Final Thoughts on Louisiana - Part 1

I love the way the people decorate for Mardi Gras.  They decorate for Mardi Gras just like we decorate for Christmas.  This was over the outside door of a business.

This was over an inside door of Pat's Restaurant.

It is hard to read but under this casino sign is the statement "Gambling Problem" followed by a toll free number to call.  All casinos, billboards, radio advertisements, and television advertisements also contain this statement.  I wonder if anyone gives this statement a thought.    I think the idea behind the statement is to remind the gamblers that there is help for a gambling problem but I doubt many people even notice it.

These two blogs wrap up some random pictures and things I saw on our  trip.  The history, diverse culture, and natural beauty of the state makes Louisiana a wonderful place to visit.  What we have seen and experienced the past two years barely scratched the surface of things to see and do.  Looks like we will have to return to Louisiana!

Final Thoughts on Louisiana - Part 2

While we were in Louisiana, we discovered a local radio station out of Eunice, LA.

It is KBON, 101.1 - All Cajun, All the Time.

We loved the Cajun music.  It also played country music sung by Cajun singers.  One of the songs I really liked was a take off on the Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere."   The change was that instead of singing a list of cities across the U.S., it used cities across Louisiana.

Dinosaurs are coming to Cajun Palms and here is the proof.  The resort owns an adjoining 80 acres and are adding to the activities available to campers.  One of those activities is a Jurassic Park with paved paths through displays of giant dinosaurs.    I am 5 ft 1 inch so you can see how tall one dinosaur is.  In addition to a Jurassic Park, they are building a go cart track and surround it with a lazy river type water ride.   Cajun Palms is quite a place!

Two legs waiting for a body.

This one is already in the park.

Can you see the dinosaur?

A side view of the dinosaur I was standing under.

On the Road Again - Part 1

The spare is doing its job.  Carol doesn't like it that the rim does not match the rest, but, hey, it got us rolling last night. The trailer does have some side panel damage from the tire shredding.  It will probably cost $499.99 (just under the $500 deductible) to replace!  One thing Carol and I have talked about is the fact that we did not see one state policeman patrolling that part of I-55 the four hours we sat there.  This morning before we got on the road, we went to the Walmart across from the motel and spent $150 to replace the space.  Putting it back on the trailer will be a project for Carol when

 We get home.

On the Road Again - Part 2

We woke up in Mississippi and will go to sleep in Illinois.

We crossed into Tennessee at Memphis the home of music legend Elvis Presley.

We crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas. The interstate narrowed down to one lane each side. The southbound had two semis in the mud on the side.  Traffic was not moving. Glad we are going north.  We saw our first snow since we left Illinois.

This will be hard to believe but as we saw Missouri in the distance, we could see the sun was shining.  Sure enough when we crossed the border, the sun was shining in Missouri.   This is true! 

This is the first rest area in Missouri.  it had had snow, too.  The rest area looked brand new.  It had a 1/4 mile, paved path around it.  Sandy and I enjoyed being able to stretch our legs before we finished the trip.

This is the bridge on I-255.  We crossed the Mississippi again.  We crossed it 6 times on this trip.

We crossed into Illinois at 3:45.  We should be home by 6:00.  I still have some pictures and thoughts on this trip and because the IPad causes me such frustration, there will probably be 2 or three more posts.

Goodbye. Hello. Goodbye (Part 2)

Yep!  This is what it looks like.  The trailer had a tire blow out.  We were cruising along I-55 when Carol saw bits of rubber going everywhere in his side mirror.  The time was 4:45 and we were less then 40 miles from the campground.  He pulled off the road and I called our motor club.  They wanted to know where we were located.  After several minutes we were able to figure out an approximate location.  Let this be a lesson to us...always know the last exit we passed.  

It is now 6:30 and we are waiting for the repair truck.  We were told that the truck needed to get us back on the road is at another call so it will probably be until at least 7:30 before they get here.  So it is 6:30, dark, and here we sit.  I did find a motel in Grenada that takes pets so when we get back on the road we are staying in a motel.  I think we are at mile marker 185 so we are just a short distance from the motel.

