{"id":11,"date":"2003-04-15T23:53:37","date_gmt":"2003-04-16T05:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/thu-432003-tunica-new-orleans\/"},"modified":"2012-08-17T09:33:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T15:33:07","slug":"thu-432003-tunica-new-orleans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/thu-432003-tunica-new-orleans\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunica -> New Orleans (a.k.a. Why I Never Want to Visit Mississippi Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We left the casino early in the morning and began the long haul through the state of Mississippi. Not wanting to miss out, I had chosen the Great River Route along Highway 61. If we were visiting the Deep South, we were really going to experience it. And how often do you get back to Mississippi? Hopefully never.<\/p>\n

We were visiting the sites listed in Road Trip USA<\/a>, our travel bible. We were in Delta Blues country, but didn’t see much evidence of musical history, apart from the crossroads where Robert Johnson is supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. In Leland, the birthplace of Jim Henson, we found a Muppets museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Onward, Mississippi, the book led us to a country store on the side of the road, which bills itself as the place where the teddy bear was born. We decided to stop in and take the obligatory photo. It ended up being a good introduction to rednecks and their deep, burning hostility towards northerners. I stepped into the store, watched the two hicks at the front table turn slowly to glare at Jay, and I thought, this is the part where they say, “Y’all ain’t from around here, is you?” as the first few notes of Dueling Banjos<\/em> play in the background.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We got out of there quick.<\/p>\n

That was just a precursor to Vicksburg, however. This pretty much sums up the town:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vicksburg is home to one beautiful, surreal attraction, however. It’s called Margaret’s Grocery. The South is full of shrines and personal tributes to Jesus, but this one beats them all.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

The book told me that the grocery was run by an old preacher and his wife, and that the preacher was known to come barreling out of the store to testify to unsuspecting passers-by just like us. Jay and Heather were unaware of this, so I was hoping that he would make a showing especially for them. I was meandering slowly around the yard, photographing everything and gaping in amazement, while Heather stood nearby, asking repeatedly if we had had our tetanus shots. I was gawking at a display featuring charts about Jesus’ life with hand-scribbled notes and broken mirrors, when I heard yelling. I thought, “Awesome, it’s the preacher.” And I was so wrong. Here’s a photo I took of the crazy hick as the car went peeling away down a rural highway:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There’s not much else to be said about Mississippi except that maybe they need to move past the whole ‘War of Northern Aggression’ thing, and they’ll all be a lot happier. I know that we were happier to leave the state that afternoon, although backwater Louisiana wasn’t much better. The drive through the bayou used to be one of the most beautiful in the country, and now it’s known as the chemical corridor. It’s great. We suffered through traffic in Baton Rouge, and were relieved to finally reach our hotel in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe I was a little nervous about the hotel. During my last extended phone conversation with the proprietor, he had virtually assured me that I would be killed by rednecks in Mississippi. He went into graphic detail, something about being tied to a tree, raped, etc. I laughed, and he yelled, “Why are you laughing? That’s what those people do!” So, needless to say, I was feeling a little weird about running into this guy at the hotel. Luckily, he was occupied when we arrived.<\/p>\n

Jay and I took a walk around the Garden District that night. It was beautiful. We discovered that we were around the corner from an old cemetery and the Real World House, and right on the trolley line on St. Charles Avenue. Perfect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left the casino early in the morning and began the long haul through the state of Mississippi. Not wanting to miss out, I had chosen the Great River Route along Highway 61. If we were visiting the Deep South, we were really going to experience it. And how often do you get back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[197,198,196,192,515,29],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":32.352645899999998846396920271217823028564453125,"longitude":-90.877883900000000494401319883763790130615234375,"description":"Vicksburg, MS, USA"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/sun-462003-new-orleans-minneapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":0},"title":"New Orleans -> Minneapolis","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1,200-mile, twenty-hour drive back to Minneapolis is all kind of a blur. From the interstate, the country looks pretty much the same no matter where you are. At one point or another, we spent time in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The main differences between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/deep-south-roadtrip-march-28-april-6-2003\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":1},"title":"Deep South Roadtrip","author":"Jenni","date":"04.16.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay, Heather, and I decided to see what the deal was with the deep south, anyway. We definitely learned. Here's the the map for the entire route. Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 3\/28: Pre-trip in Minneapolis 3\/29: Minneapolis to Nashville, Tennessee 3\/30: Nashville 3\/31: Nashville\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/fri-442003-new-orleans\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":2},"title":"My First Trip to the Gulf Coast","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Friday morning, I got up and decided to walk down to Rite-Aid to buy a hairdrier, since the Castle Inn was unequipped. It was the perfect day outside, if a little too humid for someone coming from a state where it was still technically winter. I walked down St. Charles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/wed-422003-memphis-tunica\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":3},"title":"Golf With a Gun (Skeet Shooting in Tunica)","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I woke up feeling the pain of too much time spent in the car, and way too much of Elvis' home-cooked goodness. I wanted to get out and stretch, so I decided to go for a walk down Elvis Presley Boulevard. It was a beautiful day outside, and I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/sat-32903-minneapolis-nashville\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":4},"title":"Minneapolis -> Nashville","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"We were on the road at 7:30, ready to conquer the 900-mile drive to Nashville. If the scenery in Wisconsin is less than inspiring, Illinois is ten times worse, alternating regularly between vast expanses of nothing and vast expanses of nothing with snow. Things were looking bleak until we stopped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":484,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/new-orleans\/sunday-04-25-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":11,"position":5},"title":"Dauphin Island, Alabama","author":"Jenni","date":"04.30.2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday morning, bright and early (ok, around 9:30), we hopped in a cab and headed to pick up our car at the airport. It was conveniently timed so we could drive ourselves there the following day, of course. They gave us an HHR that we promptly named Beauregard, or Beau\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/new-orleans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2010\/04\/4557590855_a92e789f93_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}