When it’s just not meant to be: Mississippi Blues Race
I hadn’t planned to blog about this weekend, but the ridiculousness of just getting to Jackson, Mississippi warrants a few words.
I signed up for the 10th anniversary of the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon, which would have been my sixth half marathon in as many states. I picked this race, because I’d only spent about an hour at a time in Mississippi. That’s how long it takes to drive through the small part on our way to Florida. I thought this would be a short juant to collect another medal, but give us 48 hours to check out the city’s famous Blues music and civil rights history. Not only would there be music along the race route, there would be a blues crawl the night of the race. And when I heard we were getting jackets instead of shirts, I was more than excited.
It was a warm 70 degrees for my last training run the weekend before the race. But January came in with a bang. Friday, the day before the race, brought a severe cold front to the South, especially to major cities that aren’t prepare for icy conditions. Our second flight to Jackson was already cancelled when we arrived in Houston at 9am. There were three flights later that day, but the next two we could only get on standby. By about 11am, both of those flights were also cancelled due to the severe weather. At the same time I received an email from the race that everything was still on. So, while I’m also trying to work at the airport, we now have to figure out a new route to Jackson. Surrounding area airports were still open, and the closest was Monroe, LA with a two hour drive. This would also require us renting a car to drive to the Jackson airport to get the rental car I’d already paid for. A handful of people in front of us in the customer service line, were also planning on flying into a different city and driving the rest of the way.
It sounds complicated, and it was. Luckily my husband was super supportive and agreed to this plan, knowing instead of flying into severe weather, we might now be driving into it. Our flight to Monroe was a short 35 minutes, and we got the last two seats on the flight. My seat was 1A – practically first class, if this regional jet had such a thing – but I was actually the only seat in row 1. So now, after two short 35 minute flights, we just had to drive two more hours. The first hour was fine, but it started to sleet as we entered Mississippi.
Practically first class, except the plane was so tiny the first row only had one seat: mine.
The next hour was slow going. We passed at least ten vehicles in ditches, so we took our time along the slushy roads. Our first stop in Jackson was packet pickup. While there wasn’t much of an expo, they did have live music and I got my race jacket! The roads were a bit icy, and we almost slipped just walking into the convention center. Now, we had to get to the airport to exchange rental cars. While it was only about ten miles, the traffic and ice made it a tense drive. As we got near the airport, we realized it was kind of dark and quiet. At that moment I realized, if our flights were cancelled the whole airport might have closed down. The rental car attendants were still there, and even though my original rental was through a different company, they let us keep the same car. And we found out that indeed the airport had been closed the whole day.
All in all, it took us about ten hours to get to Jackson. That’s double what I thought it would take, but at least we made it. That’s also a couple hours more than if we had just driven the whole way in the first place, not to mention the cost. After such a stressful day, we needed nourishment. The Iron Horse Grill was giving a racer discount, and it did not disappoint. It was also the top stop I wanted to hit on the Blues Crawl the next night.
I got the email about 9pm that the race was cancelled, I was disappointed to say the least. The road conditions were only going to get worse over night. So, I turned off my alarm and crashed. It had been an exhausting day. I couldn’t even image how the race director must have felt.
The next day, I figured we’d do all the things we planned to do the day before and didn’t do. The first guy I talked to in the elevator said he’d already ran that morning. Well, challenge accepted! I mentally added a run to the day’s activities. He also told me I could still pick up my race medal. Now, this might be a little controversial, but yes, I still wanted my medal. I came to this city to run, which I did do maybe not a half marathon, but sometimes just getting to the start line is medal worthy. And if nothing else, I wanted it to dedicate to my husband. The medal has ten guitars and I told him five were his. A lot of us have supporters, encouragers and those that make us dinner so we can eat as soon as we finish our long runs. I would never have even gotten to that start line without him. So, yes I will take that medal, thank you very much. 
We ice skated out of the hotel and to the car – definitely dicey road conditions. A sheet of white slush covered the roads, but of course there were people out running! After picking up the ginormous medal, the first place I wanted to go was the Medgar Evers Home. I had originally booked a tour with the curator, from Tougaloo College, but called her from Houston when I knew we wouldn’t make it. There are a couple informational signs outside the home, and I was glad we could at least pay homage to a man that fought for civil rights and social justice. A fight we are still fighting this day.
The Evers’ home has no front door. They thought it would be safer, but he was still killed in his driveway. His killer wouldn’t be convicted for over 30 years.
Next we head over to the Lucky Town Brewery. We drove by it about three times, until we noticed the tiny sign. There were no cars around, so I called – no answer – and then looked at their Facebook page, which indicated they were open but just use the back door. My husband wasn’t sure about walking into this abandoned warehouse, but as soon as we saw the “Christopher Walk-In” sign on the walk-in cooler, we knew we were in the right place. This little brewery has only been around a few years, but they had eight beers on tap! The “tour” costs $10 for a pint and six 6 oz. pours, plus there’s a tap room, and plenty of games. We ended up playing corn hole against a few other would-be marathoners we met. It was easy to make new friends because it was so cold everyone was wearing their new race jackets. We spent almost three hours there before we left to find lunch. They also gave us tickets for a free beer at a local pizza joint. 
