The Mississippi

for some reason there isnt an overnight express bus that does new orleans to memphis in 8 hours, theres just one bus that leaves at 10 in the morning and gets in at 10 at night and goes to every one horse town on highway 61. actually i shouldnt complain since this windy little road goes through some beautiful delta country. i didnt stop off in mississippi as there doesnt seem to be any city (i did think memphis was in mississippi, not its not, its just on the mississippi) or indeed town to visit its so rural. after some further research i discovered that other than the capital jackson pop 400,000 so not that big, there are no towns above 50,000 and then only 10 above 20,000 so really its a big ole empty swamp really which is kinda romantic in a way. the highway rises out of the water along with all the trees and the delta just extends for miles, and its all so green. theres an odd field of corn along the way but thats about it in terms of industrialisation. i also reckon i probably passed the crossroads where robert johnston sold his soul ("you may bury my body down by the highway sign/so my old evil spirit can catch a greyhound and ride"). the mississippi is so unbelieveably huge that even in memphis its pretty wide. theres this island there called mud island. its a pile of mud that started building up and they thought they'd better fortify it in case it ate up the whole river. theres a minature scale reconstruction of the river up there. it looks like a windy stream of mud. mark twain called the mississippi the "crookedest river in the world"(i think crookedest must be considered a word in american english as san francisco has the 'crookedest street in the world). theres also a huge pyramid on the riverside, refering to memphis' namesake in egypt. i'm not sure why its there though. incidently the delta is not a delta at all, its just named that after the nile delta.