Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Hi!  Y’all miss me the past couple of days?  Hope so.  I missed you guys, but was having a great trip traveling from Oxford, Mississippi on Friday morning (in the north central part of the state) going west over to the Delta to Clarksdale and then on Saturday down through the rural delta region all the way to Yazoo City, on down to Jackson and then home.

And guess what?  I just found a link from an online publication called "Mississippi" to my blog post from the other day about Oxford!  It’s here, so check it out.  

We went spent Friday and Friday night in Clarksdale and had a great time after a short delay on the way in Batesville, MS with a dead battery.  Fortunately it happened at a gas station in a decent sized town so we got a quick jump from a lady construction worker in a pickup and got to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts where they came out and put a new battery in our car (a 2003 Honda Accord).  We were just really glad we weren’t out in the middle of nowhere when it happened because there’s lots of "out in the middle of nowhere" places we encountered in our four days on the road.  

We arrived in Clarksdale about 1 p.m. after the delay and went and found a place to stay and then went roaming around old downtown looking for lunch.  We went down to the old train station, which is now the Delta Blues Museum just to get our bearings and then found Morgan Freeman’s Blues Club, Ground Zero just across the old alley at the same end of the next dilapidated street.  

Across from it was a small just as dilapidated building holding a place called Delta Amusement Cafe.  It looked quirky and interesting, but we drove around downtown for a bit checking out other possible spots because we wanted the best and most unusual.  

We finally decided Delta Amusement Cafe was it, so we went back.  It was wonderful – very simple and down home with great food.  It had low ceilings and long tables covered with the old timey vinyl coated cloth tableclothes already set with forks and knives rolled up in napkins, every place’s traditional way of setting tables in the deep south from all we experienced.

You had to order at the counter up front of the long narrow room and we each got the day’s specials, Tom getting red beans and rice with homemade cornbread while I chose the catfish plate.  The two huge filets were crispy, while tender in the middle, and the coleslaw was the best I had on the trip.

Then there were the hush puppies!  Mouth watering and the best I’ve had in a very long time.  I was kind (well, make that full) so shared the last of my three small ones with Tom.

After that late lunch we went around the corner across the long alley to the Blues Museum and spent a while.  We got great T-shirts for our good friends, Ron and Debra, and then toured the museum.  Be sure to take a look at the link to the museum above because it has a picture of Muddy Water’s house on it across the banner at the top that he grew up in.  The museum has disassembled the house, if you can call it that, and reassembled it inside the museum.  You just have to go to the link and take a look at it because I have no words to adequately describe it. 

After that we went roaming around the old downtown checking out the unusual little shops so Tom could find a funky enough T-shirt and found a place on the next streeet over called Cat Head – Delta Blues & Folk Art.  You’ve got to look at the link to this place, too, because it, too, is indescribable.  All I can say is that Tom found a warm yellow T-shirt that says "Po’ Monkey’s Lounge – Merigold, Mississippi" that has an old beat up shack on the back.  It’s an old black juke joint is what it is, of course.  And we had no clue where Merigold, Mississippi was, but figured it was somewhere close by and determined to go there on the way home just so Tom could say he had been there (and to try to find the old juke joint, of course).

After our morning and early afternoon’s jaunts we were tired so went back to our room to rest a while before we went out "juking."  (That’s a joke, of course, since what we do could hardly be called "juking!"  We just love listening to blues music and check all the good blues joints out.)  About 7 p.m. we went back to the Blues Museum to sit out in the late sun near a stage by the railroad tracks (we never saw the first train) where town folk had gathered, including a big group of bikers, to hear some blues.  The band apparently didn’t get the 7 p.m. start date and by 7:45 p.m. we decided to go sit (across the alley again) at Ground Zero for a while until our dinner, which was scheduled about three blocks down the street at Morgan Freeman’s restaurant, Madidi’s, for 8:30 p.m.   

Ground Zero is a classic old juke joint but fairly new, only opening in 2001 (if I remember correctly).  We sat at the bar that ran nearly the length of the long narrow building on the right and talked with the girl who served us, Casey.  She has a full time day job and just works in Ground Zero on weekend evenings.  They are open at lunch with plate lunches and more catfish and then again at 5 p.m. "until" on Friday and Saturday nights.  Ther food is supposed to be outstanding according to everyone we talked with.  You can eat lunch or dinner there, again at one of the many long vinyl covered tables in the place. 

Wherever we go I strike up conversations with people around me and Casey was no exception.  We enjoyed talking with her and Tom ended up (of course) adding a white Ground Zero T-shirt and black cap to his T-shirt/caps collection before we left for dinner.

Dinner was really good, too, as was everything we ate on our trip, including at the banquet dinner we went to in Oxford on Thursday night.  Tom and I both ordered thick filets and the side dishes were wonderful.   We thoroughly enjoyed dinner and I left with a take home box.

Then it was back to Ground Zero for the rest of the evening, but that’s a long story in and of itself, so I’ll save it for next time, okay?  You really have to hear about Bill and "Puddin’" Nate Turner. 

I also really want to share with you our trip home on Saturday because we drove down through the vastly rural Mississippi delta and  Tom and I both had lots of thoughts about what all we saw and experienced. 

But first, tomorrow I want to share my weekly Tuesday interview with you so stay tuned for that and then, please come back Wednesday to hear "the rest of the story" because it’s a good one.

In the meantime . . .

Cheers & Blessings to you all today!  Dee