Sunday
We headed out this morning with a picnic lunch traveling backroads to Tunica Missipi, an area known for a casino row that could replicate Laughlin Nevada. We follow old roads twisting and turning around cotton fields and the arms of the river that make oxbows and small lakes. It is a beautiful scenic byway. We know we are following the river because we are between cotton fields, earthen levees and the river. At some points you can drive along the top of the levee leading to boat launches and one time a beautiful empty park overlooking the Missipi River where we had our first break.
As we drove through the flat cotton fields we stopped to take pictures of the bales and buildings that house a cotton gin mill. We see a man checking on the storage bins and he sees us as we drive into the parking area to get better pics and turn around. He comes over and we introduce ourselves. He is a young man, maybe in his early 40's, and he says he thinks we may be interested in the gin mill.....we say oh yes! He tells us to follow him and he will take us on a tour. It is a Sunday morning but everything is in full production. We see cotton that comes from the fields in round bales that look almost white. But on closer inspection you see all the seed coverings, bits and pieces of stocks and other non white material. We watch the bales go through several steps to cull and clean and eventually be repacked in square bales, packaged into plastic wrap, stacked, then forklifted onto waiting transport trucks. These trucks then haul this finished product to brokers where it is sold to millers and turned into cotton material for clothing. That is the best quality, then there is the secondary cotton which is sold for stuffing for cheap mattresses and pillows.
Again we have been exposed to southern charm and hospitality. He and his family run this modern
day plantation. He is addressed as sir by employees, and jokingly as the "boss man". They work 14
hour days, 6 days a week for the cotton season, which may last about 8 to 10 weeks. He has taken an hour out of his day to be our guide. We continue to be warmed by the welcoming friendliness of these southern people. Bob is Sir and I am Miss Karen...it just makes me smile.
He is Gary Bailey of Horseshoe Botton Farms and leaves us with an invitation that if we are in this area again to call him and he will take us on a tour of his whole farm.
Later as we continue our drive we come across farm equipment on a different farm that is harvesting the cotton and we stop and watch the big machinery going up and down the rows gathering the cotton balls from the plants. When there is enough cotton the machine wraps yellow plastic around it and spits it out to sit and wait to be picked up and sent to the gin mill. Today we have seen the complete process from plant to gin mill and on the truck to market.
As we continue we travel roads called Indian Mound, Moon Landing Park, and Plantation Road.
We are cruising to a Charlie Musselwhite cd, an unknown to us until "Sunshine" Sonny Payne gave us 10 of his favourites in Helena. Now one of our favourites too.
We cruise through the casino strip looking for another Blues Museum...which is also a visitor
information center set on Hwy 61 in Tunica, Miss. The building was one of the last railroad depots from Dundee. It was transported and re assembled in 3 parts maintaining all it's original building materials.
Two sweet ladies in the museum/visitor center who laughed at us and the way we spoke when we were having trouble understanding them:)
Had a Dr Pepper which is like a mild Rootbeer while wandering around the museum.
Bought a book about the life and afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson ....'beware of crossroads at night' . Legends say he sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads of hwy 49/61 in Clarksdale, Miss to be a better musician. He died a mysterious death at the age of 27. Some say the devil came to collect his soul in payment. Blues fans have said they believe Johnson to be the best blues man ever.
We are in the "Delta" whether Arkansas or Missipi and the music is everywhere.
As this might be our last day in this part of the delta we continue past our camp and over the bridge back to Helena to visit the Confederate Cemetery which can only be reached without our RV.
Helena was a Confederate city that was taken by Union troops in the Battle of Helena. When Lincoln
was assassinated the Union Troops withdrew back north and slowly the Confederate soldiers retook
the positions they had held before the war and Helena returned to her southern roots. At the top of
Maple Cemetery is a beautiful setting where graves are set for both known and unknown confederate soldiers. The cemetery is up on the highest part of the city known as Crowleys Ridge, a geological high point that runs for 150 miles along the west side of the Missipi. It is a beautiful, quiet resting place that makes you stop and think again of the history of these places. I was always enchanted by tales of the south, like Gone with the Wind. This is the reality and I am eager to learn more about the south and it's Civil War history.
We can't make up our minds how to travel south....there is the Natchez Trace, the Blues Highway in Missipi... Then there is a large part of Louisiana that we will miss going this route. Bob wants to follow the Blues Hwy and I want to see Vicksburg and Port Gibson all ending in Natchez.
We are mapping our tentative route knowing that any day we can be sidetracked.
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