It is Friday.  Does that mean that vacation is halfway over?  A week just isn’t enough.

Even though I stayed up late last night, I still got up around 8:00 this morning.  We got up and dressed for breakfast downstairs.  This hotel isn’t known for their breakfast and I see why.  At least they had coffee.  Tomorrow, we will know better.

We talked to housekeeping before we left.  I didn’t see any need to prep the room.  We are just here for 3 days.  The lady seemed concerned about not cleaning the room, but I’m sure that was just the tip.  I’ll remember to leave her a tip for doing as I asked.  We won’t be really dirty anyway.

I wanted to drive to the festival down old Hwy 61.  So we pulled out from the hotel and headed toward the river to catch the old road.  I thought it might be interesting and it was.  We went through some of the older towns that are still standing.  We drove through downtown Tunica, which is very nicely updated and kept up.  There were parks, flowers, and wonderful architecture.  The road was hard to figure out, but we finally made it out of town.

Now the smaller towns on the old highway are sad and rundown.  I would expect that with the loss of population that I see around them.  That gave way to a discussion on the situation of farming in this country and how it is being controlled by foreign interests.  Too bad we aren’t interested  We’ll be buying food from the Chinese pretty soon.

We arrived in Helena a little after 10:00 in the morning.  I expected to see the college kids out in front of their school selling parking spaces.  They weren’t there.  So I drove around the block to the first parking area I saw.  As I was pulling in, Rich spotted the kids on this of their building.  Too late.  We parked and got our stuff together with our chairs.  The walk was only a couple of blocks to the main strip for the festival.

As we walked down Phillips Street, I noticed a Blues Trail sign outside of a set of doors.  The sign was telling me that Sonny Boy Williamson and some of his friends came to play at a club in the location called The Hole.  It looked like they were renovating the building.  Hopefully it can reopen to share more of its history.

As we walked, a man with a Chihuahua came by.  I was kidding him because the dog was calm and seemed to have purpose about walking down the street.  He was with the local humane society.  The dog was going down to the booth as window dressing.  He told me she was the pretty one at the booth.  At least she was calm, cool, and collected.

We got into the main stage area so we could leave our chairs.  Luckily, we got spots right on the path so we wouldn’t have trouble getting in and out.  Then it was off to get coffee from the local coffee house, Westrock.  While Rich was ordering up his coffee, I was looking through the art work on the walls.  It was very open and the works were grouped by artist.  There was some very nice stuff there.

We walked around the main drag and checked out a couple of stores.  I checked Grammy Dee’s across from the coffee house as a possible place to eat breakfast.  We talked to the young lady stationed outside of the doors.  There was promise of a good southern breakfast here.

I have to apologize for my description of the festival attendees.  They aren’t just old, white men.  There are a lot of old, white women, too.  These do seem to be throwbacks to Woodstock and free love.  You see a lot of braless women, but now they hang a lot lower.  There are few perky young girls out here.

One thing that got was the dress code.  It was 85 and sunny.  I was baking in a tank top and shorts.  I saw women dressed in high leather boots and all manner of dress.  There were several sweaters out in the crowd.  I was melting just looking at them.  I guess high fashion has more to do with dress than actual comfort.  We did come away with sunburns even with all the lotion applied.

We headed back to the main stage and took up our places on the path.  We managed to sit right next to a couple we had sat behind yesterday.  It almost looked like people had left their chairs overnight to hold their spots.  I saw a lot of people in the same places.  But then again, I saw several people who had moved from our location yesterday to better spots closer in.  By the time I figure out the method, it will be all over.

The first act that came on was Erneste “Guitar” Roy.  We had seen Guitar at the last Blues Fest in Chicago that we attended.  He was pretty good then and was still good to watch now.  Turns out, he is from the area and had played rhythm guitar for one of the big names in blues here.  I was impressed.

Between shows we wondered around.  We went to the souvenir building and picked up t-shirts for the event.  It was time to replace a couple of very worn shirts.  After looking through some of the vendors, we once again headed back to our seats.  Keven Purcell and his band were on stage.  I was impressed with this guy also.  I have to say that all of the talent was up to par with the festival.

