Let's Drive to Mississippi (7/8-9)

Last Saturday and Sunday, July 8th and 9th, I drove first to Lufkin, then on to Mississippi with the kids. They got a pretty good deal, being able to ride with all possible entertainment options in the back of the Tahoe (DVD, video games, Game Boys, iPods), while I got to do all the driving. Yee haw. I did conduct an impromptu edition of "Daddy's Music School" on the Austin-Lufkin leg of the journey, though. For some reason, they asked a question about some song, and from there, it was time to tour Daddy's iPod for a continuing string of related music for some two hours. It was pretty funny, because I only came up with two songs that I wanted to share with them that I didn't have on the iPod (I wanted to play them Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina" to show where he used Van Halen and Foreigner samples to build those songs. I had previously played the original source music for them.). They were pretty attentive, even when I played them the four (or five) different versions of "All Along The Watchtower," starting with Dylan's original, then Hendrix's amazing cover, then Michael Hedges' solo acoustic, U2's cover and a Dave Matthews Band cover. They agreed that Hendrix really was the real deal. I was a proud father that my children are so perceptive. :-) I think they really decided Jimi could throw down when I did the A/B comparison of Cream's original and Hendrix's cover of "Sunshine of Your Love." The original is great and all, but Hendrix takes it somewhere amazing. Perhaps the most fun was when I got into the 5 or 6 versions of the Mission Impossible theme song that I had available. I guess that's getting way too esoteric, right?

Sunday we made the 6 hour trip to my mother's ancestral homeplace, Kaywood, in central Mississippi. We try to get over there a couple of times a year, and the kids really enjoy it there. Except for the interminable 55 mph drive across Louisiana's state highways, it's a pleasant trip. I caught up on a bunch of Podcasts that I had downloaded on this part of the trip, and the kids ignored that as they turned inward back there in the aft portion of the cabin. Would I do any of the planned runs while I was in the farm country? Stay tuned...