We have decided to stay here for a week; the weather is good, there is lots to do and see, the park is clean, quiet and inexpensive and the people are really friendly. These are all important factors when we make a decision to stay in one place for more than a day or two.

On Friday after we checked in we decided to go to some of the casinos and register for their players club cards. We have learned that with the registration, often there is a freebie that comes with it so we wanted to find out what we might get and at the same time we could check out the casino's restaurants. At one casino we received a $10.00 voucher that we could use in select slot machines, which provided us with 20 minutes of entertainment for nothing. Another one gave us a dinner buffet voucher, which we will use for a free meal later in the week and another one gave us five chances at winning some money in a draw. Some offered nothing at all and every single one gave us a few more chances of getting lung disease from the second-hand cigarette smoke, one of the many reasons we aren't casino lovers.

Today, instead of doing the casino thing, we drove to Clarksdale, Mississippi for the Juke Joint Festival. Clarksdale is located about 35 miles south of Tunica (where we are) in what is known as the Mississippi Delta, a highly fertile farming community. As a result of the huge cotton plantations, soybean and rice farms it was also a major destination for African slaves during that era and hence the birth of the music known worldwide as "The Blues". This particular festival is one of several held here every year and features an assortment of venues where a real variety of blues musicians can be heard. Before you go further you may wonder what a juke joint actually is, so rather than try to explain it to you, I found this website which gives a pretty clear definition. To be continued....