MISSISSIPPI BLUES

MISSISSIPPI BLUES TOUR...and beyond

Big Red shined up and ready to ride.



updated May 21 back on track

day 1

(if you see a white back ground here I have no idea how it got there)

The most, ah...., “routine” part of my trips is leaving the state of Florida.  There are only so many ways, and I have done them all many times.  So, I was excited when Larry invited us to spend Saturday night in Newberry at his Alabama Dream Home.  It would break up the leaving of Florida.  So, I was just as disappointed when he canceled. He had been driving around the state lawyering all week and was not up for the drive from St. Pete to Newberry for the weekend.  He has offered me the use of the Dream Home but it is not the same without him and Dave there swapping lies.

So, we left at a leisurely time of 9 in the morning.  The usual ride out of town on the expressways was uneventful.  In Crystal River I met up with Jim for morning coffee and caught up.  We probably will not see each other until December. We leaves in a few weeks for his place in the Adirondacks and will return in the fall when I will be traveling.  Back on 19 to Perry and a turn west on 98 in the direction of Apalachicola. Being a absolutely fantastic weather weekend there was more traffic than I have ever seen.  Not crowed, except a boat ramps, but a steady stream and all the Harley guys were coming back from a big weekend in Panama City. The usual stop at the Lynn's for a few dozen oyster and a beer and then over the bridge to the Gibson Inn in Apalachicola for the night.  Great weather for riding.

crossing the howard franklin

bet you can not tell which one is me.......

 red wanted to spend the night here.  I liked the rate but not the bed.

 that's tom from Kansas. he takes pictures of OS too.

Many years ago a wise senior women gave me some great advice.  “Ken”, she said, “just bring you wife flowers from time to time for no reason.”  And I have followed her advice for years.  When I started and we were living on the boat, when I walked down the dock with flowers all the guys are going “what did you do this time?”  When their wife's found out I just bought flowers just to do it, they no longer liked me.  They never got it.  So, for these great adventures, I load up on flowers.  I just go to the store and pick up a bunch.  It is not the quality of the flowers but the quality of the thought, sometimes less the six bucks.  This gaggle of flowers, including a dozen roses, were less than $20 and well worth it.  Vicki says I do it because I am “high on leaving” and there is a lot truth in that statement.  Not leaving home, but leaving on the scooter.

DAY 2

The Gibson Inn in Apalachicola is a old historic hotel and all wood. The whole staff seems to be women and work in every position from front desk to one was on a rickety ladder painting the second floor balcony.

I headed west to visit my friend Gracie and her son Jeff. The ride was good until Panama City where it is always like pulling teeth to get across town. Gracie just retired a few years ago and her husband died piloting a plane in Africa in the last century. I am still pissed off at him for doing that. Thursday is Gracie 's birthday so Jeff is taking her to Biloxi to go gambling. Any Momma would be lucky to have a son like Jeff. I let them get on there way about noon and I headed north to Dothan.

There are days when something keeps getting my attention. Today it was church signs. There was about one very mile, we are in the bible belt you know, and had passed some of the best ones before I started taking pictures. Capt Gary rode out to Graceville on his award winning 1979 Vespa. First we had to have ice cream soda at the soda fountain at the drug store. Just like the good old days. We rolled into his house about 5 and were met by my good buddy Banjo, on the lickingist dog I have ever met, but I love him and his fine owner Evelyn. She and Vicki are from the same cloth and let their husbands roam free on the scooters. A great home cooked meal and we called it a day.



 Gracie and Jeff

 lunch in a small town

 gary's momma did not teach to take his hat off in the house or he is afraid he will fall of the stool.

my friend banjo

Day 4

I thanked Evelyn and Banjo for a great visit and Gary escorted me out of town. First we rode around Dothan looking at the peanut fire hydrant and the dog that was peeing on it in front of the Fire Station No. 1. Somebody must have been offended and it was changed. Look close at the weird legs now. We rode by a few large murals and then headed west in US 84. He said goodbye in Daleville and I continued on the ride to Hattisburg, MS. I basically followed US 84, but I would find parallel roads to ride. US 84 is a good road with light traffic, but the other roads have more twists and turns and follow the contours of the land more. I had a late breakfast in Opp, AL. Gracie said she was coming to Opp to find a lost relative so I asked everyone in the B&B Family Restaurant if they knew Gracie's relative and no one did. Of course it would have been better if I knew Gracie's relatives name. This was a fun little place with Julie laughing the whole time she was serving and the “old table” giving directions and suggestions.

Back on the road my next side adventure brought me to a dirt road. I road down it a little ways and talked to a kid. He gave me a out. He said after you cross the bridge,about two miles, turn right before the railroad tracks and it would take me back to the paved road. When I got to the turn I was having such a riding high I just pressed on. Eventually I came back to the paved road just as riding on this gravely,sandy, bouncy road was about to get old and continued on my way.

