St. Louis poet T. S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month, but if he'd headed south down the Mississippi River, he might have felt differently. While much of the country is still mired in mud and frost, April in the Deep South means spring with a vengeance—flowers in gardens; myrtles and magnolias in bloom; and festivals of food, music, and culture, tempting you down the highway.
The hinterlands along the Mississippi River are full of fascinating things to see, do, eat, drink and generally enjoy. Depending upon how much time you have, this tour could take a week, a long weekend, or a lifetime, but however you go the best thing is to go with flow and follow "Big Muddy" downstream, on a 350-mile cruise between Memphis and New Orleans. Drivers have their pick of routes, ranging from the multitude of winding country lanes that make up the Great River Road to the near-Interstate speed and pop culture legends of Highway 61.
In April, to the many longstanding attractions of Memphis (Beale Street, the world's best BBQ ribs, Elvis Presley's Graceland . . .), add baseball: The AAA-class Memphis Redbirds play ball in one of the nicest ballparks in the land, downtown's AutoZone Park.
Heading south from metropolitan Memphis, an hour's drive along US-61 takes you past the garishly lucrative casinos of Tunica County and through the
cotton-growing heart of the Mississippi Delta: Clarksdale. Birthplace
of Muddy Waters, and sometime home to just about everyone who ever sang
the blues, from Sam Cooke to John Lee Hooker, Clarksdale is the Delta's crossroads and most significant town, an evocative place whose old train depot is now home to the world-class Delta Blues Museum. In the middle of April, just after Tax Day, Clarksdale celebrates the Delta's world-renowned soundtrack with the lively Juke Joint Festival.
At the southern end of the Delta, other sides of Deep South culture are shown off in the "Pilgrimage," the Gone With the Wind-inspired pageants of Vicksburg and Natchez, queen cities of antebellum Mississippi. Held every year from late March through the middle of April, the Pilgrimage is an extended recreation of local life before the Civil War—think gracious mansions, bountiful gardens, full-length gowns, and ballroom galas; add a few hundred fellow tourists and you have the Pilgrimage. Now a pleasant small town, Natchez,
was once one of the liveliest and wealthiest cities in the US, and now
boasts one of the country's most intact and extensive collections of
landmark architecture. History buffs are in for other treats: Vicksburg
was the site of a key Civil War siege, and the best route between
Vicksburg and Natchez follows the colonial-era Natchez Trace, a linear
national park through primeval forests passing prehistoric burial
mounds and numerous other multicultural relics.
Rolling on south along the river, US-61 eases from Rhett and Scarlett into the watery world of the Louisiana bayous, where near the state line, the culture takes on a distinctively Cajun accent. St. Francisville
is home to a piquant distillation of bayou country: garlands of Spanish
moss hanging from mighty oak trees and roads lined by gracious mansions
and tumbledown shacks. You'll find a friendly welcome and wonderful
food (great po' boys!) at the Magnolia Café, housed in an old motor
court and filling station just off old US-61.
If you want a more complete taste of the rich Cajun culture of Louisiana,
take a ferry across the Mississippi from St. Francisville toward
Lafayette, where the massive, free, and fun International Festival de
Louisiane takes place the last week of April, showcasing everything from
Cajun music and folklore to crawfish eating. From here it's 100 miles
to New Orleans where you can "Let the Good Times Roll" once again at the New Orleans JazzFest, which kicks off a two-week celebration of the world’s best local and world music at the end of the month.
Other roads to drive this month:
In Massachusetts, share in the bravery of early Americans on Patriot's Day, a state holiday celebrated this year on Monday, April 21st. Hardy souls re-enact the dawn battles between the British Redcoats and the colonial-era Minutemen militias at Lexington and Concord, but you can relive the experience in the comfort of your car by following the "Battle Road," a monument-lined section of Route 2A. Also on Patriot's Day, thousands of world-class athletes run the 26 miles from suburban Hopkinton to Copley Square in the Boston Marathon.
Way out west, before the weather gets too warm, April is a nice time to follow old Route 66 across Arizona and New Mexico. Visit the beautiful and historic villages of the Hopi and Pueblo tribes, or join in the massive Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow, held in Albuquerque over the last weekend in April.
