The second week of our vacation was much less structured. Apart from the last three nights, we didn't book any accommodation in advance; we just had a general plan about where we were headed and a few stops we wanted to make.
Day #7....We had another great coffee shop breakfast in Memphis, and then we struck out South on Route 61, also known as the Blues Highway - so named because it travels through the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues, and played a significant role in the Great Migration of African Americans and the spread of blues music across the USA .
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| Entering Mississippi |
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More cottonfields
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The first stop was at
The Gateway to the Blues Museum and Visitors Center in Tunica, MS. Housed in a rustic former train depot, circa 1895, the museum is the first building many people see when they roll into Tunica.
We spent couple of hours in the museum and then got lunch at the nearby
Blue & White Restaurant. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with driving on to Clarksdale, MS and finding somewhere to stay. After that we headed out to the
Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Clarksdale. Apart from excellent food, we were fortunate to catch a perform from Kent Burnside, grandson of the legendary bluesman
R.L. Burnside.
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| Ground Zero Blues club outside |
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| Kent Burnside and his band |
The toilets in the club were exactly what you would expect. This was my favorite bit of graffiti:
On the way back to the hotel we drove by
Red's Blues Club which is a couple of blocks from Ground Zero.
Day #8...After checking out of our hotel relatively early, we headed back downtown to explore in the daylight and get
breakfast. I took a lot of photos of Clarkdale; you can see some of the others
here.
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| Red's Blues Club in daylight |
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| Looking west on Third Street at Delta |
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| Third and Delta, SW corner |
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| Third and Delta, NW corner |
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| E 2nd Street at Delta |
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| Delta Street |
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| E 2nd Street at Delta |
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| Alley way between Delta and Yazoo |
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| Alley between Delta and Yazoo |
The last thing we did in Clarksdale was stop at the famous Crossroads where Highways 61 and 49 meet. Highway 61 is known as the "blues highway" and Highway 49 is the road to Parchman Prison, also known as Parchman Farm, inspiration for many blues songs. It was here that Robert Johnson, allegedly,
encountered the devil.
The rest of day was spent driving South to Vicksburg, MS, finding somewhere to stay, exploring downtown - which was mostly closed - and getting dinner.
Day #9....We got breakfast at the hotel today, and then we headed east to highway 20, destination Jackson, MS.
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| More fields |
State Capitol Buildings, Jackson, MS:
We went to lunch at
Brent's Drugs which is another old fashioned pharmacy/soda fountain that is just a café/diner these days. The interior retains the original bar counter and stools which date from 1946.
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| Brent's "PB&J" milkshake |
After lunch we went to the
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson which was an altogether sobering experience. Entry to the museum is free on Sundays, which was a nice surprise.
We considered spending the night in Jackson, but instead we drove another hour or so South and found a hotel in McComb, MS. By this point we had tried a lot of different southern-style food, and we were ready for a change...so we went to a Mexican place a couple of miles from the hotel.
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| Fajitas southern style |
Day #10....We had breakfast at the hotel again and then continued our journey South.
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| crossing into Louisiana |
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| approaching the Veterans Memorial Bridge, Edgard, LA |
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| crossing the Mississippi River |
Our first stop was just across the river at the
Whitney Plantation in Edgard, LA. Today the plantation is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of slavery, situated on a historical sugar, indigo and rice plantation which operated from 1752-1975. More photos of the plantation can be viewed
here.
The house was located just one block from the legendary Bourbon Street, so we dropped our bags and the car and headed out to explore. I was lucky enough to spend Labor Day weekend in 1999 on Bourbon Street, so I was keen to see if I could find anything familiar.
The first port of call was
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, an historic structure at the corner of Bourbon and St. Philip. Most likely built as a house in the 1770s during the Spanish colonial period, it is one of the oldest surviving structures in New Orleans and clams to be the oldest building operating as a bar in the USA.
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| Versions of this sign were everywhere in the south |
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| Bourbon Street, 2025 (on a Monday) |
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| Bourbon Street, 1999 (on Labor Day) |
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| Bourbon Street, 1999 (on Labor Day) |
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| Bourbon Street, 2025 |
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| Bourbon Street, 1999 |
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| Amy Sheep outside Maison Bourbon, 2025 |
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| Jono Boro outside Maison Bourbon, 1999 |
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| Me on Canal Street with a statue, 2025 |
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| Me with the same statue, 1999 |
Later on we went for dinner at
Paladar 511 and then we got a (relatively) early night.
Day #11....Ahhh....another lie in and then we set out to find a latish breakfast and ended up at
Café Envie a few blocks away on Decatur Street. After that we took a walk around the
French Market,
Jackson Square and ended up at the legendary
Cafe De Monde.
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| New Orleans French Market |
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| Church in Jackson Square |
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| Cafe De Monde, since 1862 |
Then we walked down to the riverside:
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| Me at the riverside, 1999 |
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| Love locks at the riverside, 2025 |
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| Steamboat, 1999 |
They still have operational steamboats in 2025, although they are powered by diesel. They were probably powered by diesel in 1999 come to think of it. The real difference is that in 2025 I can afford to buy
a ticket two tickets to take a cruise on one.
After the cruise we loafed back at the house for a bit and then went to
Thailey Nola for dinner. We were lucky that the same friend that loaned us the AirBnB also recommended restaurants for us to go to each night and Amy Sheep made reservations a few weeks in advance.
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| Amy Sheep outside Thailey Nola |
Day #12....We went back to
Café Envie for breakfast again today. Post consumption we drove over to the
National WWII Museum. When we were done nosing around the museum we drove back to the house and dropped off the car and then headed back out to Bourbon Street for some oysters and a few beers/diet cokes. None of this really generated any photographs. We went to dinner at
Pesch on Magazine Street. This was probably the nicest restaurant we went to, but it was a packed field.
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| Amy Sheep at Pesch |
Day #13...Travel Day...we were up early but still had a mad rush returning our rental car and getting checked in for our flight. We made it back to the ranch in daylight though, thanks to the time difference.
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| New Orleans airport |
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