From Beale street we traveled south down that 61 Highway to "The Crossroads" where in Clarksdale, the Blues was born. The Crossroads is at the intersection of highways 49 and 61, where legend has it that a young fellow with no musical capability sold his sole to the devil to instantly become a blues musician.
That evening we went to the famous Ground Zero Blues Club in downtown Clarksdale, owned by Morgan Freeman (we love his movies), and enjoyed some local blues talent. Downtown Clarksdale remains authentic, right down to the broken concrete parking lot, peeling paint on all the buildings and broken decrepid couches outside the bars. We loved it!
From there we continued south, taking route 1, the "Great River Road" an American classic road which moves along the Mississippi River taking people from the burger stands and corn fields in the north and giving way to the BBQ shacks and cotton plantations of the south. That said, we were a little disappointed that we couldn't see the River for the levees. The road didn't even wind, it was perfectly straight and was surrounded by flat cotton fields. As motorcycle roads go, driving the Mississippi delta is a bit boring !
On another note, live is realllll different down in the south. People are friendly, on the other hand they get chatting to each other and at one gas station, we left after waiting 10 minutes where every fillup spot was taken up with an empty car. NO ONE was in a hurry.
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