Sunday, January 24th

Goodbye to Oxford, lookin' for the Blues, and Hello Arkansas

I pulled out of Oxford at around 11AM and headed west on Rt 6. My next destination was Clarksdale, home of the Mississippi Delta Blues.

The drive was leisurely as I took in the landscape on this lightly travelled road. Eventfully I came to and crossed I-55 and all the attending sprawl.

I was 10 miles past I-55 when I saw my first abandoned and ruined grade school. The roadside was peppered with shacks and rundown towns. Some of the places I saw I would not have though habitable if I had not caught a glimpse of someone in a window or open doorway.

I saw sign after sign for " Delta Plastics Farm X". Square miles of cotton and soybean fields which used the irrigation products from this company.

When I got to Clarksdale I immediately knew Sleazeweazel was not exaggerating when he called it "very funky". I made may way downtown to the Delta Blues Museum - closed, as was everything else. A ghost town. Not surprising for noon on Sunday. Bummer. I screwed up the timing on this one!

I stopped at a couple motels for prices. One, which was clean and tidy was $29 for a single. Cheap! I then made may way out to US 61 south which parallels the old Rt 1 - the Great River Highway. I got off 61 as soon as I saw the road to Bobo which I new was on the way to Rt 1.

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Near Bobo, Mississippi.

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The road to Bobo.

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Taxodium swamp and old Pecan grove near Bobo.

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Another ID for SW to make! I have seen the tree before but cannot remember the name.

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Discarded pile of soybeans and hulls.

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I am already missing my Mountains.

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A few miles past Bobo I picked up Rt 1 at the town of Rena Lara.

I headed south past the square miles of dormant fields and the occasional defunct town like Gunnison and yet another abandoned grade school. Only in Appalachia have I seen such poverty and squalor.

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I eventually found myself in Greenville, the birthplace of puppeteer Jim Henson, singer Mary Wilson of The Supremes, author Shelby Foote

Greenville is a major crossing point for the Mississippi river and a new bridge is set to open to replace the funky old steel one.

I crossed over into Arkansas and stopped at the brand new visitors center there. This shot was taken from the deck of the Center and overlooks Lake Chicot.

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The last shot of the day as I drove through southern Arkansas heading towards El Dorado, my next destination.

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