One Sketcher's Adventures: The Delta

After I left my friends in Oxford, Mississippi and walked the grounds of Rowan Oak, I made my way west towards the Mississippi and south into the Mississippi Delta to learn about the start of blues music. By the end of the day, music by people I had never heard of before crooned from my radio as I crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas. Muddy Waters, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, Wade Walton, and more. My first stop was Clarkdale, Mississippi where I wished I had planned to spend more time. I had originally planned to go through Memphis and see the civil rights museum there, but my friends suggested they thought I would like the Mississippi Delta. So in the end I headed that way. I knew nothing about Blues music, but after spending a couple hours at The Delta Blues Museum and making a visit to Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Arts Store I was wishing I had more time. There was live blues music at various venues that afternoon/evening and a walking tour around town taunted me to stay long, but sunlight would be fleeting till I reached my destination in Hot Springs, Arkansas. So if you ever find yourself near Clarksdale, Mississippi spend a few more hours there for me.

I continued on south stopping at a pottery shop which had a very pleasant garden to walk through, drove through miles of farm land with dust kicked up by combines in the field, and chatted with a farmer who asked if I had driven through rain. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a rainbow stretched out across the sky. Then in Greenville I got an afternoon snack of hot tamales at Doe's Eat Place and took a hike through a cypress brake before turn west and traversed the mighty Mississippi.

Taking this route I went right by Hoot's BBQ, a favorite restaurant of mine that I had been to on a road trip to Louisiana a number of years ago with my friend Sara. I ordered a Pig Pie to go and I wasn't disappointed, it was as good as I remembered. In the end it was dark when I pulled into my campsite at Hot Springs National Park.