Rik’s Road trip continues…..

It was great to get back out on the open road. Flying down I-40 , I made my way past the Memphis congestion and took the blue highways through Arkansas. I had not been back this way since the days of my school tours back in the early “90’s”.
But it looks about the same as I remember; cotton fields stretched out as far as the eye can see next to old ramshackle houses made of wood and tar paper, muddy rivers flowing into swampland and rusty sandy soil all let you make no mistake that you are in the south. The pace of life is a bit slower, the people less in a hurry with time to exchange a few stories while sitting in your pickup in your driveway. Yeah I like being in the south. When I did the school shows here I spent about a month living here in Arkansas. That’s when old Jimmy Driftwood was still alive. Back then I would spend every weekend with him and his wife Cleda, in his little stone cabin in Timbo. Oh we we’d sit around their kitchen , drinking coffee and passing his old guitar back and forth. and sing for hours. But now both of them are dead and gone and their cabin is empty with nothing entering but the wind blowing through an open screen door.
The last time I came up here I took the faster route up from Little Rock, but now I have time, so I can just cruise along
the twisty roads and reminisce. After riding the switch backs over the mountains I finally made it to the town I used to refer to as my “Southern Office”, as I used to camp my van here for days on end ,yep old Mountain View.

If you were just driving through you might just pass it right on by as it looks like many other small towns. But if you look a bit deeper you will notice that it has a lot of music stores for a small town and quite a few showcase theaters too.
The big attraction is the Ozark Heritage Center that Jimmy helped to build years ago. But the whole town is also alive with music ! Right in the center of town in the stone court house square you ( as long as the weather is good) you can find just sitting around making music both day and night. Many folks have come to live here just to spend the rest of their life picking and grinning all the way to them pearly gates.

When I pulled into town there was already a small circle playing away. I knew that this would be only a short stop in my tour as I had to get moving on down to Texas in the morning, but tonight it was time to just pick the banjo with my friends and I did just that. One of my new picking pals is a funny fellow originally from up in Minnesota. Old white haired Len is a real cut up and a pretty slick picker too. His claim to fame is some classical piece that he chords a lot of them fancy chords too while he sings like a chicken ! Oh once you hear that Chicken song you just can’t get them clucking sounds out of your head.
While Len was clucking his head off, old cowboy Glen Orlen came down to the square to sing a few tunes. I met Glen on my last trip too and just fell in love his droll laconic sense of cowboy humor. Now you have to listen real close ,as he speaks kind of softly but oh it’s worth it. Oh just to hear Glen sing “The Castration of strawberry Roan” is an experince you’ll never forget.

Well after a few hours on the square Len and his wife brought me home to supper . After a mouth watering feast
Len pulled out all the crazy new instruments that he has been inventing. Oh you have not lived till you heard him play his toilet seat guitar I beded down for the night in my camper with “Arnika” riding shotgun in the back seat of the truck.

Well by morning it was time to head on down to the “Rainbow Grill” for some coffee and to meet up with another new friend
“Cowboy” Dan. Now Dan is another interesting guy , he is a black smith, a singer , storyteller and a bit of a lay- minister.
When you spend a bit of time together ,you find out he is a real deep cat . I love being with him as he like many of my pals of the road get me to really get me to concentrate on more of the spiritual world and the paths that we walk on this earth.
After my coffee mug was dry I said good bye to my friends and Mountain View and heading west to Texas

I’m moving On……………………

To Be Continued

Posted by Rik in General