Drive to New Orleans
The drive from Memphis to New Orleans….well…it’s too damn long. It’s 400 miles, so instead of driving straight to New Orleans I decided to do something really intelligent…I made two stops along the way that LP suggested. I really had no interest in making that long of a drive straight. It’s almost as long as the drive from NY to Kenyon, and I hated that drive. So I decided to break up my trip.
I left Graceland around 2 or 3 in the afternoon so it wasn’t like I had that much daylight to work with, so I knew that if I were to make a couple pit stops I’d have to get to both places before the sun set. The two places LP suggested stopping at were Clarksdale and Natchez, MI. The road trip itinerary LP had for this region of the US basically suggested that you drive down I-10 from Minnesota all the way down to New Orleans so I picked up the route from St. Louis and was following the route, except for the suggested detour in Nashville.
I started driving and basically drove for around 1 hr and 30 minutes, maybe only an hour before I arrived in Clarksdale. Clarksdale didn’t have much going on and I looked in my guidebook for why I had gone out of my way to see this random southern city that didn’t have much to offer other than maybe some decent southern restaurants. The city seemed dead, and if anyone was walking around they were few and far between. I read that there were some “Crossing Guitars” at the crossroads of two roads. I didn’t really understand the significance of this and why this made it worthy to stop in Clarksdale, but by the time I figured out why I had stopped in Clarksdale I thought that I had already driven past this landmark.
Fortunately, and god only knows how, I looked behind where I parked my guitar and lo and behold were 3 blue guitars forming a triangle at the “Crossroads” between Highway 61 and 49. I’m now realizing that Highway 61 actually has some rock significance because it was the name of a Bob Dylan song. I guess it was worth stopping at Clarksdale because I got to see these guitars, and visit some random southern town…
I quickly jumped back into my car and continued driving, this time a few hundred miles before arriving in Natchez, MS. There were at least things to see in Natchez according to LP. There were a few historic houses to admire, unfortunately I had arrived in Natchez around 8pm and all the houses and plantations were closed to the public, but I still stopped by each house to justify the quick stopover to this “Historic” city of Mississippi. After 45 minutes of driving through Natchez I was back on the road to New Orleans, and this time for good.
The drive to New Orleans was 170 miles, which isn’t that short, but what was 3 hrs after driving for 6 hours before. I stopped at a Waffle House for dinner and to recharge my phone…btw on this trip I’ve spoken on the phone more than any other time in my life. I hope I don’t get some deadly cell phone disease. It’s ridiculous, I probably average an hour and a half per day on the phone…if not more. Yikes! I guess that’s what happens when you have a girlfriend who isn’t always around…sigh.
Waffle House was pretty good, and my mom let me know that my dad loved Waffle House. I still thought it was ok, as her comment didn’t have much of an affect on me. I let my Kenyon friends know that I was finally on my way to New Orleans and at about 1AM I arrived at Zimple St in New Orleans, what would be my home for the next few days…
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
