Daily Slideshow: This Easter Ride Will Have You Singing the Delta Blues
Randy Koivisto and his wife ride every chance they can get. They've been riding 40 years strong and have put over 200,000 miles on his Harleys since 2008. In 2013 he bought a brand new Ultra Limited and four years later he's racked up another 114,000 miles.
Delta Blues Easter
Harley-Davidson enthusiast Randy Koivisto and his wife try to go on a motorcycle trip every long weekend. The kids are out of the house now, so if the Koivistos aren’t already on a trip, they are planning their next one. Sometimes Randy will take a vacation day on either side of a holiday weekend to maximize the road trip vacation experience. On Easter weekend in 2015, they planned a ride through Western Mississippi for a "Delta Blues Easter."
Riding to Clarksdale
“It's fascinating to plan and execute a trip to an area in a way that allows you to learn the background of an area and get to really feel the heart of the area,” says Randy. For this trip through the Mississippi Delta, they left on a Friday. Their first stop was Clarksdale, Mississippi. “We got lucky and got a room at the last minute above the Ground Zero Blues Club,” recalls Randy. Ground Zero is at least partially owned by Morgan Freeman and there are several pictures of him in the club.
Delta Blues Museum
The Delta Blues Museum is right across the street from Ground Zero, so of course Randy and his wife checked that out. “We found out that the area was famous for the crossroads of the 49 out of Helena, Arkansas and the 61 just North of Clarksdale.” The crossroads were made famous in the story of Blues musician Robert Leroy Johnson who legend had it sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play a mean guitar. “The odd thing is that two years previous, we used the Easter weekend to travel Southern Louisiana and loop back up to Western Mississippi,” recollects Randy. “I had a brand new rear tire on the bike and picked up some road debris. At about 5:30 the evening before Easter Sunday we got stranded in a rural area of Mississippi that just happened to be the crossroads. That’s a story for another time though.”
Ground Zero Blues Club
The music and the atmosphere at the Ground Zero Blues Club was first class. During the course of their evening, Randy and his wife spent a good bit of time conversing with a couple from Ireland. “We found out the next day that a lot of people from Europe are intrigued by the Blues culture and come to the US to experience it.” In fact, a great deal of Europeans fly into Nashville, drive to Memphis, and then work their way through the delta region to New Orleans. “They take their time and soak in the culture as much as they can. Yet most Americans never give it a second thought.”
After a long day riding, listening to music, and making new friends, they decided to turn in early. Their room above the club was large and beautifully furnished. The only downside was the booming music emanating from the club below.
The Blue Biscuit
On Saturday, the Koivistos rode down to Indianola, Mississippi. Their destination was a Blues Club called The Blue Biscuit. “We had a room reserved through the club. They referred to it as the Pool Room.” But there were no pools in their room and the bathroom looked as though it was an afterthought. The walls were constructed of corrugated metal and the roof was made of Plexiglas. “The clear roof made it feel like we were showering and doing our business in the open. A little strange, but it was nice.”
How Blue Can You Get
That night in the club we were told about how Europeans came to the club all the time, but all of the locals were kind of burned out on Blues and preferred rock and roll or country music. There was another Blues museum in Indianola dedicated to the King of the Blues, B.B. King. “Ironically, he died about a month and a half after our visit to Indianola,” remembers Randy.
Home for Easter
The Koivistos rode home on Easter Sunday so that Randy didn’t have to use any additional vacation days. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. “Because of that trip, we both have a whole different perspective of Western Mississippi. We both want to go back and try to learn more about the area, but there are so many places to go and learn about that we haven’t been able to get back yet.”
We hope he gets back there soon, but in the meantime, we look forward to hearing about the roads Randy and his wife plan to explore next.
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