Delta Tripin'

Every year for my birthday (yes, it's still going on.....), My buddy P.A.T. demands we take a delta road trip and drink bloody Mary's or vodka crans, eat lunch, and cruise up Hwy 61 to Merigold, Ms the home of the famous "McCarty Pottery" to purchase my birthday piece. http://www.mccartyspottery.com/home.html Check the site to view the history of this one of a kind, made from Mississippi River Clay pottery that is all the rage and a delta must have......

We both have an extensive collection, but that's a whole nuther post of it's own.




Donna Jean joined us for the "girl trip" and we headed out Saturday morning with drinks in hand, bugs on the windshield and money burning our pockets. Pat got us washed up and ready for adventure.
First stop was our friend Tom Bingham's Gin Mill Gallery in Indianola, MS. http://www.ginmillgalleries.com/ Check the website and get information on the 1st Annual Gin Mill Jam happening Sept. 9 -12, 2008 in hand with the Grand Opening of the B.B. King Museum html.bbkingmuseum.org/flash.html which happens to be a stone's throw away from Tom's place. Anyhoo, the Gin Mill has art, blues CD's, handcrafted pottery and woodwork, t-shirts, pepper jelly, cards and postcards, you just never know what new and clever item might slip into the Gin Mill. The juke joint is attached and serves lunch sandwiches, BBQ, all kinds of good eats. The weekend brings live blues and/or rock & roll bands to life and on Sunday there is a killer lunch plate and Sunday night is grill night..... We opted for the muffaletta sandwich, potato salad and pickle spear. Gin Mill makes one of the best muffaletta's in the delta, it will cure the craving until you can get down to the Big Easy . Donna Jean had grilled chicken breast po-boy, pasta salad and pickle spear and it was equally delightful, especially with a few cold Bud Light longnecks, just like DJ likes them, cold, cold, cold......






Hug, hug, kiss, kiss to Tom and we're off to Merigold. With our purchases out of the way, we fixed another cocktail and went site seeing. The old Merigold water tower stands tall and proud as we are leaving town. Back on Hwy 61, the blues highway, we stop for a photo op.......... Now we are officially "road ........" woman of the road, I should say.

On thru Cleveland, MS we traveled and hit a couple of downtown shops. Our usually drinking buddies in Cleveland were all out of pocket so we continued back toward Yazoo................



Back in Indianola we ran across a few sites that could only be found in the delta. This creative mailbox has been placed in front of one of our old friend boy's house since our last visit.


I'm more of a Chevy girl, but I have to give ol' Richard a big Ford shout out for classic style (the caddy) and cunning use of motor chassis and hubcaps..............you must click on the photo for maximum laughability.....On the right is a sign that had been placed outside of an old church and we couldn't resist getting it on film. This was actually in downtown, not off the beaten path somewhere....





We had a glorious afternoon of laughs, eat, drinks and good conversation and some

great Delta music. We cranked up my buddy Eden Brent's new CD, Mississippi No. 1, and that's the highway Eden grew up on outside of Greenville....http://edenbrent.com/ and she boogie woogie'd us back home .

Eden's a sweet magnolia just like us.........