A main destination was Camp Shelby, a active Mississippi National Guard training area, to visit the museum there. Unfortunately it was closed but I rode through the camp. It was basically empty except for fire crews that were doing “we hope” controlled burns.

I rode on into Hattisburg, had a few marquritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and called it a day. All in all, 329 miles and a fine day of riding.

Japanese concentration camps

In WWII, (that is world war two, not WW Eye Eye as I heard a school teacher tell it to her students once), after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America rounded up all the Japanese Americans and put them into “internment” camps away from coastal areas. I knew of this camps but had never looked into them until this year when I found one in Mississippi and one in Arkansas. Thus the visit to Camp Shelby were one was located. The same camps in Germany where people of one kind where imprisoned where called “concentration” camps. Our calling it another name, internment, theoretically made it better I guess. These were second and third generation Japanese, many who had large farms and holdings. They were forced to sale everything losing their life's work and moved into barbed wire prisons around the country with the clothes on their backs and a small suitcase. The Germans in the U.S. were not “interned”; the Italians were not “interned”; just those people that did not look like us. This is something we pretty much swept under the table and ignored for many years. We have failed to save a single one of the prisons. Alabama passed a law eventually stating that the Japanese were not colored so they could  induct some of them in the Army.

The editorial of Life magazine in May 1945 included the following remarks: “Americans had to learn to hate Germans, but hating Japs comes natural—as natural as fighting Indian wars once was.” This is in a nutshell is the difference between the average American attitudes towards the enemy during World War II: the Japanese were a different race. Besides this, the Americans felt treacherously attacked by Japan in Pearl Harbor, but they did not feel any need for revenge or hatred against the Germans.

 see Gary hidden down on the right

 the only indication that we are entering Mississippi is the end of 56 and the change in the pavement

DAY 4

We were on the road by 7:30. The highway out of Hattiesburg is four lane and the speed is posted at 55. But actually, your speed is about 10 mph average as every quarter mile is a stop light that you are going to stop at. After clearing the lights we continued westbound with beautiful weather. We stopped here and there and rode off the main route a few times taking in several small towns. Brookheaven was the biggest and a county seat. It had a mixture of finally restored offices, mainly lawyers or accounts, next to derelict buildings. All in all it was a nice little town.

I rode through Bassfield which could hardly be called a hamlet much less a town. A old abandoned cotton gin, post office, a few small abandon buildings and the A.F Carraway Store. I rode by the store but it looked so original I did a U-turn and went back. Good move. (Sorry, you don't know it but I just got interrupted. I am setting in the garden of the B&B early, before 7, typing. Another guest, Mike, came out with coffee. He used to run a private reverse osmosis plant on Marco Island so we have had a interesting discussion about that. His biggest problem he says was all the old retired people on Marco that where self-declared experts in his business. Nice visit.) Back to the store. Inside it looked like the rural general store of the past, Vienna sausages to heavy work pants. Behind the original counter, still in use, was Wayne Brown. While I was there a lady came in and said her husband had sent her for a wax toilet bowl ring. Wayne asked if it was the same type of toilet as last time and she said yes. He went to back and brought one out. I think they have everything including embroidery of shirts. Wayne has worked in this store for 27 years just has his father, Henry, before him who worked the store and fields for the Carraway's. In a way Wayne still lived on Carraway property, but he and his brother had bought the land from the Carraway's. The store has been operating continually since 1919. The store is now owned by the Burns family. Burns worked the store for the Carraway's with Henry and when the original Carraway died he left half to his two sons and half to Mr. Burns who bought out the two sons. Mr. Burns recently passed away and his children have taken over. Wayne says that business as gotten better as Mr. Burn's children have restocked the shelves and he has something to sell now. It was a great visit but we had to head on down the road.

The GPS tried to take me down another dirt road, but today I declined and got back on the Nathez trace and exited on a real road.

This road took me to Alcorn State University. A beautiful campus, but it is just in the middle of nowhere, literally. Outside the fenced in property there is not a house, gas station, pizza parlor, nothing. I had to go on campus to get gas. The nearest civilization is ten miles away.

We headed on down the road to check off some tourist attractions:

• Windsor ruins: built by Smith Daniel II on his 16,000 acre plantation, finished in 1861 with three stories and twenty three rooms. He died the same year. It burnt in 1891.
• The Hand pointing to heaven in Port Gibson. It is made of wood and I do not know if it has been struck by lightening.
• The Whiskey Submarine. During prohibition they used it to smuggle booze into Vicksburg. It did not completely submerge.

In Port Gibson I asked a lady coming from a funeral if there was a restaurant in town. “Sort of” she said. “There is a McDonalds, a Subway, and sort of a fish place down there past the second light.” With a fast food ban in place I stopped at the Route 61 seafood “restaurant”. I ordered fried catfish, with hushpuppies and okra. “Don't have hushpuppies or okra”. How about coleslaw? “No coleslaw”. OK french fries and a drink. “No drinks”. So, fried catfish, french fries, and white bread it is. I did not notice the B sanitary rating until I sat down. Must have been safe as I am still alive.

