Saturday 21st May - Clarksdale MISSISSIPPI
So you make it back to your shack after a night of the blues at Reds, courtesy of Model T Ford and you hear must from the main bar of the site. It sounds a bit like a Springsteen cover band but not a bad one and you don;t want to end the night just yet so you head on over for a final drink.
You certainly don't expect the next song to be Ricky Gervais's Free Love Freeway and for any girl under the age of 25 and remotely pretty to jump up and dance like it's the highlight of the evening.
At the end of the song Leon got up and shook the lead singers hand, Leon kept a straight face but the lead singer couldn't quite hide his smirk. I'm finally in one of those moments when I get to say that we knew, that he knew, that we knew, that he knew it was (I have no idea what it was but it felt like one of those moments should feel if you hadn't drunk too much beer and you knew what you were on about).
PS: As people leave the bar some stupidly set their own car alarms off, this sets of the ducks that are somewhere nearby. It make me feel at home.
Sunday 22 May 2011
Model T Ford at Reds Juke Joint
Saturday 21st May - Clarksdale MISSISSIPPI
Model T Ford is a 90 year old blues man. Today was his 1 year wedding anniversary and everyone was invited to celebrate. A tiny club in Clarksdale to hold such an amazing bluesman he completely wiped the floor with Honey Boy Edwards who i saw last year in Leeds and who is still only a spring chicken in in his 70's. Red's was incredibly friendly, especially considering the number of people who wandered in all evening talking thorough the set. Leon being a blues addict insisted we stay until the very end when we were literally the only people in the the place who hadn't been at the couple's wedding. The gig was an absolute must and this trip hasn't been called the 'Old Man Dead Tour' for nothing, I doubt I'll ever see Model T again considering his age and the fact her doesn't travel but we was sooo worth the trip, plus they served cake so I was about as happy as I could be. We also made friends with Dave and his mate from Iowa whoa re also staying at the Shack Up Inn, they consider themselves to be serious music fans and kept throwing our names of artists in some kind of gig one-up-manship, I held my own until they there out Van Morrison which I couldn't best however they hadn't reckoned on Leon who trumped them with a Van x5 (the number of times he's seen him) and they had to submit. Not bad really considering their age and the distance they had travelled but Leon had started playing this game as a child and isn't easy to beat. They were heading onto another gig but told us to stop by their shack for a whiskey when we got back to our shack, we tried (you never know when you're going to need a friend in Iowa) but they'd already headed off to bed, lightweights.
Model T Ford is a 90 year old blues man. Today was his 1 year wedding anniversary and everyone was invited to celebrate. A tiny club in Clarksdale to hold such an amazing bluesman he completely wiped the floor with Honey Boy Edwards who i saw last year in Leeds and who is still only a spring chicken in in his 70's. Red's was incredibly friendly, especially considering the number of people who wandered in all evening talking thorough the set. Leon being a blues addict insisted we stay until the very end when we were literally the only people in the the place who hadn't been at the couple's wedding. The gig was an absolute must and this trip hasn't been called the 'Old Man Dead Tour' for nothing, I doubt I'll ever see Model T again considering his age and the fact her doesn't travel but we was sooo worth the trip, plus they served cake so I was about as happy as I could be. We also made friends with Dave and his mate from Iowa whoa re also staying at the Shack Up Inn, they consider themselves to be serious music fans and kept throwing our names of artists in some kind of gig one-up-manship, I held my own until they there out Van Morrison which I couldn't best however they hadn't reckoned on Leon who trumped them with a Van x5 (the number of times he's seen him) and they had to submit. Not bad really considering their age and the distance they had travelled but Leon had started playing this game as a child and isn't easy to beat. They were heading onto another gig but told us to stop by their shack for a whiskey when we got back to our shack, we tried (you never know when you're going to need a friend in Iowa) but they'd already headed off to bed, lightweights.
Shack Up Inn & Hicks BBQ
Saturday 21st May - Clarksdale MISSISSIPPI
Dinner was at Hicks tamales and BBQ, the BBQ was the best I've ever tasted and considering there were pictures on the wall of president Clinton enjoying the food I could say I was in good company. It doesn't look like much, kind of like the places you stop for junk food on your way home after a night out in Leeds but a million times the quality and taste. Anyone who comes within a 100 miles of Clarksdale has to come here, it would be evil not too.