Our new friends suggested Pig and Pint, but it was closed when we arrived. The roads were drying up and we didn’t have any issues as long as we stayed off bridges, but we guessed most people opted to stay home that day. It was a bitingly cold day, but the sun was out and the roads were mostly dry now. So, after a quick consult with Yelp, we went around the corner to Saltine, a cute oyster bar in an old brick school building. We were treated to oysters, gumbo and blackened catfish – a yelp success.
We cruised over to the Mississippi Museum of Art next. When I picked up my medal, I noticed a sign saying they’d be open later and admission was free. The museum was small, but a nice exhibit and really we had nothing else to do, since the city was mostly shut down.
Abandoned gatorade at the would-be race finish, outside the Museum of Art.
It wasn’t going to get any warmer, so I went for a six mile run. I came to this city to run and I was determined to earn that medal. As long as I kept moving and stayed on the sunny side of the street it was bearable. My run took my by the Mississippi War Memorial, the Old Capital Museum, the Capital, a cemetery, and a Wing-stop.
The race’s Facebook page notified us that the Blues shuttle was not going to be
running after all. Some of the venues were even closed. Hal and Mal’s was nearby, but when we walked in we were told there’d be no live music since the musicians cancelled. We figured that’s about how it was going to be everywhere so after some amazing Jambalaya nachos, we headed to Sal and Mookie’s for dessert. Actually that was the third place we went to but the first two were closed. My husband summed up the weather best: underprepared for the first day, and over prepared for the next. By now the roads were a non-issue.
The next morning the airport had re-opened and our flight left on time. But as we sat on the runway in Houston, waiting for our gate to open, our connection was already boarding. We sprinted to our next gate, only to be told the doors closed five minutes ago. So, we ran to the customer service desk to try to get on the next flight leaving in a hour. Well, that flight already had nine people on standby. We were booked on the next next flight which was already delayed. We didn’t even get lunch vouchers because our original flight was less an hour delayed, even though we’d now be spending over four more hours in the airport. I crazily thought getting home would be easy. It’s tough to sit in an airport knowing you could just drive home faster. After about ten extra travel hours, no race, and no live music, I definitely had the blues.
I can’t help but wonder what the rest of the year is going to be like.
Tips:
- Check out Lucky Town Brewery. They even have games for the kids and live music every third Saturday.
- Call Mrs. Watson at Tougaloo College for a tour of the Medgar Evers home, and let me know how it is.
- Follow the self guided civil rights trail.
- Check out a blues artist featured at local venue, and again let me know how it is.
- Make the most of it – whatever that means to you. And when everything is going wrong, I hope you have a friend by your side that helps you laugh about it. If not, a giant dessert might help.
The Old and New Capitals of Japan
The force was with me.
Tokyo
It wasn’t until I stepped off the train and couldn’t read anything, that I thought, “How did I get here?”. But that’s what happens when you tell me you are going somewhere interesting. So be warned – I invite myself along. To be fair, I did give my sweet co-worker, Lynda, a chance to say no, and made her ask her sister, who was traveling with her, if it was okay. But I jumped at the chance to burn my last two weeks of PTO visiting Asia.
Tuna head in the fish market.
So, there I was – wishing I’d at least attempted to learn a few helpful phrases, but it was too late now. Fortunately, I had the address to my AirBnB written in English and Japanese, because I definitely got lost my first ten minutes of getting off the train. Turns out, this would happen many more times in the next five days.
For my first day in Tokyo, I booked a bike tour around the bay. I love being on bikes, but it’s also a good way to see a lot when you have limited time. It’s also nice to have a tour guide answer all my cultural questions, like where can I dress up like Mario and drive a go-kart around Tokyo? (It’s a real thing.) We visited some shrines, temples and the fish market, which is everything you’d image including tuna heads that weigh more than I do!
The following day, I decided to get out of the city. I took a train about an hour outside of Tokyo to Mount Takao. I wanted to go where the Japanese go to get away from it all, and I knew I was on to something when I was the only foreigner on that train. There was a helpful English pocket guide and info desk that explained the six different trails and other things I could find at the top, like a temple and some food. The most popular trail is a paved walkway suitable for anyone, but I chose a more remote trail. Each path has an estimated time from 30-110 minutes, and there’s even a chair lift to make it more accessible. It was a steep, beautiful autumn climb, and I was lucky to be able to see Mt. Fuji from the top despite the clouds. After a few hours hiking, I walked over to the Trick Art Museum across from the train station. I’d highly recommended going with one or two friends to take fun photos, but I still had fun by myself.
View of Mt. Fuji from Mt. Takao on a partly cloudy day.