We followed Grants March route into Vicksburg to the Corners B&B, got a bottle of margaritas and called it a day.

Day 5

After a huge breakfast at the B&B with the owner Macey, we rode across the Mississippi river to Louisiana to visit a airplane. It is in a unmarked hanger and there are photo restriction so I did not get pictures. However, right next door is the Southern Heritage Aviation Foundation, a small compact excellent museum with excellent staff. It was founded by Dan Fordice the former governor of Mississippi. They are proud to point out he was the first Republican governor since reconstruction.

It is well done, mainly honoring local aviators from WW II. The center piece of the collection is a P-51 Mustang but it was missing today as it had gone to DC to fly over the capitol to celebrate VE.

More interesting to me is their Warrior Bonefire Project. They take Purple Heart recipients on fishing or skiing trips or other outings. A soldier told them that they only get so much from talking to counselors, but talking in a group to others that are going through the same experience helps just as much. So, the WBP facilitates this to happen. Also, once a month they have a free lunch in the hanger for any veteran no questions asked. I find it to be a very worthy cause on a local level.

My plan was to make a loop up to Greenville, MS on the west side of the Mississippi and come back down on the east side of the Mississippi. As often happens, that did not happen. Headed north I tried to take some paved back roads, but they were so rough, Lousiana has the worst roads in America, I was afraid that parts were going to fall off Big Red. So back the main highway. We made it as far north as Lake Providence and the Lousiana Cotton Gin. Another small but excellent museum. Macey had sent me here to check it out as she heard they had a bale of blue jeans. What they have is a bale of cotton, normally 400 plus pounds, and next to it is a stack of 210 blue jeans. The equivalent of how many blue jeans that bale would make.

The evening was spent in the garden of the B&B with the other guests telling travel stories.

 nice scooter

 Lynn and Taylor the staff at the museum. She is just a compact bundle of smiles and joy and he is a new, but excellent guide trying very hard. They were both a pleasure to share time with.

 a paved road?

 These are for some photos of those virtual riders, RR Bob and Judge John. Both former RR workers.  Yes these tracks and those engines are still in use.  I came across another set of similar engines down the tracks.

 Checking the field. When I came back by he was planting cotton.

Honest, I am trying not to eat fried crawfish, but I got the "we are out" speech again.

 When I was growing up I would go done the road and rent a mule, wagon and plow and come back and plow my Mom's garden. I always think that is the one picture I wish I had of me.  This may do.

 As a young man my cousin and virtual rider desperately wanted to be a farmer. He was just lacking money and land but he tried as hard as he could on rented land to make a go of it. He tells of driving a one row cotton picker like this late into the evening and his wife Mary Scott bringing supper and then just riding with him on the machine just to spend time together.

Day 6

After breakfast with the other guests and Macey we loaded and headed north. Stop in Bentonia to see Duck, great blues man and second generation owner of the Blue Front Cafe. Since Duck was not in I had Jack stand in for him in the picture. Jack owns the auto shop next door and his main business is building street dragsters.

From there I went to Yazoo City where /// told I had must missed the Jerry Clower festival. I went into town to have lunch at Tom's Sandwich shop. Driving in a car pulled in behind me. When I looked in the mirror I saw him run a red light and was pretty tight on my bumper. When I parked he parked and came running over to me babbling about “a Vespa!” Come to find out his name was Bee Estes and his father Benton “Ben” Estes had sold Vespas from the '50's to when Vespa pulled out of the U.S. in the '90's. He took me down to his dad's business, now his, a NAPA auto store that has been handed down from his grandfather in search of a souvenir to give me. He had a old poster and some old manuals and that was about it. I declined his offer for these. He did buy me lunch, nothing fried, all vegetables, and shared some great stories with me.

I rolled into the Talahatchie Flats outside Greenwood about 3 PM and Tabatha met me with a key and a big hug. It is great when people are glad to have you back.

 first turtle save of the trip

 jack standing in for duck

 ben estes of yazoo city

the tallahatchie flats

Last night  (Friday) I went to the Viking cooking school in Greenwood, MS for a evening of fun. It would have been too if not for the three boorish men from Louisiana and their wife’s, though the wife's were tolerable. These are men are of wealth and privilege, car dealer owner, oil exploration company owner, and the main jackass of unknown origin. As I have ridden the back roads these last years I have seen racism raising it's ugly head again. I think it has always been there but the embarrassment of having a black president put some people over the edge. If they start the sentence with “I am not a racists but....” you damn well know they are. Around here they don't even start with that. These three gentlemen bantered racist remarks back and forth all night and when we sat down to eat what we cooked the biggest ass tried impose his religious beliefs by wanting us all to say grace. Fortunately he is wife told him to just say his own. I guess making some practiced gesture makes you a good person.

“No” I hear, “the blacks have all the chances and we give them everything.” “Slavery was abolished long ago.” Well lets just look at that and the culture that has evolved from that history to today.

