Alabama/Mississippi Road Trip (Day 3)
The Delta Blues Museum
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Two days were in the books and day three had more miles in store. Quite a few more miles, actually, with a trip from Clarksdale to Gulfport on the agenda. But first I wasn’t done in Clarksdale. While I had seen the live music I came for, I wanted to walk around the small downtown area, visit the Delta Blues Museum, and go to the famous Crossroads where highways 61 and 49 meet. With it raining off and on that morning, I decided on going into the museum first.
It was $12 to enter the Delta Blues Museum, located in downtown Clarksdale. Like I said in my previous blog, going to Clarksdale to catch some live blues music is a must for any music fan. And if you’re in town, you might as well take a self-guided tour through the museum dedicated to their beloved genre of music. There were artifacts that once belonged to many different blues legends such as B.B. King and Muddy Waters, both of whom grew up in the Mississippi Delta region. So many blues musicians came from that very distinct region. Along with the artifacts, there were exhibits that you could read and watch, and learn more about the region’s rich history of blues music.
For me, about one hour was a sufficient time to see and appreciate everything the museum had to offer. However, no photographs or videos were allowed inside, so I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the displays. Located just outside of the museum were train tracks with an old train sitting on them. I thought that was pretty cool because one of the exhibits explained that was the very spot where Muddy Waters caught the train out of Mississippi and into Chicago where he would soon find his sought after fame and fortune.
Old train outside of the Delta Blues Museum
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Walking around the streets of downtown Clarksdale was interesting. If I’m being completely honest, it was run down. It’s like no one has taken the time or interest the fix up many of the buildings. Or maybe they just don’t have the financial priorities to do so. The town had a lot of potential and you could tell that at one time it probably was a pretty nice little town, but it definitely needs some renovating. However, that’s one of the things that made the entire town of Clarksdale so unique and interesting. The whole town is pretty run-down looking, but at the same time it is a tourist destination. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard or seen of such a place before. Tourists come from all over the world (for the blues music) to a town that’s pretty rough looking. I will say though, that all the local people I encountered were friendly and I never felt unsafe in the areas I was in.
Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Right before getting ready to hit the road again to head south, I had to do two things. The first was get lunch. Like a lot of other things in Clarksdale, places to eat were fairly limited besides the regular fast food places. So, I settled for Church’s Chicken because chicken sounded good and it was right next to the other thing I had to do, which was take a picture of The Crossroads sign at the intersection of highways 61 and 49. The sign itself is nothing special. The two crossing blue guitars are pretty cool, but it isn’t very big and it isn’t in a great spot to get a good picture.
Being what it is, The Crossroads, the two main highways are pretty busy as the surrounding area is full of small local businesses and a few restaurants. With a good bit of traffic surrounding it, it is a little difficult to get a good picture. I had to park in a laundry mat parking lot and walk a hundred yards or so to get a picture from the side of a barbeque joint. But I’m satisfied with my pictures of it and most of all I just thought it was very cool to be in the location that everyone’s heard about many times in songs and in the infamous legendary tale of bluesman Robert Johnson.
Once again it was time to put the odometer on the rental car back to work. Between me and my next destination in Gulfport, Mississippi were over 300 miles, so a good portion of this day would be spent behind the wheel.
The Legendary Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
As I drove down Highway 49 from Clarksdale, I was met by miles and miles (and more miles) of nothing but flat farmland full of crops. For as far as I could see in basically every direction were fields of cotton, corn, rice, and probably a few other crops. And it was this way for the next 100 or so miles. That was my introduction to the Mississippi Delta. Before the trip I knew about the Mississippi Delta and that it was a big farming region, but I had no idea just how large of a scale it actually was. I learned that the Mississippi Delta contains some of the most fertile land on earth, so it makes total sense to utilize as much of it as possible to make as much of a profit as possible. I also learned that the Mississippi Delta is often considered “the most southern place on earth,” for its geography, history, and general way of life. The Mississippi Delta is simply another world.
A few more thoughts occurred to me about the region as I drove the Mitsubishi 65 mph down the highway. First and foremost I thought that gazing out on the horizon must have looked almost exactly the same 100 years ago as it did that day. That was my main takeaway. For as advanced and modern as everything has gotten, it was unreal to glance out the window and believe that this is the 21st century. If it wasn’t for the highway being paved, it truly looked like the early 1900s. There were even dirt roads connecting to the highway that seemingly led to nowhere.
