Friday, 24 January 2020
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| today's route |
Jim Henson Museum
This building actually has no connection with Jim Henson (or with Kermit) except that it sits on Deer Creek a little way upriver from Jim Henson's home (also on Deer Creek) for his first 12 years. Jim used to hang out by the creek, sometimes with his pal Kermit Scott. He had a fertile imagination and saw life in Nature's creatures around him.
Kermit was originally conceived of as a lizard.
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| the original Kermit is on the right |
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| Jim Henson's bio |
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| Kermit from The Muppet Movie singing Rainbow Connection |
I confess to knowing almost nothing about the Muppets. I've heard Kermit sing Rainbow Connection from 1979's The Muppet Movie and know that it was nominated for Best Original Song for an Academy Award. I've watched Miss Piggy as she said, "Moi?" I've watched only a few seconds of any Sesame Street program and don't know the characters. I've never seen any of Jim Henson's movies.
But somehow I knew I had to visit this place. For one thing, it's free. And it's only a few miles from the RV park.
Mostly what they have are donations of collectibles dating back to the beginning of the Muppets' fame. I'm sure those bring back memories for long-time fans. They have a small gift shop and a library with many many children's books and a DVD/VCR player (unfortunately on the fritz when I was there) for their small TV, so they can show various Muppet programs and movies.
For this poor person with no foundation for nostalgia, I found the information on various aspects of Jim Henson's life and career to be helpful in appreciating him and his talent. He was only 57 when he died. I found this link to the memorials that were held for him that show how deeply he was loved by his coworkers which, when you think about it, is one of the best indications of character. https://muppet.fandom.com/Jim-Henson-Memorial
While I was finding that link, I stumbled across these quotes from Miss Piggy which are worth taking a look at. https://thoughtcatalog.com/flawlessly-fierce-miss-piggy-quotes-that-remind-us-shes-top-bad-btch/
Indianola
Not many miles east of Leland, this town is the home of the BB King Museum, which I'd sort of intended to go to. But I'd already seen personal memorabilia of multiple Blues artists at the Clarksdale museum, including things of BB King's, so decided not to go. I ended up going by it, I think - and I say that hesitantly because it didn't look open. A sign says they're doing an expansion, but I couldn't tell if it was open or closed during construction. I didn't see any cars, but maybe I was on the wrong side of the building?
I'd been hearing on public radio that one of the best places to get fried chicken in MS is at convenience stores - I guess like that really good barbecue I had near Hattiesburg. Several of the Double Quick stores had been mentioned as good places to go - Double Quick turns out to be a chain of gas stations + convenience stores that I didn't start seeing until I got to the Delta, and they're all over here. Anyway, there's one a few blocks from the BB King place so I stopped there for a couple of thighs. I didn't take a photo because they looked just like ordinary greasy fried chicken - and they were really good. I wouldn't go out of my way to come here to eat, but it was absolutely worth the $2 apiece they charged me.
Indianola also has an eatery called the Crown Restaurant which is purported to serve good Mud Pie. When in Mississippi, one should eat Mississippi Mud Pie, I thought.
Sorry - I took a bite before I thought about a photo. It was really really good pie and I'm very sorry I bought only 1 piece. They charged me $3.50 for this, which I'd thought was a little steep, but I changed my mind after tasting it.
Indianola is clearly an old town, and doesn't seem all that prosperous. Actually, the whole area seems a little tired.
The drive back west
Not far out of Indianola, I noticed a sizable industrial plant that was surrounded by a formidable fence and had a gate and a guard - and didn't have a sign of any kind. No ID at all. So I looked it up online - looked at a Google aerial map and found that the building belongs to Indi-Bel/Delta Western Research Center. They say they make animal feed, but I think that means they do research into better food for farmed catfish, which I actually thought was interesting. Farming fish of any species begets all kinds of problems, from the environmental damage done by fish swimming around in a small enclosed area with uneaten food and bodily wastes dropping to the bottom of the pond, to diseases the fish themselves get while they grow to the right size in a small enclosed area swimming above wastes. Apparently this research company is trying to solve those problems, and I'm all for that. So odd, though, all the high security measures if this is what they're doing.
I passed a Mennonite church, which surprised me because I think of them as having settled almost entirely in the northern half of the US.
The roads continue to be straight and flat along vast acres of fields - probably cotton.
That flatness allowed me to see a long way ahead on the road, so I could easily see in the distance the blue flashing lights of a state trooper's car. I noticed how effective that "move over for flashing lights" campaign has been when the truck in front of me and the 2 cars behind me all pulled into the far lane well before the stopped cop car. Ten years ago, most drivers wouldn't have bothered; now it's close to 100%.
I've been seeing lots of egrets all over. Some are obviously Great Egrets that are 39" tall. But lots of them are much smaller and I'm not getting a good enough look at them to try and tell which species they are. Both Snowy Egrets and juvenile Little Blue Herons are 24" tall and both might be in this general area.
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| juvenile Little Blue Heron |
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| Snowy Egret |
The Snowy Egret can fluff up its head feathers to an impressive display, but when not in breeding season often looks a little ordinary. You can see their legs are different colors, and that's usually what I use to tell them apart. But when they're standing out in a field or flying away from the RV, it's not so easy to see those details. Whatever they are, I sure see a lot of them around here.
I'm starting to see blooming japonica and realized it is, in fact, January when it starts blooming in Texas too.
I drove back into Greenville to a grocery store and liquor store and stumbled on a surprising historical marker titled First Legal Liquor Store. It's on a busy road and would have been hard to take a photo of, and there aren't any uncopyrighted ones online. But you can see it at this link - check out the date of the store. Apparently even Utah allowed public sales before Mississippi, which makes it surprising they even allow beer to be sold in grocery stores now. https://www.hmdb.org Close to half of MS's counties are still dry, and MS is one of 3 US states where all counties are dry unless they actively choose to become wet. You know, a state's liquor laws may be one of the clearest factors showing that state's individuality and identity. This is such an odd country we live in.
I'd planned to stop on the way back to the RV park and pick up some hot tamales from Hot Tamale Heaven which, I heard on NPR last year, has some of the state's best. But by the time I got in the neighborhood, it was only 2:00, I was still full from lunch, dinner was hours away, and I knew the tamales wouldn't taste the same a few hours from now, so I missed my chance. A reason to come back to the area.
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