Mississippi:

• The poorest state in the Union with the highest poverty level in the country.
• For every $1 paid in Federal taxes, Mississippi gets back $2.02.
• The lowest graduation rate in the Union. The headline of yesterday's paper “Nearly 6,000 fail state test” or 15% of the students and will not get advanced to the next grade. That is the reading test, designed by the state legislature because they don't like what the federal government (i.e. Obama, everything is about Obama) designed. This test is described as being of a lower level than the federal standard.
• Only 67% graduate from high school and then to no jobs.

That is just today. Let's look at history.

I thought slavery ended in 1865 with the 13h Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. I was misinformed.

The 13^th Amendment

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

It is that “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted” that is the kicker. So, the whites just figured out a way to comply with that exception. They passed “vagrant laws”, i.e. if you are just standing around you are a vagrant. Walking next to a railroad track was against the law and it went on and on. So once arrested, the state rented them back to business's like the farms they were just “freed” from, mines and any other activity that the state could make money from. From the Civil War until the early 1900's less than 10% of the prison population in the south was white.

Local business men hired their own justices of the peace to make laws just to put blacks back in jail and to rent these people out. This went on until the 1900's. Indentured servitude is what the whites came to America to escape and that is exactly what we did to the blacks. When some wealthy business men and their lackey law and order people were convicted of this scheme, they were pardoned by no less than the President of the United States. That tells something of the overall attitude right there. But the practice continued until 1941 when President Roosevelt finally put a end to it, sort of. A recent review of fines and tickets in Ferguson, MO indicates that this indentured servitude still exist just in a different form. That pretty much tells you what we thought/think of the blacks.

In 1921, Georgia convicted a white person of killing a black person, the first since 1877. It would not happen again to until 1966. That expression “black killing blacks” is true, but so is the one “whites killing whites” but you never hear that one.

Very few whites owned slaves. Many had set theirs free before the war and paid them to work. The owners that still owned slaves lost a lot of wealth when theirs were freed after the war and were not happy. Also unhappy were the regular white citizens. Free slaves scared them as they were afraid they would take what few scarce jobs there were. This started the discontent that has remained until today.

So here we are in modern times. Mississippi did not ratify the 13^th Amendment until 1995. They did not bother to send it to the Federal Registry to until 2013. Another little indicator of what value is put on the black population. I sat on a bench visiting with a black man. We were having a great conversation until I asked, “is there any change to the racism since you grew up?” I could feel a change in the mood as if a thousand things were running through his mind trying to decide on the right answer to give this white stranger. I finally said “don't worry about” and he replied, “let me just say there has been no change” and we moved on with the conversation.

When the government started the child assistance program in the 50's aimed at poor children, the majority being black, you could not qualify if there was a man as head of the household. So when you hear there is no father figure in the household remember your history; we sold off the fathers in slavery, we threw the fathers in jail for financial gain after slavery and the 50's we made them hide.

There is more, much more. But, I will leave it at that.

Some reading and viewing for you:

Hank Green in racism

More when the internet speeds up

The good part of the evening........

Lorraine the instructor.  More frustrated than I with bad behavior

 I spent few days roaming the area. Here are some of the highlights...

• go to Google maps and type in Greenwood, MS. Look for breakfast restaurants. Try and find a non-chain type breakfast joint. I have seen this epidemic of small cafe for breakfast dieing off but nowhere as bad a Mississippi.
• I did find grits in Lexington, MS where I ate with some very interesting people. They were setting up for Mothers Day lunch complete with white table clothes and roses. Pretty impressive for such a poor town. Lexington and Holmes county are reported to have the lowest life expectancy in the U.S.
• Rode a lot of back roads including some dirt. Cty Rd 555 did me in though. They had just put down new gravel and it was a bitch. I ended up riding down the farmers field or n the edge of the ditch.
• I stopped into to see my friend Poe at his station WABG but he was at his remote location. Ever the DJ we did a taped interview for the station on the phone.
• Working that morning was Reverend Tommy. He gave me a private sermon in the parking lot.
• While looking for breakfast I had walked into the Crystal Cafe one of the most famous eating joints in Mississippi at 9 AM. They do not serve breakfast, but the owner said, “set down honey we will rustle you up something, but we do not have grits.” I thanked her for being so kind as to offer and moved on but returned for a fine evening meal. Just a blue plate special.....nothing fried.
• I went to Veronica’s Bakery for breakfast. Well more brunch since she does not open until 10. Regina is the owner with her daughter Veronica and is from El Salvador. Her husband is a owner of the Tallahachtie Flats and knew that I had worked in El Salvador. When I walked in Veronica’s  Regina immediately walked up with a big smile, a hand out, and speaking Spanish. She said “I made something special for you if you want it for breakfast?” How could I refuse. She went to her car and brought in fresh made papusa. It was wonderfully special and kind of her.
• Out in the country I found a very RC model airplane field. There were two pickups at the end of the field so I rode down to see what was happening.  There were no airplanes, just Mississippi Wildlife officer trying to capture and relocate a alligator. I visited with officer Haswell for awhile. When I asked how much tax payers money was it going to cost to catch the alligator he said "zero".  All there budget and funding comes from fees like hunting and fishing licenses and violation of such licenses.  "That is why our salary sucks," he said.
• When I was dinning at the Crystal Cafe Johnny Jennings came up to say hello and suggest we have breakfast and I thought it was a good idea. We met at Steve's BBQ, there are grits in Greenwood, the next morning at 8:30. I went twice, once at 8:30 eastern time and again at the proper time of 8:30 central time. We had a great breakfast and I got acquainted with more of the towns folk of Greenwood. Johnny is a long distance motorcycle rider, photographer, business man, and city counsel man. We talked about the economics of Greenwood. As they lose jobs they lose population. Sadly the population they lose are those that do want to work and go in search of a job somewhere, thus leaving Greenwood with more of those that do not want to work or can not afford to go in search of a job.  I new perspective for me on population decline.  And, he is a professional balloonist. He has more than 2,000 hours in a balloon and let me tell you that is a lot of hours in a balloon. He has flown over the Kremlin and taken off from downtown New York City. Both pretty impressive to me. Knowing that he is a balloonist just adds another reason to return to Greenwood. Maybe I will get a free ride.