Tonight we are staying at the Shack Up Inn, a kind of holiday park made up of old sharecropper homes that were going to be destroyed but were instead saved and brought to one place to create a holiday village of shacks centered around an original cotton gin. It's ace, we are renting the Robert Clay shack, originally he was a sharecropper who drove a tractor and lived in the house with his 7 sons. I don't know where he put them but as I write this I am sat on the front porch in my pj's enjoying my last beer of the evening and being thankful the building was saved. (Being thankful, I think those darned christians wore off on me).
Also, it's thunder and lightening overhead, I know Leon has a Dylan song reference for this exact thing in this exact place but I can't remember it but the breeze is welcome and the rain sounds pretty on the corrugated tin roof.
Dinner was at Hicks tamales and BBQ, the BBQ was the best I've ever tasted and considering there were pictures on the wall of president Clinton enjoying the food I could say I was in good company. It doesn't look like much, kind of like the places you stop for junk food on your way home after a night out in Leeds but a million times the quality and taste. Anyone who comes within a 100 miles of Clarksdale has to come here, it would be evil not too.
Tonight we are staying at the Shack Up Inn, a kind of holiday park made up of old sharecropper homes that were going to be destroyed but were instead saved and brought to one place to create a holiday village of shacks centered around an original cotton gin. It's ace, we are renting the Robert Clay shack, originally he was a sharecropper who drove a tractor and lived in the house with his 7 sons. I don't know where he put them but as I write this I am sat on the front porch in my pj's enjoying my last beer of the evening and being thankful the building was saved. (Being thankful, I think those darned christians wore off on me).
Also, it's thunder and lightening overhead, I know Leon has a Dylan song reference for this exact thing in this exact place but I can't remember it but the breeze is welcome and the rain sounds pretty on the corrugated tin roof.
Robert Johnson & Dockery Plantation
And here we go again with another of Leon's must see music references, Robert Johnson's grave. Now the grave is widely reported to be in 3 separate locations so we choose the one that got the most votes, the Little Zion Baptist Church on Money Road, Mississippi. Basically we drove to a church, found a grave, took some photos and then left. It was all very moving or would have been had it not been 90 degrees out.
Then onto another heritage music site, the Dockery Plantation, an old cotton plantation argued to be the home of the delta blues as it was once home to blues legends Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Howlin Wolf. We did a drive by photo op. this is the best way to see the south as it's way too bloomin hot to get out of the air conditioned car.
Then onto another heritage music site, the Dockery Plantation, an old cotton plantation argued to be the home of the delta blues as it was once home to blues legends Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Howlin Wolf. We did a drive by photo op. this is the best way to see the south as it's way too bloomin hot to get out of the air conditioned car.
Mississippi Delta
Saturday 21st May - MISSISSIPPI
The plan was to drive from Lorman up to Clarksdale along the Mississippi river taking in some sights and stopping along the way. First of all, the Mississippi has flooded and closed some roads so we had to detour, a lot. Secondly, if you ever get the chance to stop off in Vicksburg for lunch like we did, DON'T. There is bugger all to see, unless there is flooding and the train station is a few feet under water, then there is stuff to see, but it's all under water so there's still not much point in stopping.
It was a pretty drive though, some of it I even drove (my first time behind and american wheel). I thought I did pretty good at staying on the right side of the center line though according to Leon I spent a lot of time driving on the grass verve too. Made it here alive and unscratched though do its all good. More driving for me tomorrow.
Rosswood Plantation
Woke up at stupid O'clock thanks to thunderstorm that was actually pretty amazing. The thunder and lightening were were hitting at exactly the same time so safe to say we were pretty much in the eye of the storm which considering all the floods hitting the Mississippi Delta, it's not somewhere you want to be.
When we did drag ourselves out of bed it was for morning tea and coffee on the upstairs terrace with the crazy christians one of whom was reading the bible and the others were weirdly talking about cheap ryan air flights around europe, much as I'm not keen on the airline you've got to be impressed by advertising that can reach to the depth of Mississippi. When I say depth I'm not joking, go anywhere bigger and talk about Lorman where we stayed they look at you blankly.
Breakfast was in the main plantation dining room which was ace (though they need to re wallpaper) where we all ate around the dining table as a group, those crazy christians again. they were all dressed up for the graduation they were attending so event hough Leon and I were both dressed nicely and not at all like tramps (I know, shocking for Leon) we still looked like the interlopers at the table. The weirdest thing though was Peggy the cook, her bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese grits, cheese hash browns, spanish sausage and baked peaches were AMAZING but it felt a little bit wrong being surrounded by that many white americans, in a plantation house, in the south, being asked by a black cook if Mister Leon would like any more coffee sir.
