Mississippi - The Crossroads

Our drive from Louisiana to Clarksdale, Mississippi was dotted with cropdusters and green lush corn fields. I never want to pay more than a penny for corn after seeing all that corn. It seems like every available spot of land has corn in it. In Clarksdale we stayed at the hopson's plantation, which is an old cotton plantation. We slept in a funky corrugated tin and wood sharecropper's shack. At night we drank beer on the porch and the largest, emptiest mosquitoes, who swam without a sound, filled up at the gas station on blood. The next morning we were covered with large welts from them, spider bites, and were both sick with a cold. I then developed a rash that turned out to be somehow due to a viral infection. I remember at night sitting up in the bed feeling something haunted. I suppose sleeping as a tourist where people once slept as slaves isn't exactly the right kind of tourism, but it definitely reminded me that it hasn't been that long since that time. So often you hear people talking about how blacks need to suck it up and get over the past and look to the future, but it wasn't that long ago that they were ENSLAVED, and staying in Clarksdale was a reminder of that. Also, I walked into a convenience store in a small town called friar's point and the woman asked me if i was "one of those schoolteachers that they send out here". It's a very segregated place and seems pretty poor. Although Ragnar is quick to add his wisdom - he says you're more likely to mischaracterize a place after spending one day there than never visiting at all. We went to the crossroads where robert johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil for the gift of music. Mississippi is also where i saw my first smoke shop with the girl behind the counter holding a baby and smoking a cigarette in a closed space. I also saw my first confederate flag cell phone. We had really good pork sandwiches at abe's, and I found an old lady who had an espresso machine that she didn't know really what it was and thought it just made really condensed coffee that you add cups of water to make regular coffee. She had no idea people drink it straight. This is a picture of Ragnar sitting in front of the shack - somehow he fits into any environment that has a place to sit, drink and enjoy the company of another's presence. He rules.