Wednesday's Journal Entry!

Due to patchy Internet service at the Greenville Inn and Suites, this blog entry is one day late. Sorry about that!

Today was another cold and drizzly day in the Mississippi Delta, but we had a great day regardless! This morning, while going for a run, I really started gaining an appreciation for the Delta architecture. The Manager of the Greenville Inn and Suites where we are staying told us the area’s peak was around the late 1960s – 1970s, and the whole neighborhood structure reminded me of movies meant to capture 1940’s – 1970’s Mississippi, such as “My Dog Skip” and “The Help.” There’s something very enchanting about the structure: a traditional downtown grid structure with a central main street, sidewalks on either side of wide streets with a green median separating the lanes, houses with wide, wrap around porches, etc.  With all the cultural architecture within the downtown, there is so much potential for a meaningful urban renewal.

One of my favorite buildings was an old railroad station that was once turned into a restaurant which turned old railroad cars into seating for guests in the back. The railroad sign was still on the building:

For lunch, BBQ sounded just right, so we walked over to the Shotgun, a local BBQ place with arguably the BEST fried pickles you can find. There were only about 7 tables in the place, but if I’ve learned one lesson in the Delta, it is not to turn down a delicious opportunity simply by a 15-minute wait. You know when your group is the only tourist group in the restaurant that you’re in for a treat. Many pulled pork plates, sweet teas, and fried pickles later, we rolled out very full and happy patrons. The full-belly sleepiness that quickly ensued after eating all the food was worth it!

This afternoon, we had a fantastic visit to the B.B. King museum in Indianola, MS. What a fantastic museum! The building itself blended a late 19^th century – early 20^th century brick cotton gin with a 21^st century glass, wood and steel structure, and the renovations were awesome.  The cotton gin is now a large, tall ceiling hall, and as was explained to us, it wasn’t until after the cotton gin building was chosen as the museum site that B.B. King mentioned he once worked at the cotton gin as a child. So cool! The whole museum is filled with pictures, music, videos, and materials from B.B. King’s entire life, from childhood onward, and it was one of the best organized and interactive museums I have seen.

Every so often, we did some work J.