The rest of them headed off to the graduation and Leon and I got ready for our 'tour' (included in the price along with breakfast) of a Southern plantation house. Now I've toured old houses before, Temple Newsam, Ripley Castle (more a stately home and less a castle) and Bolton Castle, I've been there and done that, so I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't expect to b 15 minute e taken into the library, plonked in front of the VCR (not even a DVD) and left to watch some old semi home made history channel wannabe documentary of the house history. Saying that though it was fairly decent and at the end we got to fondle the cannon ball that destroyed the kitchen during the civil war.
When we did drag ourselves out of bed it was for morning tea and coffee on the upstairs terrace with the crazy christians one of whom was reading the bible and the others were weirdly talking about cheap ryan air flights around europe, much as I'm not keen on the airline you've got to be impressed by advertising that can reach to the depth of Mississippi. When I say depth I'm not joking, go anywhere bigger and talk about Lorman where we stayed they look at you blankly.
Breakfast was in the main plantation dining room which was ace (though they need to re wallpaper) where we all ate around the dining table as a group, those crazy christians again. they were all dressed up for the graduation they were attending so event hough Leon and I were both dressed nicely and not at all like tramps (I know, shocking for Leon) we still looked like the interlopers at the table. The weirdest thing though was Peggy the cook, her bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese grits, cheese hash browns, spanish sausage and baked peaches were AMAZING but it felt a little bit wrong being surrounded by that many white americans, in a plantation house, in the south, being asked by a black cook if Mister Leon would like any more coffee sir.
The rest of them headed off to the graduation and Leon and I got ready for our 'tour' (included in the price along with breakfast) of a Southern plantation house. Now I've toured old houses before, Temple Newsam, Ripley Castle (more a stately home and less a castle) and Bolton Castle, I've been there and done that, so I had an idea of what to expect. I didn't expect to b 15 minute e taken into the library, plonked in front of the VCR (not even a DVD) and left to watch some old semi home made history channel wannabe documentary of the house history. Saying that though it was fairly decent and at the end we got to fondle the cannon ball that destroyed the kitchen during the civil war.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Smitty's Market
Lockhart - TEXAS
Thanks to a recommendation from the lovely Katy we headed away from Austin towards the small town of Lockhart Texas and Smitty’s Market. An amazing place with the best BBQ I have every eaten. All the meat is done in the cookhouse at the back of the building where huge brick ovens spend all day long barbecuing. You order your meat by the pound, we chose ribs & brisket and it’s all served up on sheets of grease proof paper. You head through to the huge warehouse style dining room set out with long picnic benches and collect your side orders (coleslaw), sodas and as many napkins as you can carry to clean up the mess you make of yourself eating this delicious meal. We have definitely been spoilt, I don’t see how anywhere else along our route could possibly do better.
We finished with a wander around the pretty village square of Lockhart and checked out the shops.
Thanks to a recommendation from the lovely Katy we headed away from Austin towards the small town of Lockhart Texas and Smitty’s Market. An amazing place with the best BBQ I have every eaten. All the meat is done in the cookhouse at the back of the building where huge brick ovens spend all day long barbecuing. You order your meat by the pound, we chose ribs & brisket and it’s all served up on sheets of grease proof paper. You head through to the huge warehouse style dining room set out with long picnic benches and collect your side orders (coleslaw), sodas and as many napkins as you can carry to clean up the mess you make of yourself eating this delicious meal. We have definitely been spoilt, I don’t see how anywhere else along our route could possibly do better.
We finished with a wander around the pretty village square of Lockhart and checked out the shops.
Wildlife WatchTX
Barton Springs - TEXAS
Spotted loads of turtles swimming and sun bathing on the way back from Barton Springs including these 2 little buggers and also a Kingfisher hunting for his lunch.
Spotted loads of turtles swimming and sun bathing on the way back from Barton Springs including these 2 little buggers and also a Kingfisher hunting for his lunch.
