Cotton Fields, Blues and Casinos

We talked about visiting the Delta Blues Highway for years and finally made it. Driving to Robinsonville and the Harrah’s RV Park, we passed through miles of hot, flat land. The cotton fields go on for miles and seem to reach to the edges of the casinos borders. The “Delta” of the Mississippi River is rich agricultural land—the topsoil averages 132 feet deep—in some places as deep as 350 feet. But, you can understand why the field workers learned to sing the “blues”….back-breaking work in achingly hot weather- with not a speck of shade in sight.

Note that the Horseshoes are upside down....all the luck is draining out!

The area was one of the poorest in the country—until the casinos moved in. They call themselves the “Casino Capital of the South” and claim to be the third largest gaming area in the country. It wasn’t what we expected—thinking “Las Vegas Strip”---instead we found tired looking hotels and casinos spread so far out that it was miles between them. Robinsonville is a town of 4 traffic lights on Highway 61. At each of the lights, you turn off and drive for miles alongside cotton fields to reach a group of casinos.
We took a day to drive south to try to find something of the Delta Blues music scene. In Tunica, about 10 miles south, we stopped at the Blue and White—a local tourist draw – serving typical Southern country cooking—grits, turnip greens and country ham.

We found a flier for the Wild Hog Music Fest and Motorcycle Rally in Helena, Arkansas and we were on our way to Arkansas. Driving through Lula, Mississippi- one of the poorest towns we’ve ever seen— a street of boarded up buildings.

"Downtown Lula"

We crossed the Mississippi River bridge into Arkansas and found ourselves in Helena. Highway 49 heading into town was filled with more closed down businesses and AME Baptist Churches.

Downtown Helena, Arkansas (Note the Buster Brown Shoe sign)

In its’ earlier days, Helena was a hub for dockworkers (and a major port of call for blues singers, bootleggers, gamblers and prostitutes).

Its’ real claim to fame came with the local radio station, KFFA 1630 on your dial, and the radio program called “King Biscuit Time”- the longest running daily blues radio show in the U.S. . Sonny Boy Williamson II hosted the show-sponsored by King Biscuit Flour –“Pass the Biscuits-It’s King Biscuit Time” –“King Biscuit- White….Dainty….Light”.

(Look beyond the truck to see the "King Biscuit Trailer")

Today, “Sunshine” Sonny Payne hosts the daily radio show.

The King Biscuit Hour Studio

You can tell that the town was once a prosperous place- with an active downtown, right on the Mississippi. Today, most of the buildings are empty with faded hand-painted signs – but the motorcycle rally had the town buzzing.

After a un-inspiring lunch at the “Road Kill Grill” (the Cajun Steak sandwich should be avoided at all costs—bad beef with cheese whiz on bad bread…)---the "Road Kill Grill" really does serve "road kill".

The Crawfish Rally

Things were pretty quiet for the first hour of our drive on Saturday morning. We kept waiting for another strange noise....but, everything was fine..and we made it to the Rally (just in time for the Bloody Mary party!). It was great to see everyone--and they loved hearing our tale.
We had a great time at the Rally--crawfish was great. We sat by Cheryl and she, once again, showed us the art of 'sucking heads'. She is such a trip---SO funny!! We asked if "size matters"--just in case you're wondering--it doesn't....

We left Rayne on Sunday and got to John and Brenda's that afternoon. Last night we had dinner at the new "Cajun-Mex" restaurant in town. Cajun/Mex was a new concept for us--the food and margaritas were good and the company great.

Today, we joined E.J. and Sharon at a restaurant here in Napoleonville that used to be the site of E.J.'s dad's drug store.

It looks like an old 50’s soda shop…adorable.

Stranded!

On the road from Mobile to Louisiana for the Cajun Rally in Rayne, LA. We drove about 1 1/2 hours and were on 1-10 when John said, "Something sounds funny"....I insisted that it was the pavement--and we drove on. But, John, fortunately, wasn't buying the pavement story. So, when we saw the Rest area sign, we pulled off. It was just before the Louisiana border and had a lovely information center, set in a forest of pine trees.