 Janet don't tell the EPA about this pump.

 My breakfast meeting in Lexington.

 It is rare I do a selfie. This one is for a reason Tchula MS. Ask me someday about it.

See the video of Tommy's parking lot sermon below in the video

 Regina Lavere at Veronica with her grandchildren. They were envious of my papusa's until they found out their grandmother had cooked some for them.

 The best breakfast yet!

 Office Haswell and friends hunting the nuisance alligator.

 Day 9 May 11

After breakfast with Johnny, I hit the road for the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale. The front that had dropped tornado's on Arkansas, was making it's way across Mississippi. By some miracle the leading edge passed over Greenwood with barely a drop of rain. I thought of making a bee line for the Shack but stuck to the plan of going to Cleveland to visit Delta State University, home of the fighting Okra, and the Senator Cafe. The Senator is a buffet, just they serve you. Keeps your nasty hands off the food. It was OK, but I had fallen into that old trap of “it was on TV”. How many times do I have to relearn this lesson. I saw more interesting places with food I am sure that was just as good if not better.

I had planned the ride on back roads to the Shack and despite having studied the route on Google and having “no unpaved roads” checked on the GPS I still ended up staring at a dirt road. I declined the GPS's offer and returned to the main highway. After the rain, and they had had heavy rain in this area, I was not up for the challenge.

I rolled into the Shack, and what had been a six pack of cottages, is now growing into a small city of shacks, grain bins, and the cotton gin converted for staying. Steve and Bill where at the desk and later when Guy came in I booked the girls in for New Years. Something he would not do over the phone.

Steve slipped me the key to use the laundry after the closing, I opened a bottle of wine and sipped the evening away.

Johnny Jennings in Clarksdale

 B seems to be the average grade in the restaurants in Mississippi. The Senator is owned by a State Senator and still rates a B.  So much for political pull.

 It is not all "brown food" as my friend Ed calls it.

The home of the Fighting Okra!

Day 10

Well, this was a good day but nothing like planned. It started with a pickup truck trying to kill me. I survived and so did he but we did “discuss” it. He was very sorry and even though I was right in his face on the highway he says it was the bright green gear that I wear that saved my life as that is what finally got his attention. A good investment!!

So, I continued on what was going to a Hot Tamale tour. Tamales are a big food item in the delta. First stop in Rosedale was to be at the famous White Front Cafe Tamale spot but it was out of business and TJ”s was closed but David the owner wrote his number down on the back of a lawyers card and said he would deliver some to me if I wanted them. The route took me along the Mississippi river on the back side of the levee where I came upon lots of turtles but they did not saving. The temperature was cool and made riding fun so I continued along the back roads and before I knew it I was in Greenville and I promptly remembered why I did not like it. It is the trashiest city in Mississippi with the worst roads. They have casinos but they must not be making money to share.

I had already decided I would ride into to Arkansas to see the Jerome-Rohwer Interpretive Museum about the two Japanese “internment” camps outside McGehee. It was going to make for a very long day, 200+ miles, but I felt as though I needed to go there. McGehee is not much more that a crossroads, but the museum is excellently done and located in the small train station. Susan, the curator, was very helpful and friendly. As I was familiar with most of the info in the museum it did not take long for me to see it all. I left there and headed back towards Mississippi via Jorme, sight of the southern of the two camps. There is monument and part of a old smoke stake and that is all to remember this sight by.