The other thoughts that kept circulating in my head revolved around two great movies. The first one is Oh Brother Where Art Thou, which was shot and set in Mississippi. It was not hard at all to look out and envision the old, blind rail-road worker manually operating his train cart like he did in the beginning of the movie. Or to envision the three guys still in chains running across the fields trying to hop onto a moving train. The other movie is Life, where Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy’s characters are sent to a prison camp in Mississippi. Some of the scenes looked very similar to what I was looking at, and I actually passed a prison while driving through the Delta.
The Bank of Yazoo City, featured in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Speaking of Oh Brother Where Art Thou, the next event of my trip was completely unplanned a few hours prior, but ended up being a very memorable one because of the fact that the movie is one of my favorite of all time. A couple hours earlier I had looked up filming locations for Oh Brother Where Art Thou because I knew it was filmed in various locations across Mississippi. And since I would be making a trek from the northwestern portion of the state, down to the coast, I figured I might be driving near some of them. It turned out I was right. Although some other locations would have also been pretty close, the easiest was two places in the town of Yazoo City, since I was going to be traveling right through the town anyway. It was a 5-7 minute detour off the highway.
If you’ve seen the movie, you will remember both of these specific places in the movie. The first was the bank robbed by George “Babyface” Nelson after Everett, Pete, and Delmar hitch a ride with him. The bank wasn’t actually in business any more, but was still standing in decent condition at the corner of two small city streets. The second was the Woolworth that George Clooney’s character, Everett, got into a fight with Vernon T. Waldrip in. And after throwing Everett out of the door, you hear the store clerk go, “And stay outta the Woolworth!” Because of perfect timing with the store owner making a quick stop by to grab some things, I even got to go inside the building where the scenes were filmed. She explained to me that it was being used for overstock goods for some business she ran (it was difficult to catch everything she said because I was so enamored by being inside of the place) that hasn’t re-opened since the pandemic hit.
The Woolworth featured in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
It was so cool being at those places and taking pictures of them because I have seen that movie more times than I can count, and it is easily in my top three movies of all time. And the very small town of Yazoo City is something else, as well. Aside from the cars parked alongside the street, it looked as if that town hasn’t changed in 70 years. It really felt like I was stepping on a film set in Hollywood during my quick stroll through the town. Each light pole had speakers attached near the top of them that played oldies music throughout the town, which was pretty dead-looking in the early afternoon hours of the weekday. It turned out to be a great 30-minute road trip detour.
At this point in the day I was getting tired of driving, and was just ready to get to Gulfport and relax a little. But I still had a good amount of driving to do. Through multiple rain showers, through the state capital of Jackson, and through the forested-lined highway of 49, I finally reached Gulfport around 7:30-8:00 that night. I had originally wanted to go to the beach in Gulfport that day, but it was one of the couple times during my road trip where I realized that I may have bit off more than I could chew in planning it. So, the beach would have to wait until the next day. Instead, supper turned into the main focus.
After eating a lot of quick meals up to that point in the trip, I wanted to sit down at a decent place and get something good, and different, to eat. I thought, “Chinese sounds pretty good,” and discovered there was a Chines restaurant located just a half mile from my hotel. Hibachi Express was the name of it. I thought I was going to walk in, sit down, and eat my dinner all in 30 minutes or less. Well, it turned out it was one of those places that the chef prepares the meal right in front of you while flipping the spatulas and causing flames to shoot up from the burner. I grabbed my chair among a few other people at the same table and made myself comfortable because I knew I’d be there a while.
The dinner was good, however, and I was still happy with my choice of Chinese food, even though I paid a little more than I had wanted to. A quick trip to Wal-Mart was next for a few necessities, and I finally was able to check in my hotel sometime after 9:00 p.m. As I lay down to sleep that night I thought, “finally, from now until the time have to travel back home, I won’t have to drive no more than two hours in one day.”
Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
New Roxy Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Red’s Lounge Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Red’s Lounge Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
The Woolworth featured in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Downtown Yazoo City, Mississippi
The Sports Chief Photography/Garett
Garett