TORNADO!!!

Our Cajun friends were heading up to spend the night with us at the "casina" (as they call it--you might know it better as the "casino") in Tunica, MS. They, unfortunately, were driving on 1-55 (about 140 miles south of us) just as the Yazoo City tornado crossed the highway. Our good friends, John and Brenda, only saw the tornado in their rear view mirror--but the other two motorhomes had stopped on the road, and when the tornado came through it tossed one of the coaches on its side--and Katie and Huey's motorhome and tow car were literally lifted in the air- over another car- and thrown into the woods.

Huey and Katie's motorhome

Both motorhome and car were totalled. Amazingly, they were able to crawl out of a window. Katie's seatbelt saved her life--but the pressure from being held in upside down caused a contusion and possibly a hematoma. The other couple wasn't so lucky- she was just coming back to her seat and when the coach was tossed over, she was thrown around the coach and suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung. She's in ICU -but expected to be fine.

Virginia and Anthony's motorhome--tossed on its' side

The news report:

Update: A large,powerful, long-tracking tornado struck Yazoo City, Mississippi just after 12 noon CT on Saturday.Storm spotters and chasers were tracking this "wedge" tornado for about an hour before it tore through Yazoo.The tornado was anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of mile in diameter.There is significant damage in Yazoo with multiple structures destroyed.

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