Roadtrip Day 11: Bad Pie, Mean Waitresses, Lost in a Bad Part of Town, and Large Historic Piles of Dirt

In our original plan,  we planned for Vicksburg to be a “drive through” city- we weren’t going to stop for anything other than gas.  Yet somehow the charm of the city- even from it’s far reaches on the outskirts, pulled us in to the Civil War battlefields and gorgeous architecture.  It was such a happy surprise! Particularly after we had endured the longest, oddest, hottest day of our trip.

We wearily arrived in Vicksburg around 5pm after traveling from Clarkesdale, Mississippi to Greenwoods and Greenville MS.  Greenwood and Greenville were rather confusing to us because they are basically along the same latitude and sound similar. We kept getting them mixed up.  “Wait, where are we going?” “Greenwood” “No, GreenVILLE!” etc.  Basically in Greenwood we wanted to hit up this chowhound joint which is supposed to have the best darn pies in the south (I heard something about sky high light and airy merangue and I was sold!).

The Crystal Grill in Greenwood, to be honest, was a disappointment.  The pies were good- not spectacular-  certainly not worth re-routing a trip for, and the service was so lackluster that it tarnished the experience.  We were subjected to this extremely bitchy, couldn’t-care-less waitress.  The whole time it seemed like she was more eager to be smoking ciggs out back than undergoing such an enormous hassle to serve us.  Where was our southern hospitality, woman?!!

"Meh" Lemon Icebox pie at the Crystal Grill

On the way from Greenwood to Greenville we detoured in Itta Bena, MS and attempted to find the marker for BB King’s birthplace.  Unlike our lucky happenstance with the Muddy Water’s birthplace, this time, despite having google map directions in hand, we had no luck.  While we searched we found ourselves repeatedly stared down by these groups of older gentleman hanging out on their porches with a bunches kids sitting around, on a Thursday around 1:00 pm. You have to wonder why aren’t all these guys at work? And, more importantly, why aren’t all these kids in school?!?  I decided it wasn’t the best idea to stop and ask anyone directions.  Maybe we just saw the bad parts of town, but Itta Bena was a bit of a dump.  I could see why living there could give someone the blues. We left Itta Bena unsuccessful and a bit relieved to be getting out of there in one piece.

Pulling into Greenville we drove through miles and miles of endless strip mall hell.  “PAYCHECK ADVANCE LOANS!!!!” screamed out at us as apparently the current craze.  We counted 11 of these types of establishments over a 5 mile stretch on just one road.  Sometimes they were paired as a Loan/Liquor Store, Paycheck Loan/Car Title Loan, Paycheck Loan/Laundromat combo.  Very odd.  Why does this place need so many of these sketchy stores?! Things like “Paycheck Advance Loans” shouldn’t be allowed to exist, they seem to border on being exploitative.

We did do one cool thing in Greenville, other than fill our paycheck advance loan needs, of course.  We went and hiked around and toured the Winterville Mounds.  What are Winterville Mounds, you ask?  Well, I believe Earl summarized them best when we pulled into the parking lot.  “We have been driving around Mississippi for the past 3 hours to eat bad pie from a mean waitress, get lost in the ghetto, and finally come look at a large pile of dirt.”

I present you with said pile of dirt:

Winterville Mound

The mound museum was empty and we were greeted with free admission and a friendly *avid* historian who seemed thrilled for some company. She practically leapt out of her seat, greeted us at the door, and before we even had time to visit the restroom was escorting us on an extensive, whirlwind personal tour of the museum’s entire collection. It was very endearing how excited this woman was over archeology, yet her enthusiasm for Native American pottery failed to rub off on me.  I found the mound museum a trifle yawn-inducing. Apparently they have been digging in the mounds and finding so many artifacts they decided to TAKE THIS ENTIRE YEAR OFF from excavation simply because they were so overwhelmed with all of the finds.  Rather, they elected to use the entire year to identify all of the pottery.  Talk about fast-paced historical thrills!

And, kidding aside, the mounds were cool, in theory. In reality it was stifling hot and we basically walked around sweating profusely while gaping at big piles of dirt. Big old piles of dirt. *Historic* piles of dirt. One interesting fact was the Indians who built the mounds did not have access to horses (they were constructed before the Spaniards sailed up the Mississippi and introduced horses to the area), yet there were non-regional layers of dirt in all of the mounds. So these native people carried the dirt, bucketload by bucketload, on their persons for over 30 miles. And that was enough dirt to build over 15 mounds of 30 feet and higher each. Shesh. So these mounds were WORTH IT to somebody to go through all that trouble!

You can’t tell from this photo, but it was FREAKING HOT in this picture:

Linus Had the Most Fun at the Mound

Climbing to the top of the mound

Earl Ascends the Mound

The view was pretty nice from the top

View from the Top

Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on the mounds. The woman who gave us the tour was EXTREMELY nice. She was clearly passionate, enthusiastic, and deeply knowledgeable about the mounds. She advocated we take a vacation on the “Mound Tour” which several states are putting together. Maybe we were just too tired and too grouchy from a long day to appreciate them. I am teasing Earl that I want to go on the Mound Tour for our honeymoon if we get married. He retorts with “the only mound tour I’ll ever be doing is a tour of your mounds.” Clearly, jejune adults such as ourselves fail to appreciate the beauty and culture of archeology!

Linus Hams it up on Mound Grounds