At 9:00 after several phone call to the motor club and the wrecker service, someone came to change the tire.  I hope we never sit beside an interstate for 4 hours, two of those hours in the dark.  We sat there while semis, pickups, cars, etc. came whizzing by, blowing against the side of the truck and camper.  It was so frustrating to not be able to do anything but sit and wait.  Thankfully, we had a cell phone and Internet so I could find a motel that would allow pets and had truck parking.  We decided early in this situation that we were not going to pull into an unknown state park and try to find a spot in the dark so we are in a motel in Grenada.  Sandy is nervous because she has never experienced a strange room in which to sleep.

Tomorrow, we will get back into the truck and head for home.  Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be uneventiful! 

Goodbye. Hello. Goodbye. Part 1

We were up at 6:00 a.m. To walk Sandy before donuts and coffee with the gang.  

After we ate, Carol and I finished hooking up the camper and then we took pictures and said our goodbyes.  

The gang of nine.

Don and Peggy and Niki

Bill and Ericka Sommers and Jessie

Carol and I and Sandy

The ladies and their girls.  The human ladies got along very well.  The doggie ladies didn't get along as well.  

Those we left behind to enjoy Louisiana.

The twins:  Carolyn and Carol

The whole family

Tim and Carla Gordon (Carolyn's daughter)

Carolyn and her daughter Alana and Carol

Adam (Carla and Tim's son) And Maggie Gordon and Allie and Reese

We got to Carla and Tim's house about 11:00 and left at 2:00.  Carla fixed us a delicious lunch of vegetable soup, chicken salad, cornbread, angel cake and strawberry jello.

After we left their house, we filled up with gas and hit the road, making good time.  Then.....

Our Final Day

Today is our last day at Cajun Palms.  The day was great weatherwise...60's and mostly sunny.  We sat outside in lawn chairs just soaking up the temps and sun before we head north.  We winterized our camper in anticipation of colder temps.  We filled up the gas tank in the truck and did general packing to make it easier to get on the road tomorrow.  At 3:00 we gathered at Don and Peggy's site for dessert before we ate a late supper.  Cherry cheesecake and chocolate pie...delicious...thanks, Peggy.

We all ate here for a final meal together.  Traditionally, we eat supper together the first and last evening we are here (and many in between).

Carol is digging into a plate of fried alligator.  He said it was delicious.  I will take his word for it.  I had a delicious salad with chicken!  

The band was rocking.  This is Lee Benoit and the Cajun Stampers.

The dance floor always had couples dancing to the Cajun band.  I love to watch them dance.  They move so smoothly across the floor.  None of the men in our group would dance so we ladies watched, too.

Not only did Don not want to dance but he felt a snooze would be a better way to spend the time.  We did have a good time laughing, eating, talking.  Tomorrow the sextet will become a quartet.

Road Trip: Crowley, LA - PART 1

CRAWFISH & RICE
The 5 of us (Bill, Ericka, Don, Carol, and I) left at 8:15 a.m. In order to drive to Crawley for a 9:30 agriculture tour.  The tour was at the Crystal Rice Farm where 400 acres of rice and crawfish is grown.  Our guide shared the history of the farm, how rice is grown and processed, and how the crawfish is integrated into the fields and harvested.

A season begins in March when the rice is planted either by crop dusting airplanes or drilled into the fields.  The rice fields are flooded three times during April, May, and June.  In May the rice fields are seeded with thumb sized crawfish, 50-100 pounds per acre.  As the water gets hot on July, the crawfish burrow deep into the clay levees and stay for the rest of the summer and early fall.  In August the fields have dried out and the rice is harvested.  In October, the fields are flooded a final time forcing the crawfish with their babies out of the burrows.  In January and February the crawfish are harvested and then the cycle begins again.

This desplay shows the different kinds of baskets/traps used to catch the crawfish.