In Arkansas I saw a helicopter moving men from power pole to the next. I stopped to get a photo but did not get one of them moving men hanging from the helicopter. They were working off a property owned by Al Patrick,the Crop Doctor, who came up and introduced himself. He is a aerial applicator, crop duster to us old guys. He offered me a 4 wheeler to ride down the power line to get a closer look but I declined his kind offer. We talked and he brought me up to date on all the latest in the aerial applicator field. A really nice and sincerely friendly guy.

Headed down the back roads, I saw man working on a large John Deer harvester. He waved and looked more than the usual just hi type wave. I pulled off the road and down to were he was working. For the next hour Joe James and I talked about scooters, motorcycles which he owns, the blues which he plays and farming. I told him of how I wished I had a picture of me driving the mule and that led to a whole new discussion as he had a lot more time of driving a mule than I and therefore had smelt a lot more mule farts. Something that brought back memories.

I pulled into a gas station in Leland, MS, population 4,700, on the way home. I shared the pump with a Mississippi highway patrol man. A black man came over and thanked the officer for all he does and he appreciates it. During the conversation and small school girl got out of his car. I said “oh, your a school bus too”. He said that he was but it made him uncomfortable. I told him I could understand that, thinking of the two police officers who were shot dead last weekend in Hattiesburg, MS thinking that was what was on his mind. So I was greatly shocked when he said, “yea, you can never tell when ISIS will strike!!” WTF???? I was stunned. He was as serious as a heart attack. I had no idea that Leland or any place in Mississippi was high on the ISIS list for terror. I nodded my headed in some direction and moved on. Don't want to be around the terrorist bomb goes off in Leland.

Rolled into the Shack about 5:30 and had a cold one. Another great day and not one tamale was had.

 A chilly start

 the black delta dirty

 who new there were pyramids in MS

 Ok, I won't.  I promise.

crossing the mississippi

 Al Patrick

 A great PBS documentary available on NetFlixs

 Right out of the 50's movie, but it is real today

Joe James and the big green machine.  Great visit.

Day 11

The last day in the delta was spent just piddling around. Started the day at the Rest Haven Restaurant for breakfast. As Guy, owner of the Shack says, “it is the Fox News den”. The food is good and the service by the one waitress is excellent considering she is waiting on a full restaurant. When I went in the place was full and had only one female client. Most were over 60 I think.

I rode some back roads and saw nothing new except the Magnolia Grove Monastery, Meditation Center of Zen Master. It was a beautiful well manicured serene place. I walked around all the main buildings I could find, though it is over 100 acres, and saw no one. Just one set of sandals. I sat in the garden for about and hour and then moved on.

In Batesville, I gave in and went to BK for a drink and a set down, where I found the Juts setting outside enjoying lunch. Sixty Seven years of wedded bless. I also so met a whole slew of MS Corrections officers but only two where brave enough to be photographed.

Back at the Shack I visited with my neighbors from Centenary College. They had been there all week with their students on what one student called “study abroad on a budget”. Tom and Michele have been bringing students to the Shack since it was just a “six pack” of the original shacks. They had a lot of knowledge on the area and the culture. There are lots of guitars in the lobby for customers to use and it is not unusual for a visitor to pick it up and to begin to play. That happened today when Justin, one of the Centenary students, and Brain from England riding a rented Harley started a excellent blues jam in the yard. I would have had to leave to get a camera and preferred the music to sharing a picture.

Before I leave Mississippi

As part of the new deal, FDR bought the bankrupt plantations and parceled them out the share croppers, both black and white. This land would come into play years later during the civil rights movement. When the civil rights protesters were arrested these share croppers put their land up for bail. Just think how brave these people were. These out of towners they bailed out could skip and these people would lose everything.

I was standing in a group of older people. A man said he had been up to visit a relative in a hospital that was in another town. “You should see that place. There was not a Pakistani or fat black women working in the place.” He went on later, “that McDonalds over there in Arkansas did not have one black person working in it.” A women standing next to me said “you must think we are racist.” “Yes ma'am, I do.” “Well you have to be raised in the south to understand.” “Ma'am, I was raised in the south and it is all about attitude.” I wanted to add “and how your mamma raised you”, but I left it alone.

NOW.....PAY ATTENTION HERE.

There is racism all over the world, so that is a given and we all have to keep striving for a better world. I have made these little speeches because I see it becoming socially acceptable again and we need to reverse that trend.

PAY MOST ATTENTION

MISSISSIPPI DELTA IS ONE OF THE FRIENDLIEST PLACES I HAVE EVER VISITED.  These people would give you the shirt off your back whether you are black or white. I know that I have offended some here with the facts and I do not apologize. Come to Mississippi. You will love it.

  The usual B

The Professors 

TENNESSEE

We left the Shack and headed north. Before entering into to Tennessee we stopped in the middle of nowhere to have lunch. It had been drizzling rain and we wanted to take a break. It was a very small place with only about six tables though there was room for more. It did have a A rating for health. Dorothy and I discussed her salads and I settled on chicken salad believing, after our discussion, that was a chicken salad made with mayonnaise etc. I was wrong. Out came some lettuce piled high with chopped fried chicken and fried onion rings. When questioned if this was a “small” she said “got carried away”. I shoveled the chicken aside to get to the lettuce. I did eat some of the chicken and rings but left most of it in the to go box that everything in the restaurant was served in. I had a nice visit with the other customers, a cowboy, the UPS guy, and two retired guys one fresh out of the hospital. It was that kind of place.