Swimming
Barton Springs - AUSTIN
An early start to our last morning in Austin and a half hour walk took us out of the downtown area to Barton Springs, a natural swimming pool in a beautiful park. My pictures don’t do it justice but imagine this, only the walls on either side were man-made, the bottom is the riverbed rocks home to reed beds and salamanders. The Water was crystal clear and cool, so cool it took me about 10 minutes to fully submerge, Leon of course bounded in like a big hairy dog. But once you were in it was glorious and definately something I will miss about Austin.
An early start to our last morning in Austin and a half hour walk took us out of the downtown area to Barton Springs, a natural swimming pool in a beautiful park. My pictures don’t do it justice but imagine this, only the walls on either side were man-made, the bottom is the riverbed rocks home to reed beds and salamanders. The Water was crystal clear and cool, so cool it took me about 10 minutes to fully submerge, Leon of course bounded in like a big hairy dog. But once you were in it was glorious and definately something I will miss about Austin.
Monday 16 May 2011
The Continental Club & Leon's t-shirt count
Back to Guero's for their legendary taco's and onto the Continental Club for a cheeky Whiskey and to watch 'Continetal Graffitti'.
Leon bought another shirt - Running total so far 2
Leon bought another shirt - Running total so far 2
Waterloo & The Horseshoe Lounge
Monday 16th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
Breakfasted at the Wholefoods (if it’s possible to be in love with a supermarket I know am) outdoor café accompanied by the crazy chatter of the blackbirds that live in Austin before Leon headed over to Waterloo records for a good hour and came back with a load more CDs but a seriously depleted bank balance. Then it was back onto the bus for a trip to the Horseshoe Lounge, a proper dive bar with advertisements on the toilet wall for bail bondsmen and offers to women to buy their eggs. A couple of drinks and a few rounds of shuffleboard later was realised that we both suck at shuffleboard, before heading back into town and spying this little lizard fella basking in the midday sun.
Sunday 15 May 2011
Beerland
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
Wandered back downtown through the State Capitol building with bats hunting insects circling above and headed for Beerland to see the Pine Hill Haints, a traditional bluegrass/folk/honky tonk/country band on tour from Alabama. Surprisingly also on tour and supporting them was Sam Barrett from Leeds. You certainly don't expect to travel nearly 5000 miles to see a guy sing, who you can see in Leeds (for half the price!). The music was running incredibly late though and was nearly murdered by the guys on before Sam so by the time Sam and then the Haints made it onto the stage everyone was long past ready for bed. Sam even dedicated one of his songs to Leon, I didn't get a song dedicated, or even half a song for that matter though I have a sneaky suspicion it's because Sam has no idea what my name is. An early start and a late finish to the day meant a very tired Lou and Leon dragged themselves back to the hotel and fell into bed.
Texas Chilli Parlour
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
We both wanted to try here for me it’s another movie location from Deathproof, for Leon it’s referenced in the Guy Clark song “Well I wish I was in Austin, in the chilli parlour bar, drinking mad dog margaritas and not caring where you are’. I’ve realised that a lot of the places we’re are going on this trip are on the list because they appear in some of Leon’s favourite songs!
On the walk there we spotted a cheeky urban racoon out for it’s evening forage. I thought about getting closer with the camera but it starting stretching up on it’s hind legs and hissing at us, so having never met an angry racoon before and not wanting to have my face ripped off I left it alone.
Batman & Robin
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
During the bus ride back from Ginny’s we saw a grown man dressed as super hero side kick Robin climbing up a fire escape, he was probably on his way to fight some crime so we didn’t hold him up just waved from the bus and got a wave in return.
Then it was on to the South Congress Bridge in time for sunset to see the evening fly out of the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis). It is estimated that over 1,500,000 bats live under the bridge and at sunset every evening during summer they fly out over the city at over 60mph to eat about 30,000lbs of insects. Standing on the bridge as they flew out from under us was a bit like being in an old horror movie but the cloud their swarm made across the sky was more than impressive. Bram Stoker obviously never visited Austin in the Summer, if he had he would not have set Dracula in Whitby.
Chicken S*** Bingo
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
It pretty much does what it says on the tin. You cover a pool table with a board full of bingo numbers, on top you place a cage (a pretty big cage so no throwing shoes at me all you animal rights activitists) and into that cage you put a chicken, plus lots of mixed corn. Then everyone sits around and waits for the chicken to s*** on a number and if you’re lucky enough that it’s your number you win the $114 pot.
