The Blues Trail

Again, another post that has nothing to do with cycling:) this time about the blues-the creator of all music and all of it from the heart of Mississippi, the delta to be exact.

The Blues Trail is pretty much all the river towns along HWY 61 and the MS river from Vicksburg north and ends in Memphis, TN, that's where everyone recorded...

Sun Studio

So while I was home visiting, we drove to see my nephew in north Mississippi and on the way back, dad drove down HWY 61 for fun and we stopped in Tunica and Clarksdale before making our way back to Vicksburg. Check out the photos and the links, it's some good history!

This sign is for a hotel, the hotel is in the picture behind the sign....yep, that's a hotel still today and yes people still stay there:)
One of the hotel's fine rooms:) Notice the car tag from California. People come here for 'inspiration' for their music....there is a feel to these places...
More of the Riverside Hotel, wonder what it is like on the inside? We didn't get to see....
Madidi's restaurant, owned by Morgan Freeman
Inside Ground Zero, the blues club also owned by Morgan Freeman
The lovely inside furniture, now outside:) "Don't make your mama cry"
Ground Zero...
Ike Turner history.....
Blues Museum......

And that's about it!

Mighty Mississippi

I was home, in Vicksburg, for Easter, before the river started is rise but everyone knew it was on it's way. In the mean time a boat had hit the MS river bridge, a mile north of my parents' house and 2 of the barges sunk, one close to the bridge and the other, right in front of our house. Here are some pictures of the process, it was really cool to see. It took them over a week to pull the barge up, at around $100,000, I guess it was worth salvaging:)

This is the view from our back porch, this is the first barge on the scene and the buoys south of the barge are the markers for the sunken barge.
A close up of the buoys..
Next, they needed to pump sand out of the hoppers of the sunken barge to relieve some of the weight and hopefully get some leverage underneath it. It's amazing to think that that much sand can accumulate in the hoppers over a week. They pumped for 3 straight days....
Just perspective of how big the boats are...notice the little fishing boat tied up to the barge....
Sand going down river....
Zoomed out from the house....
Brought in another barge w/ more cranes for lifting power...
Mostly out of the water now....
Sunken barge no more.....

I'm not sure how they get it from here to a dry dock for repairs but they did, somehow....

You never know what you are going to get on the mighty MS, it's amazing....