We didn't have plans for lunch until we drove by the Cotham Mercantile, "Where the elite meet to eat". The sagging porch roof, faded hardware hanging from a pegboard wall, and farming equipment leaned against the register were like a full set of gold stars to a traveler in search of a novel experience.
East Arkansas is drenched. Flood waters have transformed roads into docks and campgrounds into harbors. Mobile homes on blocks barely float above the water level. Rice farmers block the highway pull off with orange cones to park their truck at the lake bank that was once their front yard. A boat is docked at their front porch—their only means to reach the road.
Clarksdale, Mississippi is home to many blues landmarks, but most notoriously, a site of a Satanic Pact.