We headed out a back door route on a lazy, meandering four-day southbound road trip through six states to Sanibel Island, Florida, where we’ve rented a condo for three weeks. It is the middle of winter, so the landscape was leafless and gray, but we were lucky to have clear, but chilly, weather.

The Missouri Ozarks turned into the rolling mountains of Arkansas, lush and beautiful in the foliage seasons, now with the soft evergreen of cedars and yellow pine trees, splashed with silver gray filigree stands of leafless oaks, walnuts, hickorys, redbuds, paw paws. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, home to the billionaire Walton family, civic benefactors and founders of the behemoth discount chain store. The city also boasts the rightfully celebrated Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by Alice Walton in 2011, which contains many masterpieces from all eras of American art. The Tyson chicken empire is another prevalent and noticeable Arkansas industry, as we passed many of their semi trucks on the highway, and landmarks named after Don Tyson, son and successor of the company founder. And, not to be outdone, Little Rock’s famous son is former state governor and US President, Bill Clinton.

Memphis sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, in the far southwest corner of Tennessee, at its intersection with Arkansas and Mississippi. Home of the blues, rock and roll, the King, and proud of it’s own style of barbecue, featured each year at the nationally recognized riverside “Memphis in May” BBQ competition.

Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee

B.B. King, Madison Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis Presley Park, Memphis, Tennessee

The downtown boutique Madison Hotel was a welcome destination after a day’s drive, where we discovered, from the concierge, that this week Memphis was hosting its annual International Blues Competition.

Madison Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

Madison Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

Madison Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

For three days, blues musicians converge from all over the country to play short jams in venues up and down Beale Street, compete for the best, gain visibility, and exchange riffs and beers. The iconic Peabody Hotel was swarming with black-leather-jacketed musicians, and historic Beale Street was heating up the chilly afternoon. Nearby is the Gibson guitar factory, Sun Studio, of Elvis Presley, B.B. King, and Johnny Cash recording fame, and farther outside town, Elvis’s famous Graceland mansion. The downtown trolley provides a cheap and quaint tour of Main Street and the riverfront highlights. Even the homeless people are friendly in this town, all enhanced by a soft, southern drawl. We topped off our visit with an intimate dinner at the elegant Chez Philippe, in the Peabody Hotel, with the raucous background music wafting from the private parties on the mezzanine above.

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We spent the next night at a suburban motel suite in Columbus, Georgia, picked up dinner at a nearby chain steakhouse and waited in the bar, where peanut shells crunched underfoot, and the sociable young barmaid could say “y’all” faster and more times in the same sentence than I had ever heard before.

The farther south we traveled, the pine trees became dense along the highway and the rural landscape was punctuated by the occasional confederate flag, waving proud and defiant against the blue southern sky. Georgia farms became reminiscent of the old plantations, with stately antebellum homes surrounded by tall groves of pecan trees as, I’m sure, here it is properly pronounced “pee-can”, and not “puh-cahn”. We passed the turnoff to Plains, Georgia, a few miles away, home to famous peanut farmer and past US President, Jimmy Carter. Seems the south has produced it’s share of Presidents.

Georgia, USA

Georgia State Flag, USA

Georgia Pecans

We eluded Atlanta in favor of a less traveled route, but there was no avoiding the busy I-75 that runs down the country and funnels traffic into Florida at an alarming rate, all lured, like us, by the promise of sunshine. The deep south is its own world, and with rooted traditions, an infectious dialect, soulful music, old-fashioned comfort food, and a big ole welcome mat, we got a lot of sunshine before we ever reached Florida.