Escaping from the farm was a blessed relief, and fantastic
four days was lined up as a treat for the 10days of back wrenching farm work.
Traveling with Manon, the French girl who was on the farm with me, the plan
was to head south to Jackson, MS, then separate and I was going to go to
Vicksburg, MS and onto Memphis, TN before flying back to Chapel Hill. As it
was, Vicksburg didn’t happen (could find anywhere to stay that wasn’t less than
$50) and so I stayed an extra day in Jackson instead. The exciting - but also a
bit scary - part of it all? I was Couchsurfing all the way!
To those that don’t know, Couchsurfing is where you
stay on a couch in someone’s house in the place you want. By someone I mean a
complete stranger. Who you meet on the website. No, it’s not quite like that,
and the site you use to Couchsurf is decent enough in you can see peoples past
reviews and the numbers of people they’ve had staying at theirs etc, and then
choose who to ask to stay with. Anyways, my first experience was in Jackson
with Manon (an experienced Couchsurfer which was reassuring) staying with Clay.
We took the greyhound down to Jackson from this random-arse
village in the middle of nowhere. The greyhound stop itself was a diner place,
and the girl sorting out the greyhound tickets was incredibly excited to chat
to a “France-and-Englander” (whatever one of those is!). Being dropped off really early (like 7am
early) we had hours to kill until the bus came, so I settled down to a nice
American breakfast of an omelette, and Manon soon followed suit. The bus
arrived late, so sitting outside waiting was incredibly sweaty in the humidity
of Mississippi. Eventually the bus came, and we weren’t able to get on until
those that had got off for a break got back on. The stupidity of Greyhound is
that if you buy a ticket, you aren’t guaranteed a seat on the bus, so there’s
this almost fight to get onto the damn thing in order to get a seat. Absolute
nightmare… Anyways, the journey itself wasn’t bad – just long, hot and not that
comfortable.
Pulling into Jackson, MS the humidity hit us once again. I
have no idea how people live in these places – it was just so uncomfortably
hot! Jackson is the state capital of Mississippi, with a population around
500,000, 70% black. I guess the best way to describe it is like your typical
Southern city. Not a great description I know but don’t know how else to put
it! Clay very generously met us at the Greyhound station and liberated our bags
from us, and pointed us in the direction of the Capitol, and then departed back
to work.
Heading towards downtown, we came across the Old Capitol,
and I got lost in the museum inside. I found the political history of MS
fascinating. It was a beautiful building, and incredibly interesting.
Thoroughly recommended if you ever end up that way! As we left the building it
rained. I mean really rained. Summer storm style, So after a few minutes
deliberation and a bit of a wait to see if it let off a bit (which it didn’t at
all), we just legged it a block to a small Caribbean restaurant to get some
lunch and dry off. The food was ace in there – jerk chicken was sooo good!
After eating and drying off (which took longer than hoped due to the damn AC
being on!) we left the restaurant and headed towards the New Capitol (not so
interesting to be honest…), scurrying away when Manon wanted to see if the
Freedom Bell worked. I think the entire downtown population were very grateful
to know it perfectly…
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| Scenes of Jackson |
Meeting Clay we went back to his place, dumped stuff and had
a poke around the area in terms of getting a coffee and some bits and bobs from
the grocery store. Clay was a very nice lad, and an artist (Echo Mech if you
wanna have a look), with an interest in music. That evening we went for a meal
at a Mediterranean place, with the waiters overly flirting with Manon. Much to
her amusement! From there we went to a ‘pop-up’ art event, which are ‘spontaneous’
in that they ‘pop up’ in random places not traditionally associated with art
for a few days and then disappear again. Arts not really my type of thing, but
you gotta be open to new things so I went along and found it a fairly interesting
experience. Though I’m still not sure how a picture can cost upwards of $100…
The event finished around 10, and so from there we went to a
cool little pub/bar type place with some live music being put on. I really
enjoyed myself there, except I was incredibly knackered from the 6am start and
kept spacing out. It got worse (by my own doing!) in that a friend of Clay’s
came over once we had got home (at like 2am) and I was determined to stay up
and not miss anything (also my bed was in the same room so I doubt I would have
been able to sleep particularly well!). This did lead to me therefore being
awake for 22hours straight. And zonked straight out when I hit the hay. Always a
good thing!
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| Boozin' & Bluesin' |
The next morning I slept in whilst the other two went to
watch bike polo (yep, polo on bikes) and then in the afternoon the three of us
plus Anne – a friend of Clay’s – departed for one of the best afternoons I have
had in the US. We were headed to the Bentonia Blues Festival which was
celebrating its 40th year. The festival itself was based around the
Blue Front Café (a café on the Mississippi Blues Trail which is a famous and
influential place in the development of Blues music), and based on a farm field
in the middle of literally nowhere, corn fields on all sides and ancient,
rusting tractors dotted around. It was
clear that despite its age it is still not a big festival by any stretch of the
imagination, with a rather makeshift looking stage and around 250 people
lounging on the grass in front of it. Still, small gigs are usually better, and
in this case that was most certainly true.
The music was dominated blues (obviously), but with a couple
of other influenced styles too, and alongside the great smell of BBQ and almost
unintelligible speak of the MS delta I was in my element. It was exactly what
travelling is all about! We stayed to the very end-at first sweating like pigs
in the incredible heat and humidity of the delta; hanging out on the grass,
drinking, eating and playing cards whilst listening to the pure sound of blues
being played on stage. I really loved just being able to lie back in the sun
(or shade as the temperature rose) and let the music wash over me. It was a
fantastic afternoon and a great way to experience real southern culture that I had
been wanting to do for a long while.
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| Scenes from the festival |
As it was, all good things have to come to an end, and we
left having to rescue Manon from a ‘friendly’ married man wanting her
affections (yep, married). As we walked to the car we bumped into one of the
organisers who seemed totally thrilled that two Europeans had attended the
festival. Probably one of the highlights of the 40years!
I had great fun in Jackson with both Manon and Clay, and am incredibly
grateful to Clay for putting us up, and to Manon for allowing me to join her on
her travels for a few days. Jackson was an interesting part of the world for
sure, and I am so glad I went there and experienced a part of Deep Southern
culture that I hadn’t had the chance to do before hand whilst in the States. The
next day I was heading back north for a few days alone before flying back to
Carolina, whilst Manon was hanging in Jackson for another night and then
travelling onwards to New Orleans. Clay dropped me off at the Greyhound
station, and after a slight panic with the realisation I had booked the ticket
for the day after by mistake (idiot) and an incredibly nice lady sorting it out
for me (got to love the South!) I got on another Greyhound (ugh) and headed
towards the musical city of Memphis, TN.
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| Poster from: bluesfestivalguide.com |
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