We entered Tennessee on the National Hound Dog Highway. It was a nice rural state road and we passed the National Hound Dog museum but due threatening weather we chose not to stop.

I spent two nights in Jackson, TN. I accomplished my two task while there. I attended two Jackson Generals minor league baseball games which was great fun. I had front row seats right behind first base. Thursday night was “dollar night” and there were quite a few fans, but Friday there were few. Both nights I moved about the stadium to get different views. I was also awarded a game ball for just riding in on a Vespa. My other mission was to spend some time with Jim and Barbara Smith. I have written about them in the past. They both worked for the CIA and Jim retired after 30 years of service around the world. Barbara's claim to fame is she was Elvis's girlfriend in his early days. We met at their favorite restaurant in downtown Trenton that had reserved a table for them. Not because I was coming, but their son was also coming to lunch from Jacksonville, FL. Steve has followed his fathers lead and works for Home Land Security as a computer financial analyst. He gets to work from his home which is a great deal. No longer does he have to do the hour and half commute into DC when he was working in the office. Jim and Barbara own a now closed B&B in very rural Tennessee and I was their last official guest several years ago. They wish to sell and have wanted to move back to Florida for some time. Steve was there to encourage them to do so and he and I explained you can not sell if you do not list it for sale. They are dragging their feet as they have not gotten motivated to sort through all the stuff they have boxed in many, many boxes from a very interesting life.

Will Council had invited me to come to Nashville and stay with him for “as long as you want or three days, whichever is shorter” so when I woke up Saturday and looked at the weather radar on the computer and it looked as if someone had poured red paint on the screen and it was not looking good. About the same time Will had saw the same thing and called me. He said he would hook up his trailer and come get me. I told him that that was way over the top for friendship, but he insisted so we compromised. I would head east and he would drive west and when we met we would throw Big Red on the trailer and head for his house. The heavy rain did not materialize so I told him stop somewhere and I would meet him there. About two thirds the way there he was setting on the side of the road with the trailer. We loaded up and headed for his house.

We went out to Wine City to see Jim Lauderdale, Kev Mo, John Oats, Jack Pearson and Phil Keagy play a benefit concert show. Will had reserved seats at a table and the other seats were open. Right before the show started two people sat down and everyone was amazed. Well, except me because I did not know them. Will and the other couple calm to be great friends and I believe they are, they just had not seen each other in two years when Steve and Abbey had gotten married. At was a great reunion and rekindled a life long friendship. Sunday we got in a great ride through small roads around Nashville, complete with breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, a local place of some renown despite threatening skies. Monday Will escorted me out of town for about 40 miles and then sent me on my way. A great guy and a great visit.

 dorothy's cafe

 the smith family

 will to the rescue

my only complaint at will's was he took us to this gas station that had video commercials for every thing from ford to viagra the whole time you are pumping gas

KENTUCKY MAY 18-21 to day 19

Again it was trying to rain during the whole ride to Lexington, Kentucky. I checked in to a Marriott property near Keenland race track. Every since the multi-billioners Bill and Roger Marriott put “tip envelopes” I have not cared to support the business. They both inherited their money and business's and should pay a decent wage to their employees. The “beggars envelopes/cups” have sprung up all over America. Tips are almost unheard of in the rest of the world as people are paid a living wage. (And, yes it is often included in the bill).

Next three days in Lexington were great with the weather in the 70's and tons of fine horses. I have come love this part of America and especially Keenland Raceway. They allow you full access to the stables, the track and the track kitchen. I spent early mornings at Keenland talking to jockeys, grooms, owners and trainers and the rest of the day riding through the beautiful blue grass country and touring famous farms such as Caliborne, Normandy and WinStar. At WinStar I followed a car in through a gate and drove up a long drive with manicured pasture and ponds with shooting water to a very large building. I went in and told them I was there for the tour and instead of freaking and saying wrong place they told me how to get where I wanted to go. So off I sped. There was just one problem. Big Red would not trigger the gate. After waiting, hoping a car would come, I went back to the office. Again they were very polite and gave me a very cute escort to open the gate. These tours are all free but you must call and be on time. No excuses! Some farms, like Caliborne, will let you pose with the horses and most all well let you feed them a mint, their favorite treat. These are not your great grandfathers barns. These are multimillion dollar, finally maintained, properties. The highest ever stud fee was $500,000 and the highest now is $300,000. That is three times a day with a make of 140 “coverings” in a breeding season. That is a lot of hay. Went to the Thoroughbred Center for a tour. This is the only one you pay for and though Kellie was a great guide it was not worth the $15. Just go to Keenland for free.

