones ribs, caramelized beans and great peach cobbler. On a sharezees plate…$10.00 for lunch for us both. Fabulous.

Good eats at Leo's

The Folks in Rosedale are convinced

Cotton fields

We drove back into Clarksville, checked out some of the stores, Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero club,  and various blues trail markers (Bessie Smith, Ike Turner, WROX radio etc.) then went a couple of miles out of town to the site where Muddy Waters house use to be on the Stovall Plantation. It was here right in the cotton fields framed with Pecan trees that Mckinley Morganfield grew up. Our imaginations were let loose as we stood on such hallowed ground. And we picked a bag full of pecans from trees that have probably been around since McKinley (Muddy Waters) was there many many years ago! We tried one and have never ever tasted such fresh soft tasty pecans… ever!!! 

Cotton fields

Roadside cotton. Looks like snow

Bales of Cotton

Swamp at the side of the road

Ike got his start in Clarksdale

Ground Zero Blues club - Clarksdale

Not pretty but big history

Ground Zero stage

Plaque at Muddy's shack location

Site of Muddy's home

Cotton fields behind Muddy's shack

......Fish are jumpin and the cotton is high..............

Fresh picked Pecan

Sharecropper's house next door to Muddy's shack

Pecans ..... YUMMMM!!!

Remains of Muddy's shack before move

An amazing feeling of connection

Roadside cotton!

We arrived at Red's Lounge early

Lucius Spiller rocked the place!!

Back to the condo, then we got a cab into Reds Lounge touted as the only remaining authentic 'juke joint'. Well it was certainly down and dirty, bottled beers out of a couple of much used coolers. Luscious Spiller, a youngish  bluesy / rocker from Little Rock, Arkansas was on. His first set began at 9.00 and was over two hours non- stop, backed by a local drummer and bass player. By 12.30 after only a 10 minute break he was still coming out with new stuff, lots of old blues standby’s with rock and his own stuff thrown in. Wow.  Called our taxi driver and got him out of bed to come and take us home…. And he was still cheerful! Mind you he was well paid for his trouble.  What a great night.

Derek.. at the Crossroads