We headed north on the famed Highway 61 (yes, Bob Dylan also immortalized that highway that connected the Mississippi Delta blues to Minnesota). As a harbinger of the finest fried foods the South has to offer (seriously, they DO know how to fry food in the South – crisp, not greasy or oily), we had to stop and take photos and purchase cracklins from a roadside market – Praise da Lard!

We stopped at the Melrose Estate (not plantation, as the mansion was not on-site adjacent on their fields) outside Natchez. Our intern/guide CJ, soon to graduate from Alcorn State, for this historic National Park site, was the grandson of the longest-living resident there, having lived there into his 90’s and had a unique knowledge of the home, being a servant to the last owners. He taught CJ about the house, and his oral history is being documented by the NPS.

Upstairs bathroom

This is a hand-operated paddle fan in the dining room

Pushing on, the terrain changed from beautiful rolling hills to the flat, flat delta with huge acreage of corn, enabling us to see a gorgeous Mississippi sunset, as we rolled into Clarksdale around 7:30 pm. Juke Joint Festival, here we come!