The Fiser 52: Week 15 - Juke Joint Festival

The Fiser 52 was back on the road again this weekend. We packed up our bags and the Roo dog and headed down to Clarksdale for the best blues festival in the Mississippi Delta. The Juke Joint Festival has been going on for about a decade (don't cite me on this) in downtown Clarksdale. It occurs every April and is perfect for a weekend of blues, food, and turkey hunting.

We arrived on Friday night and found my grandmother in her office, "the kitchen". As usual, she was whipping up a home cooked meal to get the weekend started right. Shortly after we arrived, my parents, Anna and her friend Brittany showed up. According to my grandmother's rules, a dinner with this many people calls for the fine china and silver. We stuffed our faces with steak and baked potato and then came the desserts...strawberry cake and pecan pie. I don't think I have ever left a meal at my grandparent's without feeling completely bloated. After dinner, the boys headed to the woods and the girls headed out to Ground Zero for some blues music. Now I don't know what the girls did, but apparently they had a great time staying out until 1 am.

Fast forward to 4:45 am and dad and I were waking up to go chase turkeys in the woods. Unfortunately I'm unable to fill this blog with details of a great hunt because we didn't hear anything! At least we saw a hen and three jakes. After hunting all morning we headed into town to join the girls at Juke Joint. When we got there we were greeted by the smell of fried food and the quirky lyrics of the blues. We scooted around the festival for a little bit before we headed back to my grandparent's to rest up b/f dinner and the night's festivities.

Anna & Brittany on the Clarksdale bus tour

After a little cat nap, we all loaded up and headed down to Madidi's in Clarksdale. For those that don't know, Madidi's is the restaurant that Morgan Freeman owns. We were hoping to see him that night, but I guess he was busy getting ready for American Idol this week since I just saw him on there. After our delicious dinner, my grandmother rounded the troops up and told us we were headed to see Super Chicken play at Ground Zero (also owned by Morgan Freeman). No lie...we show up and my grandmother charges straight to the front of the club to be on the front row. I know...it is sad when I can't keep up with my grandmother. At one point I saw Super Chicken look over at my grandparents and say Hi Ms. Harvey and Mr. Hal. It is great to have grandparents that are young at heart. By midnight, we were all exhausted and it was time to head home.

Our first row seats for Super Chicken

It was a great weekend with the family and I highly recommend that everyone who lives in Memphis drop down to Clarksdale for at least one night to soak in a night of the blues and fun.

On a side note - things are blooming in Memphis! When we got home from Clarksdale we decided to turn our old outdoor fire pit/chimney into a garden.