These things are ugly, but much loved by the people who live in Louisiana.

Our guide explaining the rotation of crops.

Our guide, Don, Ericka, Bill, and Carol.  The wind was blowing and we were freezing.

A man checking his traps.  He had already harvested seven bags of crawfish that are in the front of the boat.  These flatboats are pushed through the shallow water by the huge wheel in the back.  The man guides the boat with his feet freeing his hands to pull up the traps, empty them, and put traps back into water.  The traps are baited, crawfish crawl in and can't get out.  We were told that water snakes also get into the traps.  Yikes!!  This is a job I will never do.

These egrets also enjoy a meal of crawfish.

The black birds love crawfish, as well.  

The traps can be seen scattered across the rice fields.  Hopefully they are all filled with crawfish and no water snakes!  The blackbirds below also like to feed on the crawfish.  These birds also like to sit in the top of the traps.  A good place to rest after a big meal!

Road Trip: Crawley, LA - PART 2

FORDS, MUSIC, AND FOOD

After the tour the guide told us about a museum in an old Ford Model T dealership building in Crawley and a good place to eat.   The restaurant was great.  The food delicious.  After eating we stopped by the museum which contained several old 1920's and 1930's Fords.  The building was designed by an architect of the Ford Motor Company in 1920.  Also in the building was original recording equipment and musical instruments used in recording sessions from the J.D. Miller Recording Studio.  Many famous people like Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder have recorded at this studio.  We spent about an hour there looking at displays and viewing short movies on rice/crawfish production and the recording studio.  We all thought it was a worthwhile place to visit.

This is the Joppe Courtyard Cafe.  It came highly recommended.  The locals waiting in line to place orders recommended the hamburgers so that is what we all had.

The hamburger was huge!  It was 1 inch thick.  The buns were homemade and soooo good.

This is the Ford Model T Dealership built in 1920 housing the museum.

This is one of several rice mills found along a street named Mill Street.

What an appropriately named street.

I loved the architecture of this building in downtown Crowley.

Road Trip: Eunice, LA

It was a cool night but the low (38 degrees) was warmer than it had been all day on Tuesday.  I heard on the weather that yesterday was the coldest March 4 on record.  Today it got up to 54 degrees and was partly sunny or partly cloudy (depending on your outlook on life).  We took a nice drive to Eunice, LA where the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center is located.  This is a part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Reserve.  This center tells about the culture of the Acadians who settled in the prairies of this part of Louisiana.  We enjoyed a short movie on the history of country-style Mardi Gras.

  Basically each community has their own take on Mardi Gras but they all have roots in medieval France.  Some communities use horses, masks, costumes to "run" the countryside begging for ingredients for a communal gumbo.  Others use wagons.  Almost all end with a parade and a community gumbo with music, music, music.  In medieval France, following the winter when  the peasants were low on food, the people would dress in masks (so no one would know them) and go out into the countryside to beg for the ingredients for a community gumbo.  Eventually, the timing of this Mardi Gras celebration was moved to coincide with Lent.

After touring the displays in the center, we decided to eat in Rubys, a restaurant we had been told about.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we drove to Opelousas to a restaurant we had been told about when we were there last week.  We could not find it.  We found another, Mama's Fried Chicken, but it was a take-out style and we wanted to eat in.  We ended up eating in Breaux Bridge at Crazy About Crawfish.  The food was delicious and the decor was interesting.  We are back at camp relaxing with Sandy.  Tomorrow we are going to Crowley, the Rice Capital of America.  

This mural was painted on the side of a downtown building.  It says "Eunice:  the Gateway to the Great Prairie."

An example of a costume worn at a country Mardi Gras.

Carol is modeling what a man from Central Illinois wears on a Louisiana road trip.

A look at one side of the downtown business district of Eunice.  It looks like a typical Central Illinois small town business district...deserted of businesses.

Rubys Restaurant, where we had wanted to eat lunch.

This is an old house in Opelousas that is being brought back to its original grandeur.

A good place to eat in Breaux Bridge.