On day 5, Friday we took our time leaving since I had some work to take care of.  After we ate our lunch in the RV went to the Delta Blues Museum.  The woman taking admission was actually the curator and she and I had a nice chat.  She told me how she went to college and was planning to move to Atlanta with her roommate from college.  They both had jobs and were looking for a place to stay and out of the blue the roommate decided to get married and the curator came back to Clarksdale.  She took a job with the museum when it was very small and in a store front and one thing led to another and now, she knows every exhibit and what is in storage and is heavily involved n the blues community in Clarksdale.  As far as we could see, the only industry in Clarksdale is tourism.  They host about a dozen different blues events each year.  Nothing was going on while we were there, but between the guy at Cat Head and the curator, I enjoyed a lot of conversation.  The exhibits were great but I have none to share since pictures were not allowed.  I learned what BB stands for in BB King.  I knew his first name was Riley but never knew how he got the BB name.  It seems when he was youngish – 20’s he went to Memphis to work.  He was a runner for all the shops and juke joints on Beale Street.  People stated calling him the Beale Blues Boy.  Eventually it was BB.  That also explains the restaurant he has on Beale Street.

There were many quotes around the museum and my favorite one was – I would have me some religion but the women and the drink won’t let me pray.

We passed by the Riverside Hotel the only black hotel in Clarksdale in the day.  Right now, there is a fundraiser under way to restore it.

After that we took a drive to the Crossroads.  The story goes that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads for exceptional musical talent.  The story also goes before he went to the Crossroads, he could not get a job and after he went, he could play any gig he wanted.  Now you know how long I have been studying the harmonica and how much I want to play and how awful I am.  For just a second, I thought…….

Our next stop was Hopson.  It was the largest cotton plantation in the day and many artists lived there.  The history is that on Saturday night there was always music at the Commissary.  There still is, but we left Saturday morning.  The grounds have been restored somewhat and some things have been left to nature.  I enjoyed taking pictures there.

We then had a quiet dinner and back to the fairgrounds for the night.

Saturday, we drove to the Grammy Museum.  It is part of the Grammy Museum in LA and the exhibits come from LA and rotate.  I had a great time.  There was a wall dedicated to Bob Dylan and the piano and story about his time in Greenwich Village was interesting.  He really was a diva, and while he can write beautiful songs, he should leave the singing of them to someone else.  I think even I sing better than him.

There was an exhibit where you could write lyrics to a song that Keb’Mo’ sang and wrote the music for.  After you wrote the lyrics you could record it.  Then you could score it adding other instruments to the track.  Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your opinion of my singing, the singer/song writer did not receive a copy.

We stopped for lunch at the Warehouse in Cleveland and then drove on to Indianola. We stayed at Willie’s Last Resort, the only RV park in Indianola and right next to the BB King Museum.  We were staying Saturday and Sunday night and leaving Monday.   On Saturday we were so tired we thought we would either go to the museum on Sunday or Monday before we left.

Sunday morning, we found out the museum is closed both Sunday and Monday so we did not get to visit.  I was able to take some pictures from outside.  We also wanted to go to Club Ebony a historic blues club that BB King purchased and restored.  It has many pictures inside from all the old performances, there is live music and great BBQ.  It is in a neighborhood and not far from the RV park so we were walking, there were 5 people sitting outside watching us come down the street.  Jerry thinks we should turn around.  I walk up to them smiling and ask about the club saying we want to take some pictures and when will it be open.  That’s when I find out there are no regular hours anymore since there is no staff.  Unless a bus tour arranges to come, it is not open.  So, our second disappointment.  Still, I have a good conversation with the neighbors about music and it seems like everyone in Mississippi has a Chicago connection.  Once we tell them we are from outside of Chicago they are our friends.  Then they told us the only place we will get a meal on a Sunday is the Blue Biscuit but they don’t open till 5, so we went there for dinner.  I had such delicious catfish and Jerry had shrimp.

Monday, today, we left and drove to Yazoo City also known as Pastel City since the entire downtown is painted in pastel colors.  We walked around and had lunch at Tom’s Café.  Jerry was annoyed that I spoke to everyone who said hello to me.  How could I be rude?  I think the best picture I got was of an old movie theater.  The roof fell in and the ground grew grass, but the brass arm rails remain.

From there we went to the Blue Front Café.  It was all locked up but I wanted to take a picture anyway.  A woman came over while I was taking pictures and said she call Jimmy and he said he would come right down.  What a conversation we had!  John is the oldest son of Carey and Mary Holmes who opened the Blue Front Café in 1948 when he was 7.  His brother Jimmy is a blues artist who when in town plays at the club.  He was not home when we visited.  But we had a great conversation and he talked about how his father was a share cropper and his mother ran the café cooking for many every night.  There were cotton mills and cotton fields that employed many.  As you might guess, John lived in Chicago on the south side for 17 years working at McCormack Place and also word in NYC for a whole so we had so much to talk about.  It started to rain so we said our goodbyes and then it started to pour.  That pretty much ended our day of wandering and right now we are snug in our campsite while heavy rain and thunder storms are surrounding us.  Ernie is “hiding” under the chair (his head is under the skirt of the chair while the rest of his big fat body is poking out for us to trip on.