We spent our last night in Tokyo at a capsule hotel, which is a unique experience. I didn’t feel claustrophobic because the capsule was much taller than I expected, but even t
hough you have a locker, there isn’t much space. It did have a double locked women’s only floor with free amenities, a robe, slippers and blowdryers. It was good for one night, but I was happy to move on the next day. We went to the nearby Anthony Bourdain visited Robot Restaurant, which is like a dinner show without the dinner and if you’d walked into the worst hotel in Las Vegas, and were on drugs. Some might disagree, but for me it was a total waste of $66 to watch pandas, samurais, maybe a dinosaur dance around the stage to a loosely based story about trying to stop robots from taking over the Earth. I didn’t get it.
Kyoto
The next day we took the shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, and stayed at another AirBnB. The house was over 60 years with low doorways, lots of windows, and tatami mats (which are suprisingly comfortable). We wanted the traditional Japanese living experience, but we had to keep reminding each other to take off our shoes in the house. Wooden blocky sandals were provided, but for me they were too big and difficult to walk around in.
In Kyoto, I most wanted to visit the bamboo grove in Arashiyama. There was a lot we wanted to see, so after getting off the train, we rented bikes for the day (~$10). Did I mention I love riding bikes? I didn’t realize how touristy this area would be, but the exploding fall colors demanded an audience. There are a number of temples, but many cost a few dollars, and since we’d already been to a few for free we opted out. You could spend days just in this district. There’s a monkey park, a lake for boating and fishing, large temples, restaurants, and of course the grove path. We were told we couldn’t bike through a section of the grove, and we couldn’t even if we wanted to because there was so many people, and a number of rickshaws pulling visitors – it was like a strong man competition! After we got through the crowded part, we were able to bike again and it was perfect. I’d guess the path is a mile or two, so the bikes were a good idea.
I also wanted to visit the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine after seeing beautiful pictures of the torii gates, so we left Arashiyama although we could have stayed the whole day. There are large signs announcing the shrine’s #1 Trip Advisor status for foreign visitors or something similar to greet you, and once we entered I understood why. All of the information at most of the shrines we visited are in Japanese, so while we could appreciate the beauty, we largely didn’t know the details. The Fushimi-Inari had handy QR codes in multiple languages with lots of info. This makes a world of difference if you are interested in knowing the history and significance of everything. We followed the never-ending path beneath to orange torii gates, which get replaced with bigger and bigger gates as one’s prayers are answered. I say never-ending because we walked up and up for maybe two hours, and still not even close to the top, and since it was already dark we turned around.
Prayer placards at Fushimi-Inari.
Our last day in Kyoto was basically spent getting back to the Tokyo airport. I took the metro to the shinkansen to Tokyo, and then to the Narita Express to the airport. The 50 minute Narita express is a great way to get to the airport from the city, but it only runs every 30 minutes, and while the trains run regularly we still barely made our flight. I got sidetracked looking for souvenirs in the Pokemon shop.
Eight kittens in a stroller. Just a regular day on Takeshita Street.
Japan, in general
Ooooh, the FOOD. While my knowledge of Japanese cuisine is limited, I was most looking forward to the food. And I wasn’t disappointed, except that when I left I realized I never even ate sushi! My favorite meals were
the shabu-shabu, and the ramen. The meals were all a lot of fun because they were more communal, except for the ramen. We decided to find a 24-hour ramen place for breakfast one day. After walking around lost for 30 minutes and asking many people, we finally found the tiny door that took us down some stairs. There we found a small vending machine with pictures of bowls of ramen. We selected the bowl we wanted and the machine spit out a ticket. We sat at a bar with little walls that separated you from the person sitting next to you. You can take these down, but we didn’t figure that out until we were leaving. The screen in front of me lifted up and all I saw were a pair of hands take my ticket. I filled out a form to select how much spice, fat (oil, I think it meant), flavor etc. and handed that to the hands, and then the screen dropped. It only opened again to deliver our bowls. We also ate yakatori, Japanese BBQ, curry, soba noodles, and many things I don’t know what they were. There just weren’t enough meals for all the things I wanted to eat.
Ramen vending machine. Photo credit – Kathy Tran
I can’t tell what these dishes are or what the difference is between them.
But it was the culture and people I found most interesting. The people are orderly, rule-followers, and concerned with not offending others. They don’t talk on their cell phones on the trains, and they don’t jay walk. They let you browse their shops without question and they are kind and helpful when asked. A stark contrast to what I’d left in the US in the wake of the election. Even during rush hour on the train, or on a busy shopping street, there was a calmness – it was safe. I never felt threatened, even when obviously looking like a lost female tourist – no one ever approached me – I had to seek out the help I wanted. And the country itself is extremely clean. But the most interesting thing is they don’t like dragon back tattoos (possibly this sign means any tattoo, but specifically dragons). 
To be continued in Singapore…
Tips:
- Get a pocket wifi. But know that even if you do and use Google maps – you may still get lost (or maybe that’s just me). But that’s ok, it’s part of the fun.
- Buy a JR pass before you go. It was well worth it if you plan to travel to other cities.
- Stay near the sights you want to see, so you don’t spend all your time on the metro.
- Yes, the flight is long (about 14 hours from Houston to Tokyo). Go anyway.
This is me lost. Also, there’s lots of 7-11s.