On May 1st, 1974, I left Pine Bluff headed for New Orleans with Marshall Miller and Karen Jo Simmons. We were in Karen's car, a white 1962 Plymouth Valiant with push-button transmission located on the dashboard. We spent the first night sleeping as well as we could in the car and on the ground in a farmer's field in Mississippi. It was an unpleasant night, mainly because of all the dang mosquitoes but also because of our uncomfortable sleeping arrangement. We did have sleeping bags, but they aren't so great in the heat. We got on the road early the next morning, with help from the farmer who owned the field. He spotted us from the highway and came over and ran us off. He didn't point a gun at us, but he wasn't polite about it either, maybe because we looked like hippies.
Here's a photo--the only one I can find from that trip--taken with Pat Calkins' camera that I still had in my possession from my Costa Rica trip in April. I was walking back to the car from taking a pee somewhere in lower Arkansas or in western Mississippi. I'm wearing Stereo Warehouse T-shirt. The photo has gotten a bit scratched in 40 years, especially right on top of my nose:
I'm not sure if it was in Vicksburg or Natchez that we ate breakfast, but I remember it was in an old downtown hotel, and it was a very enjoyable breakfast. We drove on to New Orleans from there. That was the third time I'd been or maybe the fourth in less than a year. I was reading or started reading The Hobbit on that trip. That may have even been the most enjoyable part of the trip for me. At the time, I was living in the riverhouse so I was being something of a hobbit myself. Marshall, Karen and I met and befriended a couple of musicians, a male and female, who were playing in a bar maybe in the French Quarter, maybe elsewhere. I recall enjoying the coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, and having my first oyster po'boy at some little roadside restaurant. Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's were of course part of the trip. Scott Sherman came down from Pine Bluff and joined us. We were staying at some campground near Lake Pontchartrain, and I guess we had a couple of small tents. Marshall and Karen were a couple at the time. On the way back, I rode with Scott, and Marshall and Karen were supposed to be following in her car. Somehow we got separated. No cell phones back then. Karen's car had broken down in Hammond from a bad wheel bearing, and they didn't have the money to fix it, so they hitch-hiked back to Pine Bluff, if I remember correctly. Later, either Scott and I or Marshall and I drove down in Scott's car and picked up Karen's car, after it had been fixed. I drove Scott's car, a '73 Malibu, back in an overnight drive that I barely managed to stay awake on. I believe the female musician we met and also saw a few years later at a club in Little Rock was Crow Johnson.
Here's a photo--the only one I can find from that trip--taken with Pat Calkins' camera that I still had in my possession from my Costa Rica trip in April. I was walking back to the car from taking a pee somewhere in lower Arkansas or in western Mississippi. I'm wearing Stereo Warehouse T-shirt. The photo has gotten a bit scratched in 40 years, especially right on top of my nose:
I'm not sure if it was in Vicksburg or Natchez that we ate breakfast, but I remember it was in an old downtown hotel, and it was a very enjoyable breakfast. We drove on to New Orleans from there. That was the third time I'd been or maybe the fourth in less than a year. I was reading or started reading The Hobbit on that trip. That may have even been the most enjoyable part of the trip for me. At the time, I was living in the riverhouse so I was being something of a hobbit myself. Marshall, Karen and I met and befriended a couple of musicians, a male and female, who were playing in a bar maybe in the French Quarter, maybe elsewhere. I recall enjoying the coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, and having my first oyster po'boy at some little roadside restaurant. Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's were of course part of the trip. Scott Sherman came down from Pine Bluff and joined us. We were staying at some campground near Lake Pontchartrain, and I guess we had a couple of small tents. Marshall and Karen were a couple at the time. On the way back, I rode with Scott, and Marshall and Karen were supposed to be following in her car. Somehow we got separated. No cell phones back then. Karen's car had broken down in Hammond from a bad wheel bearing, and they didn't have the money to fix it, so they hitch-hiked back to Pine Bluff, if I remember correctly. Later, either Scott and I or Marshall and I drove down in Scott's car and picked up Karen's car, after it had been fixed. I drove Scott's car, a '73 Malibu, back in an overnight drive that I barely managed to stay awake on. I believe the female musician we met and also saw a few years later at a club in Little Rock was Crow Johnson.
