# The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run A 6-day, ~900-mile Southern road trip from Nashville. - **Days:** 6 - **Distance:** ~900 mi - **Starts in:** Nashville - **Themes:** Music, Food - **Routes chained:** [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61), [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road), [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor), [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast) Six nights, zero pretense: the South's living roadhouse circuit — honky-tonks, jukes and sand-floor bars, run north to gulf. (Red Dirt's mother churches — Cain's Ballroom, the Stillwater scene — sit just west of this atlas's frame; this is the red-clay answer, and Mobile's own Red Clay Strays prove the dirt still grows them.) ## Why this itinerary works Starting in Nashville, this 6-day itinerary connects The Blues Highway and River Road & the Felicianas and Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie and US 90: The Creole Coast. It suits travellers interested in barbecue, boudin, oysters & tamales; blues, country, jukes & jamborees. The day-by-day bases let you split roughly 900 miles into a sequence of visits rather than trying to cover every linked route end to end. Use the daily highlights to decide which places deserve your longest stops. ## Day by day ### Day 1: Nashville trinity Robert's Western World for the fried bologna and the real thing, Station Inn's bluegrass bunker, Santa's Pub karaoke nightcap — Tuesday? Then it's Post 82's Honky-Tonk Night and skip the rest. ### Day 2: → Memphis Highway 64 west or the Trace-to-40 dogleg; land at Earnestine & Hazel's for a Soul Burger and the haunted jukebox's setlist. It picks better than you do. Highlights to consider: - **Beale Street, Sun & Stax** (Memphis) — The trinity in one city: W.C. Handy's Beale, the Sun Studio where Elvis walked in, and Stax's Soulsville. Add Graceland in proportion to your devotion. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **Payne's Bar-B-Q** (Memphis) — A converted gas station serving the chopped-pork sandwich (slaw on, hot sauce yes) by which all others are judged. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **National Civil Rights Museum** (Memphis) — Built into the Lorraine Motel, preserving Room 306 and the balcony where Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968. Start the whole trip here; everything south of Memphis echoes it. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) ### Day 3: → Clarksdale Down 61 to the Crossroads: Red's juke joint till the man says go home; sleep at the Shack Up Inn so the commute is forty feet. Highlights to consider: - **Payne's Bar-B-Q** (Memphis) — A converted gas station serving the chopped-pork sandwich (slaw on, hot sauce yes) by which all others are judged. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **Gateway to the Blues** (Tunica) — A proper primer museum in an 1895 rail depot right on 61 — learn to hear what you're about to drive through. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **The Crossroads & Clarksdale** (Clarksdale) — Where 61 meets 49 — Robert Johnson's alleged bargain. Delta Blues Museum (with Muddy Waters's cabin), Ground Zero, Red's juke joint, the Riverside Hotel where Bessie Smith died (1937), beds at the Shack Up Inn, and Abe's Bar-B-Q since 1924. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) ### Day 4: → Natchez via Bentonia The Blue Front Café (Mississippi's oldest juke, Bentonia-school blues if Duck's playing), then the bluff: sunset barstool at Under-the-Hill Saloon, where the river's worst behaved for 200 years. Highlights to consider: - **Natchez** (Natchez) — More antebellum mansions than anywhere (the millionaires sat out the war); Longwood's unfinished octagon — workers dropped tools in 1861 and never came back. Hold both: the Forks of the Road slave-market memorial, and a beer at Under-the-Hill where the river men drank. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **Emmett Till Interpretive Center** (Sumner) — The restored 1955 courthouse where the murderers were acquitted in 67 minutes, and where the county issued its formal apology in 2007. The center's guided story is the strongest hour in the Delta. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **Po' Monkey's** (Merigold) — Willie Seaberry's sharecropper-shack juke ran Thursday nights from 1963 until his death in 2016. Closed now, still standing in the fields — road-trippers stop to pay respects. McCarty Pottery in town shapes Delta clay into heirlooms. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **B.B. King Museum** (Indianola) — World-class museum wrapped around the brick gin where B.B. worked; he's buried on the grounds. Club Ebony, the chitlin'-circuit landmark he later bought, stands nearby. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) - **Birthplace of the Frog** (Leland) — Jim Henson grew up playing along Deer Creek, and Leland keeps a small, sincere museum to Kermit's swampy origins. The Highway 61 Blues Museum shares the block. [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61) ### Day 5: → New Orleans via Teddy's Teddy's Juke Joint outside Zachary (call first; it's a living room with a PA), River Road down, then the late shift: Vaughan's in Bywater, Snake & Jake's till the Christmas lights blur. Highlights to consider: - **Mammy's Cupboard** (Natchez) — A 1940 roadside restaurant built as a 28-foot hoop-skirted woman; you eat lunch inside the skirt. A complicated icon — repainted, reconsidered, still serving legendary banana caramel pie. [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road) - **Angola Museum** (Angola) — At the gate of the prison that occupies a former plantation — unsparing history, and the famous (and controversial) October inmate rodeo. LA 66 dead-ends here: 'the end of the road' in every sense. [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road) - **The Myrtles** (St. Francisville) — Promoted as 'one of America's most haunted homes' — the Chloe legend, a mirror that allegedly holds spirits, and a B&B if you're brave. The town around it is the prettiest in Louisiana, ghosts or no. [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road) - **Port Hudson** (Jackson, LA) — The longest true siege in American history (48 days, 1863) — and among the first major assaults by Black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards, whose valor here helped change the Union army. [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road) - **Houmas House** (Darrow) — The 'Sugar Palace' and its gardens — Bette Davis filmed Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte here. Stay for dinner in the old kitchen if the budget allows. [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road) ### Day 6: → the Gulf line US 90 east with a Fred's Lounge detour if it's Saturday morning — finish astride the state line at the Flora-Bama, with the Pirate's Cove dogs and the Pink Pony as bonus rounds. Tip every band. Tip them again. Highlights to consider: - **Fred's Lounge** (Mamou) — Open Saturday mornings only, since 1962: live Cajun French radio from a bar the size of a living room, dancers spinning by 9 a.m. Tante Sue's rules are posted; obey them. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor) - **Des Allemands catfish** (Des Allemands) — 'Catfish Capital of the Universe' by act of the Louisiana legislature. Spuddy's or a roadside shack — wild-caught, thin-fried. [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor) - **Fort Pike & the Rigolets** (New Orleans East) — An 1820s brick fort guarding the back door to Lake Pontchartrain — the moody, marshy way out of New Orleans that I-10 drivers never see. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast) - **Ohr-O'Keefe Museum** (Biloxi) — Frank Gehry pavilions under the oaks for George Ohr, the self-declared 'Mad Potter of Biloxi,' whose wild pots America only appreciated fifty years too late. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast) - **Pascagoula Abduction Marker** (Pascagoula) — In 1973, two fishermen reported being floated aboard a craft by clawed beings — one of the most documented UFO cases ever. The city put up a historical marker in 2019. The river already had legends; it sings, after all. [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast) ## Practical planning Budget an average of about 150 miles per day across the whole trip, or roughly 3.3–5.0 hours behind the wheel at an assumed 30–45 mph back-roads pace. This is a planning estimate, not a measured time for each leg: transfer days can be longer and rest days shorter. Add meal stops, tours, ferries, traffic and hikes separately; use each day's navigation link for current driving estimates. ### Overnight bases - Day 1: Nashville trinity - Day 2: → Memphis - Day 3: near Clarksdale, MS - Day 4: → Natchez via Bentonia - Day 5: → New Orleans via Teddy's - Day 6: near Gulf Shores, AL ### Best season & route notes - [The Blues Highway](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/blues-61): Summer is an anvil; October is perfect. - [River Road & the Felicianas](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/river-road): Whitney requires timed tickets; do it first and the rest of the road reads differently. - [Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/cajun-corridor): Hurricane-season summer is steamy — festival season (spring/fall) is the move. - [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast): The Fort Morgan–Dauphin Island car ferry (about 40 minutes, dolphins likely) turns the two beach spurs into a loop — check the schedule, it bends to weather. - [US 90: The Creole Coast](https://dixieroadtrip.com/routes/us90-coast): June through November is hurricane season — the coast shrugs, but watch forecasts. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many days and miles is The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run? The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run is a 6-day trip of about 900 miles. ### Where does The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run start? It starts in Nashville. ### Which routes does The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run chain together? It chains The Blues Highway, River Road & the Felicianas, Bayou Teche & the Cajun Prairie and US 90: The Creole Coast. ### Where are the overnight bases on The Red Dirt Roadhouse Run? Day 1: Nashville trinity; Day 2: → Memphis; Day 3: near Clarksdale, MS; Day 4: → Natchez via Bentonia; Day 5: → New Orleans via Teddy's; Day 6: near Gulf Shores, AL. ## Related itineraries - [Delta 101](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/delta-101) — 3 days, ~420 mi - [The Natchez Trace, End to End](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/trace-end-to-end) — 5 days, ~720 mi - [The Trace & the Delta Loop](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/trace-delta-week) — 7 days, ~1000 mi - [The Gulf Crawl](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/gulf-crawl) — 6 days, ~480 mi - [The Civil Rights Pilgrimage](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/civilrights-week) — 7 days, ~900 mi - [The Old Spanish Trail: Full US 90](https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/old-spanish-trail) — 8 days, ~1000 mi --- Canonical URL: https://dixieroadtrip.com/trips/red-dirt-run Publisher: Dixie Media (Dixie Road Trip, https://dixieroadtrip.com/) Last updated: 2026-10-04