When we got out, it was obvious that we had a problem. The rear end of the motorhome had no air--so the coach was almost sitting on the tires. John immediately knew what the problem was--it had happened once before --three years ago. The bolt on the Ride Height assembly sheered off--so we lost air pressure in the tag axle. But we had hope! In his infinite wisdom, John had gotten a spare bolt after our last failure. So, we pulled out some old clothes--since he had to crawl under the motorhome --and he was able to replace the bolt. We felt so great--until we turned the key and the coach didn't air up! Turns out that when the bolt failed, the coach dropped on the air bags, puncturing them and damaging the valve assembly! We were stuck--with no air pressure on the rear, we couldn't continue to drive. So, we called our Roadside Assistance company. They took our info and told us that they'd have someone come out to tow us. Well--turns out that with no air pressure in the rear-we couldn't get a standard wrecker. By this time, we were working with one of the Roadside Assistance supervisors--who spent hours trying to find a tow company anywhere in Louisiana or Mississippi with the proper equipment (they needed something called a landau or a low-boy) and the willingness to tow us. Well, even though they could find companies with the equipment, not one of them was willing to take on the risk of towing us with no air pressure.

So, there we were--stuck in the rest area with an un-driveable, un-towable house on wheels. John got ahold of the chassis manufacturer and they searched for a local mobile mechanic. At last, they found a local truck repair place and dispatched two mechanics. They came out late in the afternoon, quickly diagnosed the problem and started to make phone calls...hours later, they told us that they hadn't been able to find the parts....but would start again the next day. It was 5PM, the Roadside Assist people had come up with no towing options and we were at the mercy of these two guys that looked like they came out of the movie "Deliverance". We were able to pull over to the back of the rest area where they actually had motorhome pull-offs. No hook-ups, but we had our generator and a quiet place to spend the night. They had picnic tables and the setting was quite lovely. We decided to make the best of it and had happy hour!

The next morning, "Daryl and Daryl" showed up and pulled off the old parts....and went on an all day search for replacements...at $170/hour!!!!! They didn't reappear until about 3PM....we had set our drop-dead departure time as 4:30--with a 3 hour drive ahead of us to get to Rayne, we didn't want to arrive in the dark. Well,,,,the time dragged by...and we kept hearing awful sounds...hammering under the motorhome (the parts didn't fit exactly--something about the connections....so they were hammering on the air bag to get it into place!...not exactly confidence building). They didn't finish until 6PM--and at that point, the only thing we wanted to do was drink copious amounts of wine. The coach appeared to be airing up and we decided that we'd take off the next morning--and try to catch the last day of the rally.

The snowbirds depart...

It's that time of year and everyone is leaving the Crusher. Poor Chloe--all of her buddies have deserted her. We had the Canadians over the night before they left and Chloe and Henry had the best time playing...while the adults drank way too much wine!

HENRY---

Chloe and Henry- separated at birth?

The next day was a bit of a haze..... We're still amazed that all of these Northerners take off on April 1st--only to head north for another month or more of cold weather. The weather has really been pretty awful this year in Florida--lots of chilly days and too much rain - so it was ironic that the weather turned absolutely gorgeous on April 1 as they were all leaving. We thought that we would be overrun with Easter weekend/spring break families this week, but it's really quiet here. We don't mind so much, but our little social director is having social withdrawal. She'll be devastated when our neighbors next door leave this week.

Florida days

Sitting in the most AWFUL weather ever---torrential rains and a tornado spotted outside Homosassa Springs... Chloe is beside herself with anxiety--and it's supposed to continue for the next 24 hours! We've got our plan for a possible tornado--which involves going outside and hunkering down in the ditch behind the motorhome. So depressing--even the satellite is out-so no TV.

We were at the Freezer last night. We took Chloe's latest beau, Henry and his parents (Canadians, Ruth and Allan). The dogs were a big hit--and I think we have another Freezer fan in Ruth and Allan. They're already planning to take their friends who arrive this weekend. Big news here at the Crusher...the new owners were foreclosed on. Evidently the original Rock Crusher owners sold to Elite Resorts --but kept the paper on the park...so, when they couldn't make the payments, they took it back. It was so funny--the rumors were flying for the past 3 days--as everyone watched the Elite folks take everything out of the park...they took some of the new picnic tables, literally took all the Wi-Fi posts out of the ground, took all the tables and chairs from the clubhouse. Everyone- and I mean everyone, was outside watching the show. There was talk of shutting down the park, no records of who had paid.... We took our drinks down to Ruth and Allan's (they're right on the corner near the entrance-with a view of all of the activity. The other big conversation was the "tremors" that everyone has been feeling lately. It's been so strange--it was like a mini-earthquake--the motorhome literally felt like it was being hit. This morning's paper had the Tremors and the Elite foreclosure on the front page today. (They have no idea what these tremors were--but it was felt all over the county. We think it might have something to do with sinkholes..)

"The Freezer" Homosassa Springs

Wings Sunday!

John, Chloe, E.D. and Mom

"The Liver is Evil- It must be punished"

Mom and me

A Magical Wedding!

