Day 5 - Finding Rural

I woke up in my crappy hotel in Vidalia, LA with a headache and sore neck. I had fallen asleep the night before with aches and cold chills, which the only thing I could attribute it to was the fire ant bites I got while taking pictures across from the beach in Pass Christian. On the plus side the parking lot no longer smelled like cabbage. Oddly, when I went to check out the lady running the office thanked me for being a great tenant. If hiding in my room all night makes me a great tenant, then I'm glad I wasn't aware of what was going on outside. But it was a new day, and with that came another tamale breakfast.

I had some time to kill before Fat Mama's Tamales opened, so I started driving around downtown Natchez. I kept seeing signs for the City Cemetery, and it was relatively easy for me to backtrack to Fat Mama's from there so I decided to check it out. It was probably the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen. The cemetery was establish in 1822 and has relocated head stones from the late 1700's, representing an enormous amount of Natchez and regional history. There are large and elaborate headstones, monuments and tombs, many surrounded by beautiful and intricately crafted wrought iron fences and gates. One particularly interesting plot was surrounded by a fence of wrought iron chain with tassels with each section center-pieced by a Masonic square and compass. The gate itself is loaded with Masonic symbols such as the All Seeing Eye, the square and compass, masonry tools, and a few items I didn't know the significance off. All of this is set in a rolling and sweeping landscape with large trees, some clearly older than cemetery itself. It's immaculately maintained and many grave sites had fresh flowers on them. It wasn't even 11am and it was already pushing 90F and yet I kept walking, seeing something new and breath taking around every corner.

Finally time and heat got the best of me and I found myself at Fat Mama's Tamales. They had been housed in a small log cabin not far from their current location, but after the National Parks claimed immanent domain, paying the land owner a heft sum (that owner not being the Fat Mama), they had to move to a new and incidentally much larger location. The story of the relocation is one that Fat Mama (who isn't actually Fat Mama, she doesn't exist) has clearly told many times before. It has a very refined quality to it, complete with evil villains she calls the Grey Hair Mafia and the Antebellum Hysterical Society. These are the entities there in Natchez that opposed her taking over the train depot in historic district. Obviously they failed, and now tamales has a new home. Upfront I just want to say I don't think they were anywhere near as good as Doris'. At least not just the tamales. Where Doris' and Fat Mama's differs is that Mama has a full menu, of which one their signature items is the Gringo Pie. This takes 3 of their tamales and throws chili, beans, onions, cheese, and jalapenos on top. This dish on the other hand is great. Something I found a bit disappointing was when Fat Mama told me the tamales are no longer made in house. They're made down the road in a co-op factory. It's still her recipe and they're still cooked daily in the kitchen, but it loses some of it's charm knowing that there are 30 Mexicans in a factory somewhere rolling these things for minimum wage.

I had my fill on tamales, but I made sure I saved some room for a little dessert. Fat Mama's did have some sweets on offer, but I had something else in mind. Namely, having pie inside a nearly 30 foot tall black woman - it's Mammy's Cupboard. Before you ask, yes...it's exactly as racist as it sounds. It's essentially a 28 foot tall Aunt Jemima in a big pink dress, with big lips, and big boobs. It's one of those things you look at, shake your head, and say "Only in the South." Once inside you are assaulted by a bustling, frantically busy cafe full of long tables to force complete strangers to sit together and become friends. With a limited amount of space, the turnover inside is pretty fast. Although I was only ordering dessert, the chocolate meringue pie, and was in and out in less than 15 minutes even the guy next to me who ordered the chicken pot pie had his food only a few minutes after I had my pie. And yes, the pie was tasty, and unlike Fat Mama's there is no doubt where the food is made at Mammy's as the small kitchen full of women is in easy view the whole time.

With a full belly I was ready to leave Natchez and Mississippi behind. At this point it was about 1pm and there were a lot of miles between me and Texas and only one scheduled stop. In Alexandria, LA there is a big red crawfish. The crawfish wasn't the only thing red there either. The neighborhood I had to drive through had a lot of people walking around with red hats, bandannas, and shirts. There were also lots of stars and crowns tagged on the buildings. The giant crawfish was deep in Blood territory....and there I was wearing blue, which are Crip colors. I was getting lots of looks and after a few minutes of sitting at an intersection getting eyeballed and having a few people drive by giving me double takes I got out of there. Somewhere in Alexandria there is a big red crawfish, but I'll never see it.

The rest of the day was spent getting to Texas, which involved driving through a large chunk of very rural Louisiana. The kind of rural where you can go an hour without a cellphone signal. The kind of rural where you get to watch a crop duster at work. The kind of rural where crazy people decorate their trailers with handmade angel statues and paint chickens all over them. It's also the kind of rural where a man working for the Army Corp of Engineers will stop to make sure you're OK when you pull to the side of the road. I was taking pictures of a water control structure the regulates the water from the Old River. He took the time to give me a brief history of the structures, the oldest of which is over 50 years old, and that it is Louisiana law that the structures be manned 24/7.

Once again it was still at 90 degrees close to sundown so I didn't bother to look for a place to camp and unless it cools off I won't be in the days to come either. I drove until I got to Lufkin, TX and called it a night with a bit of fast food from Whataburger, which I've never had before, and finding out what $40 gets you in Lufkin. Luckily, it's better than what $40 gets you in Vidalia. Tomorrow it's on to Austin.