Day 3 -- Highway 61 Revisited And Four States In One Day

1/5/19 -- The morning of our Drive Home IV Team’s third day on the road found us motoring east out of Little Rock enjoying a foggy and gorgeous sunrise, passing vast rice and soybean fields and a sky full of ducks (this territory has some of the best duck hunting in the country according to our friend Kevin Jones).

Crossing the mighty Mississippi we couldn’t resist an unplanned hard right turn south on Highway 61 (think Bob Dylan) to Clarksdale, MS, home to the Blues and the famed Devil’s Crossroads. 

There, where 61 intersects Highway 49, it’s said that in the 1930s Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for tuning his guitar to give him mystical talent. 

Apparently, part of the legend grew out of the fact that Johnson was an aspiring blues guitarist who disappeared for a few years and resurfaced a much-improved blues player.  

We rolled into Clarksdale and after investing in the local economy at a T-shirt shop, we checked out the Delta Blues Museum. Incredible music history here.

Just before leaving town, we bumped into Bubba O’Keefe, a Clarksdale native and director of tourism. Bubba was full of information about the area’s redevelopment, and he and David Madeira connected immediately, discussing how America’s Automotive Trust might partner with Clarksdale in the future.

Speaking of partnerships, David offered to be an angel investor in a new business opportunity I found along the way that I'm sure we could get at a fairly reasonable price. 

Because of our detour, lunch was a hurried Shell gas stop in Tupelo where Brad Phillips swore he ate the best gas station chicken in the world. For myself, I dined on fried shrimp and hushpuppies and topped it off with my first-ever fried Twinkie. Like Brad, I have to say that – besides chicken -- the Tupelo Shell puts out world-class fried Twinkies.

The rest of the afternoon was a drive up the absolutely beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway with very little traffic and Muddy Waters playing on my iphone. By evening, four states, 13 hours, and 531 miles later, we arrived at our hotel in Kimball, TN. Over margaritas and Mexican dinner, the Hennessey boys (who had been separated from us for a portion of the afternoon) shared their encounter with an Alabama police officer who gifted them a citation for going 80 in a 65. Non-plussed by the event, the boys said they congratulated the officer for pulling over the fastest SUV on the planet, and they even treated him to a bonus tour of the engine compartment, which they said he greatly enjoyed.          

Big day tomorrow, 300 miles to Greenville, SC, a trip over the historic Cherohala Skyway, and much more fun and adventure ahead for the Drive Home IV Team.