What an amazing weekend--probably the most beautiful wedding ever.

On Friday night, we had the rehearsal, followed by the rehearsal dinner and cocktail party.

The dinner was quite amazing--I'm not sure how many courses of wine we went through John made a wonderful FOB toast (with everyone at the table saying "don't screw up" before he opened his mouth).


By the time we had finished the first course ("Seafood on the Rocks"--seafood crudo, shrimp cocktail, cervice, and oysters) and the second course ("Organic Iceberg Salad with Garlic, Gorgonzola and buttermilk dressing for me and "Dungeness Crab and potato leek soup for John), we thought the dinner was over....then the Pork Porterhouse and roasted rack of lamb showed up. With each course we were served both white and red wine- specifically chosen to pair with the food. Then dessert came and we had both champagne and a sweet dessert wine with our "creme brule and the Upside down apple cake with vanilla ice cream. After all that, we took the private SFO trolley (running an ongoing loop from the restaurant back to the hotel) and went on to the cocktail party.....

On Saturday, we took the trolley (2 trolleys running a continuous loop between the hotel and the Ferry Building where the wedding was held.).

The trolley pulled up to the Ferry Building The Ferry Building is one of the major architectural icons in SFO-- opened in 1898 with a beautiful clock tower (modeled after one in Seville, Spain). As we got out of the trolley, we stepped onto a white carpet flanked by six 5 foot planters filled with white hyacinths. It was like walking into a red carpet event. The carpeting went up the stairs to the second floor. As we walked in, we were met by a staff of tuxedoed waiters with trays of champagne and wine. The Ferry Building architecturally is reminiscent of the old magnificent train stations- huge arched windows and this feeling of grandeur.


John and Ann
They made the space very intimate with draperies and soft lighting, tall glass vases with branches and floating candles surrounding the circular wedding seating. It was very unusual- a wedding in the round. The center of the floor (all mosaics) was a patterned circular mosaic-covered with flower petals in lilac and white and purple. Surrounding this were rows of white chairs. While we sipped champagne, a 3 piece orchestra played classical music.
The ceremony itself was quite lovely--the mayor of SFO (Gavin Newsome) was extremely charming as the celebrant.


Stephanie was absolutely gorgeous--she literally glowed--and John fulfilled his father of the bride walk down the aisle so well.

Instead of doing traditional readings, they had their friends and family speak. First, Jim's "brothers" spoke about family and it was quite touching. They truly have embraced Steph as part of their family--quite a tribute to her, because she not only had to make Jim fall in love with her- but also his two kids and the entire swooping family of 5 "brothers", mother and 13 kids.

After the brother/cousins, they had the couple who introduced them talk about friendship,
then had two of their closest friends talk about how to have a long, happy marriage. Then the vows--and it was over!

While the family went outside for photos--the rest of the group were moved to a huge room overlooking San Francisco Bay--with a bar at least 20 feet long. They had a clown and magician there for the kids. (During the day on Saturday, they had a trolley that took the kids to the Children's Museum for a scavenger hunt).

While the guests were enjoying the view and the drinks, the room where the wedding had taken place was transformed by a staff of what seemed like 1000's- into the wedding dinner and dance.

The tables were spectacular. Steph's new "mother in law" , Ann, is not only beautiful, charming, interesting and beloved by her entire family, she also designs jewelry. She designed Steph's wedding ring (gorgeous beyond belief)--and also made 200 beaded napkin rings for the wedding.

Dinner was wonderful--the first course- safrron poached pear salad - served with a 2007 Chalone Estate Chardonnay. Second course- a filet of beef tenderloin (perfectly cooked--how do they do that when they're serving 200 of them?) with sweet potato and chive puree, garlic-braised broccolini and spinach tamarind demi-glace. Served with a 2007 Chateau de Beaucastel Coudoulet Rouge....
Third course--a dessert trio of banana split trifle (layers of graham-cracker crust, toffee, banana custard and vanilla-bean whipped cream), chocolate caramel tartlet (dark chocolate tart shell filled with vanilla-bean caramel, macadamia nuts, coconut and topped with dark-chocolate ganache and gold salt and finally, snicker bites (mini bars of caramel, peanuts and gianduia chocolate with a crisp rice crunch)--served with a 1986 Chateu D'Yquem.

The wedding cake was very unusual (never did get to try either the "chocolate with candy bar cream" or the chantilly with raspberry sauce" slices.)
After dinner, the band started. They were SO good!...a black band that played R&B and great old songs. We were on the dance floor immediately--and stayed there for most of the night. Two of Jim's brothers joined the band and played bass guitar with them....perfectly.