Ohhhhhh one of my personal favorite stops on the trip.
But they've all been so good, how can we pick favorites?
So, leaving out of Memphis we headed South to Clarksdale which is only about an hour and a half drive or so, an easy trip! :)Â
We got ourselves checked in at our much anticipated lodging....Shack Up Inn.
If you haven't heard of Shack Up Inn, well let me tell you something you are missing out. This place is amazing! They've collected old share cropper homes and relocated them to their old Cotton Gin to create a community of restored, adorably decorated, cozy lil' shacks. You rent a shack (not a room) and it has everything you need.
Our shack, the RED SHACK, was a little more secluded in that it was over the railroad track and away from the tighter cluster of shacks near the bar/office/etc. We LOVED it. Our shack had two porches, one of which was screened and looked out back to the Cotton Feilds which were blooming and (oh so) pretty. The front porch looked out into the communcal area between shacks which is decorated with recycled goodies like old rusty bikes, bottle trees, planters made out of old tires, and the like. Just my kinda place!Â
After unloading all of our stuff into the shack and "oOoo"ing and "awww"ing everything about this refurbished little shack of ours, we decided to head out for some groceries because we missed some home cookin' and at this point in the trip we've both become aware of our fattening bellies (HAHA). So we headed into "town" which doesn't consist of much to find the local spots, and pick up some groceries and a redbox movie and come on home. It was Sunday, and there isn't a lot to get into anything to get into in Clarksdale, MS on a Sunday. By that I mean, none of the bars, food spots (where we hoped to get Delta tamales), the museum, juke joints are open.
We totally lucked out because the sweet girl working the check in at the Shacks told us there was a show at Red's tonight (a rarity for Sunday)- one of the oldest juke joints in town. Beings, that the music calendar for Monday didn't look like there was anything going on either we decided we'd have to go if we wanted to catch any Blues music while we were in town. I mean going to the Delta, and not catching a Blues show? That's just blasphemy!Â
So we made us some sweet dinner and headed into town to Red's where we saw Robert "Bilbo" Walker perform. Holy Cow! This dude rocked! He's got to be at least 70, wears a Chuck Berry-like wig and plays the guitar like a pro. Bilbo really gets into his show too. At one point he was doing some of those crazy old rock and roll dance moves and then took his strap off and played the guitar with one hand extended out in front of him, swinging it around while he danced in his fancy oxford shoes. During the intermission we ran out to an ATM so we could buy a cd.Â
The next day was Monday so we had to take advantage of places being open, not there's a whole heck of a lot to do in Clarksdale. First we went to Cathead, a local shop that has awesome folk art (we, of course, bought some), blues music, Clarksdale merch, etc and the owner has his hand in a couple of projects in town. Like hosting the Juke Joint Festival, and also helped make a documentary called "M is for Mississippi" (check it out, btw) and is all around knowledgable of the area.Â
Then a short walk up the street to the Delta Blues Museum, and a beer at the Ground Zero Blues Club (which is co-owned by Morgan Freeman).Â
Then onto the hunt for tamales!Â
Those of you who don't know: the Delta is known for tamales, as bizarre as that sounds at first. (Read this article to learn more) James just had to taste these for himself and we went to the two popular spots in town to share an order so we could compare. The first was at Abe's which was more famous I think for its BBQ, but we got some and they were...ok. Later we picked up a to go order of Tamales from Hick's who practically opened just for us after we called (and it must go to the owner's cellphone). I made some of the best Greens I've probably ever made and black eyed peas and we heated those babies up in the oven, and ate like kings on our porch. It was SO GOOD. No way that Abe's could compare to Hick's tamales in our opinion. But some local folk beg to differ, so one day when y'all are in Clarksdale--you decide.
Earlier when I mentioned our shack was across the railroad track, I mean that it was like maybe 30 feet away from the rest of the Shack Up Inn's features. So its not like it was really far. They had live music at their bar that night but James and I decided to make us some bourbon & cokes, sit on the porch, playing dominoes and pick at our leftovers instead. It was incredibly quiet, the weather was PERFECT and the sky there is just...wow. Better yet is when the music started playing we could hear it really well from our porch.Â
I think it was one of our favorite nights of the honeymoon.
For a minute it felt like we were home (in a strange place).Â
We must've stayed out on our porch, dancing to the music we could hear from across the tracks, playing dominoes, watching the rain and just discussing our trip thus far until 1 or 2 am before tucking in for the night.
The next morning we packed up all of our stuff and checked out (during a insanely heavy rainstorm) and head out to NOLA for 4 days.
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