 no brown food at the track kitchen. I had to stop them from piling on the food. $4.95

 i guess it is appropriate that the assistant stub master rides a studly motorcycle

orb, kentucky derby winner. he only gets $25,000

war front gets $150,000 stud fee the second highest. stud fees are not based so much on the horse but the horses offspring do.

the is the father of American Paroah winner of this years kentucky derby and belmont stakes. his stud fee this year is 30K. next year it will probably four times that and if American Paroah wins the triple crown the sky is the limit.

mike cameron, trainer and the mouth of ESPN horse radio

 all this hay and horse manure is fermented, bundled and sold to campell soup to grow mushroom soup

kellie in front of the thoroughbred center and her old hand me down bus from keenland

MOVING ON MAY 21

My planned route was up to Madison, VA north of Charlottesville to visit some old friends but my rear tire was not going to get me there and back down to NC.  In fact it was only going to get about half that distance so I called my friend Doug down in Kingston TN.  He said that if I called and ordered the tire it should be at his house the next day, Thursday, and he would change it out. It missed the Thursday date, so, to avoid the late afternoon delivery at his home, he called the UPS driver and met her at the beginning of her route in the morning and picked up the tire. By 1 pm I had a new tire and a great lunch with Doug and his family and was back on the road.  That is a true friend.

I stopped at the Pigeon Forge International Airport to see the Evil Knievel rocket my neighbors had built for the museum and the reality show Museum Men. Could not quite figure out why it was in this aviation museum.

Traffic went from nothing to stop and go on the Dolly Parton Parkway to nothing. I vote Severville TN the worst timed lights in America. It is a small town in route to Pigeon Forge which meant there was a lot of traffic on this pre-holiday weekend Friday.  One stop light would go through two complete cycles while the next one did on cycle, thus backing traffic up for miles.  Glad it was not hot as I sat in that mess.

Back on the road to the hills of NC and the old family hangout for a few days.

roger and tom...proof i saw your work.

of all the aircraft i flew in my life this was my favorite.  the throttle way up there in cockpit was a harley davis throttle and said so in the rubber grip.  1545 horse power right in the palm of your hand.

The Final Days

I spent a few days just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near W. Jefferson, North Carolina in the woods where my family has had a trailer since the late 60's. It is a quiet and serene place with a babbling brook and the weather was prefect. I had plans of things to do and people to meet during the week and was to attend a “weird scooter” called a MP3 rally in Little Switzerland, NC. When all my plans fell apart I became like Forrest Gump, “it's time to go home”.

So I saddled up and turned south. I rode the Blue Ridge to avoid all the end of holiday traffic to Fairview outside of Asheville to spend the night with my neighbors Rich and Vicki at their summer home on the hill in Sugar Hollow. They were having a Memorial day party and I was glad to attend. Their neighbors on the hill came and it was a very enjoyable evening. This is one of the nicest little communities I know and all the people interesting.

After Vicki, despite being down with the croup, cooked a great breakfast, me and Big Red headed south. For the first time I just put in take me to St. Pete and let the Garmin take me were it wished. I knew this might be a mistake and it was. It took me all over the place down some great twisty roads, but that is not what I wanted. After about 3 hours I had sorted it out, even though I was headed south the whole time, and got back on a straight track. It was a long day and I rolled into Douglas, GA at 5:30 and about 20 minutes before the skies opened up with heavy rain and lots of lightening that lasted for hours.

The last day was a great ride. I left early to beat the afternoon heat in Florida. It was great end to another fantastic spring ride, the eighth year in a row. The people I met along the way and the places I visited will always be my favorite just like every other one I have made.

Travel does wonderful things for the world. Jeff, the son of a resident of Sugar Hollow, lives and works in Australia. He lived and worked in China and we had a long conversation about China and things like travel in the country and the pollution. He says things are changing and it is all because of travel. As the Chinese gain wealth they are traveling more and more. They come to the U.S. And other parts of the world, they see what the EPA and the government have given us; clean air and water. When they return home they begin to pressure their government for changes as they do not want their children to grow up in the polluted air that they have in China. Change is a slow process, but it will happen and travel played a big part in it. So, as always, I encourage you to travel, to get out of your comfort zone, it is a great world and if you turn off the TV you will find that as you travel it is not nearly as scary as you imagine and it fact is a beautiful world with lots of great and friendly people.

Thank you for coming along.

The facts:

• three weeks and four days
• 4000+/- miles
• one tire
• just two days of very light drizzle.  In fact I put the rain suit on more to stay warm then rain.
• 25 great times.

 the first morning every time we are in the mountains a jar of "creek water" appears on the porch

lunch, in memory of my dad

 the young are not the only ones inflicted with tech'ites

 at the bottom of vicki and rich's yard. last time i was here i rode up the yard, lost momentum, fell down, and i rolled my fat ass almost all the way down the hill. they where hoping for a repeat performance

 my police escort waiting to welcome me home

It is nice to home.