Next up was Toronzo Cannon.  Toronzo is from Chicago and we’ve had the great privilege of seeing him play a couple of times already.  We felt honor bound to let those around us know that he was a great guitar player and storyteller.  He didn’t disappoint us either.

He came on stage wearing overalls with a crisp, white dress shirt and nice tie.  He explained that he was wearing the shirt and tie because he meant business.  The overalls were because he had work to do and expected to get dirty.  He did.  It was a wonderful show from him and the band.

I had heard Reba Russell on the radio and wanted to see her.  They took the stage and jumped right into.  I didn’t realize she was more soul blues.  That and the fact that her favorite word was asshole.  She even had a song about someone being one.  She had a good voice, but I’m not sure I cared for the soul take on the blues.  It was different.

We snuck out to get some food.  Rich was going for the ribeye poorboy sandwich at the Texas vendor.  While we were there, I spied the alligator sausage and decided on that.  It was spicy and good.  It’s been a while since I’ve had anything alligator.

I have to tell you about all the music going on around on the strip as well.  They allowed people to set up at specific spots and play.  We saw and heard some really great music.  I liked the one tent someone had set up and the band was playing away very loud.  They started to play, “Midnight Special” as we walked by.  I stopped to listen.  It was very appropriate for the surrounding.

We got back to our seats as Kurt Fletcher and his band were playing.  Josh Smith was the rhythm guitarist and he was great as well as Kurt himself.  We really enjoyed listening to them play.  Rich decided to buy a CD and went off to purchase it as well as to get a signature.  He came back with an exasperated look on his face.  Apparently, the people in the store couldn’t sell him the CD until the band got there.  We waited a bit and wondered back down.  It took a bit to find them in the store.

Rich talked to Kurt and Josh for a bit.  He presented his Sharpie and told the story about being prepared.  Kurt laughed and said he hadn’t been prepared himself.  Someone had to find a marker for him to sign CDs with.  Interestingly, a DJ came up and asked Kurt to do a spot for his radio show.  They did the takes right there.  That was cool to watch and listen to.  Too bad I don’t know what station or show!

We walked down to the end of the strip to the Lockwood stage as the Funky Butt Brass Band was playing.  This was a guitar, drums, trombone, sax, and sousaphone.  They were wonderful.  The band had a great sound and they were having a great time on stage.  Even the heat didn’t hold them back from jamming and having a great time.

We got back as Anson Funderburke was taking the stage with his band.  This turned out to be a jam session with several people.  John Mayer came out and did songs.  An Austrian guy was playing the synethezier and accordion.  Dana Robinson from Delbert McClinton’s band came out with her saxophone.  A couple of guitartist joined the group and everyone got to do a spotlight piece.  It was pretty cool and great tunes.

By now, we had been tracking some bad weather headed toward us.  It was after 7:30 and I was exhausted.  I figured I wouldn’t make it to 9:30 to see Delbert McClinton.  I just stayed up too long the night before!  We decided to pull up roots and head out.  We’d stop by Church’s Chicken for some late dinner and hang out.  I still had this blog to write.

We got back on the Mississippi side of the river and had just gotten into the building at Church’s when the storm was unleashed.  The rain was lashing the building and lightening was cracking all over the place.  That turned out to be a good decision.  I can’t image trying to leave Helena in a storm with all those people who had been drinking all day long.

We got our food and headed to the hotel.  We ate and discussed our day.  Rich was telling me about his conversations with the guy next to him.  Yep, Rich made another friend today.  The guy is a widower from Northern Arkansas.  He had been coming to the festival for the last 3 years.  He normally camped out at the state park during his time.  This year, he had to come on his own when his friend couldn’t make it due to a bad knee.  We said good-bye to the new friend, who tried to convince us to stay and hear the next act.  We declined and told him to enjoy it in the rain.  Apparently, he was there to stay and see the day out.

So here I sit writing up our adventures of the day.  Soon, I’ll have this posted with pictures and then I can go to bed.  I’m tired.