But lets back track a little, first you’ve got to get to get to Ginny’s, something we were having real problems with. Initially because we were walking in the wrong direction, this was corrected by a bus ride in the right direction (yes a bus not a taxi, check us out behaving like locals, plus I’m cheap). However we then ruined that by getting off at totally the wrong stop and ending up with still a good distance to go with only minutes till they released the chicken. (Or so we thought). Luck shone down on us at the nearest petrol gas station when we asked directions and a very nice local not only gave us directions but a lift to Ginny’s. He obviously didn’t kidnap and murder us as I’m still here to write to details but he saved our bacon and got us there in time to get a seat, a true knight in shining armour. We actually got there ages before the bingo started but just in time to see Dale Watson and his band the Lone Stars perform. Lone Star beer “the best beer in the land” according to Dale, and chilli dogs ‘free dogs, not just any dogs chilli dogs”
What we couldn’t understand however, was that despite the music being amazing the majority of the people in the place were clustered round the pool table waiting for a chicken’s bowels to move. And as Leon pointed out we can watch a chicken poop in our own back garden, so instead enjoyed a front row seat for the music. As it happened it took the chicken ages to go (another sign she was far from distressed) and we didn’t win the $114 but we did walk away with the dimensions of the cage so keep your eyes peeled for a game of Chicken S*** Bingo, coming to a back garden near you. Maybe.
Oh yeah, and Leon bought a Ginny’s Little Longhorn t-shirt, the first of many t-shirts he’ll be buying while we’re here.
Midday Margaritas
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
We headed down Willie Nelson Boulevard and across the Congress Bridge to the independent shops for some browsing and then stopped off at Guerro’s for midday margaritas. Guerro’s features in the Tarantino movie ‘Deathproof’ so somewhere that was definitely on my list as a) I wanted to try a margarita not made by an English bar man and guess what, it was waaaaaayyyyyy nicer. And b) I’m a movie loser. Either way the margarita was ace however the moment was spoilt slightly for me by the language barrier. ‘What language barrier? You’re in America for goodness sake’. Which is exactly what I thought when I was trying to buy a Guerro’s bag, something I had seen on the website and knew existed and was also for sale. This took about 20 minutes which is a long time really when you are both speaking English but not understanding one another. I do feel vindicated in that by the time it was all over they had realised that yes they did sell bags (pointing repeatedly to the bag I was carrying to emphasise the point had taken some time to comprehend) and yes, that’s what I wanted. We all seemed relieved by the end of it, so much so that they gave me the bag for free. A $4 victory maybe but a victory none the less.
Lost in Austin
Sunday 15th May 2011 – Austin TEXAS
Saturday 14 May 2011
The Broken Spoke
Saturday 14th May 2011 – Arrive Austin TEXAS
Arrived into glorious sunshine and baking heat to the Lone star state of Texas. After a super speedy check in and shower at our Extended Stay America hotel we headed out (feeling ever so slightly travel tired) to The Broken Spoke dance hall to see Alvin crow and his band. Now after 4800 miles of travelling your going to want a drink, you may even go patriotic as we did and order a Lone Star beer, what you don’t expect however is a the barman to have the mancunican twang of a Lancastrian and then still to be IDed. A few lone stars and 2 chicken fried steaks (not a chicken in sight) later we were Texas two-stepping our way around the dance floor with more Stetson clad dancers than you could shake a stick at.
At this point neither of us has slept much in the last 48 hours so it’s off to bed.
Friday 13 May 2011
14 States
So here's the order, it may change, in fact it will change but this is the plan right now
Texas - Lone Star State
Louisiana - Bayou State
Mississippi - Magnolia State
Tennessee - Volunteer State
Kentucky - Bluegrass State
West Virginia - Mountain State
South Carolina - Palmetto State
Georgia - Peach State
North Carolina - Old North State
Virginia - The Old Dominion
Maryland - Old Line State
Delaware - The First State
New Jersey - Garden State
New York - Empire State
Massachusetts - The Bay State
So there you have it, 14 states in 4 weeks.
Here we go...
Texas - Lone Star State
Louisiana - Bayou State
Mississippi - Magnolia State
Tennessee - Volunteer State
Kentucky - Bluegrass State
West Virginia - Mountain State
South Carolina - Palmetto State
Georgia - Peach State
North Carolina - Old North State
Virginia - The Old Dominion
Maryland - Old Line State
Delaware - The First State
New Jersey - Garden State
New York - Empire State
Massachusetts - The Bay State
So there you have it, 14 states in 4 weeks.
Here we go...
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