Cajun Country explorations

We made a brief stop in Opelousas on our way to the Lafayette area.  Opelousas is the self-proclaimed Zydeco Capital of the World and the Spice Capital of Louisiana.  Who are we to question those claims?  We drove through the historic downtown, then stopped at Le Vieux village, a collection of authentic and historic buildings from the area.  The old train station housed the Louisiana Orphan Train Museum, which we toured, guided by a nun who's father had been on one of the orphan trains to Louisiana.  Although we knew about the orphan trains, we didn't realize those children, who were not all orphans, were distributed to almost all the states between 1854 and 1929.  

We skirted into and out of Lafayette (should have avoided it entirely, but once again, I got us lost!), and found our RV park on the outskirts of Breaux Bridge.  This town was initially established in 1829 along the Bayou Teche.  Its name originates from the Breaux family who built the original bridge(s) across the Bayou.  The Louisiana legislature officially designated Breaux Bridge as the "Crawfish Capital of the World."   It is said that crawfish étouffée was originally created in this little town.

After exploring Breaux Bridge, we drove south to St. Martinville, which was settled in 1765 and incorporated in 1817.  It is noted as 'the birthplace of Acadiana" and was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1897 poem "Evangeline".  Neither of us ever remember having read nor heard of it.  Regardless, we stopped at the Longfellow-Evangline State Historic Site which had a lovely interpretive center that explained the history of the Acadians, their expulsion from Nova Scotia (by the Brits) in 1755 and their subsequent arrival in what was French Louisiana in the late 1700's.  The park also contained the Olivier Plantation Home,  built in 1815, which was nicely restored and furnished with period pieces.  

The town of St. Martinville has a lovely town square in which the church of St. Martins de Tours dominates.  There are several historic old buildings that line the streets surrounding the square.  It also hosts a lovely old oak tree called the Longfellow Evangeline tree along the BayouTeche. We decided to have lunch here and enjoyed crawfish étouffée with grilled catfish and shrimp gumbo - all of which was delicious.   

On Sunday, we drove south through Lafayette to Avery Island in order to visit the Tabasco Factory.  We spent about 3 hours there, touring their museum, the factory and the "Jungle", a lovely garden area created by the McIlhenry family many years ago.  As it was Sunday, the factory wasn't working, but we learned much about their process of making their famous hot sauce.  On our Jungle tour, we got to see alligators, lots of snowy egrets, bamboo, beautiful, huge cypress trees with their lovely Spanish moss and lots of camelias in bloom and some azaleas in bloom.  We missed (??) seeing any bears or cougars, which was just fine since the dogs were allowed to walk with us.  We kept them on a short leash and far away from the lagoons with alligators.  We enjoyed lunch at Tabasco's cafe - and sampled several sauces new to us, before buying a couple of bottles of sauce and heading back to Breaux Bridge via the back roads again.  We drove through New Iberia that had quite a lovely historic downtown area and an antebellum mansion (closed on Sunday), providing a scenic exit to the area.    A nice day along the bayou - again.  

We ended our bayou visit with a stay outside Baton Rouge.  The weather turned bad and it was pouring rain when we drove through the capital city.  Aside from quick stops at Louisiana's only Trader Joe's store and a Costco stop, we decided to skip a visit to Baton Rouge.  We went directly to a KOA campground in Denham Springs, about 8 miles east of Baton Rouge - just in time to hear about potential tornado weather predicted for the next day, February 23rd.  

On that Tuesday, we listened to the heavy rain and NPR when the weather service listed Denham Springs as being part of a tornado warning. We packed up all our electronics, a can of dog food and a single bottle of water ('duh' in hindsight), leashed up the dogs and headed towards the KOA office.  Along with two other couples, we waited out the storm, grateful when the storm passed without an actual tornado touching down in our immediate area. Later in the day, however, we learned that a tornado did touch down in a trailer/RV park and killed at least two people.  The evening news confirmed that 9 tornadoes touched down around several areas that day.  

Once again, we were grateful to have been spared.  It was interesting that we determined our  electronic devices and the dogs were the most important things we wanted to save.  We didn't bother with bringing any clothes, thinking if there was a disaster, the Salvation Army or Red Cross would help us out.  (Isn't that why we send them periodic donations?) It was a helpless feeling, knowing that Tiny Tin, our 'home', could have easily been destroyed - and I'm convinced that the KOA office would not have offered sufficient shelter for anyone had a twister touched down there.  We were shocked, too, that this area didn't have any sirens to alert folks about tornado warnings, but perhaps that's old technology these days?  We did learn, however, that our cell phone issued an alert and advised evacuation.   As Luddites, we didn't know it would do that!

We're now in New Orleans, getting ready to see the 'Big Easy', post Katrina.  

Opelusas' Hall of Fame

 Opelusas' Orphan Train Museum

 Opelusas' LeVieux Village

 The bridge in Breaux Bridge

 Historic Downtown Breaux Bridge

 Mansion in Breaux Bridge

 St. Bernard's Catholic Church - Breaux Bridge

 Olivier Plantation - St. Martinville

 Longfellow - Evangeline Oak - in St. Martinville

 St. Martin de Tours - St. Martinville

 Historic downtown St. Martinville

 The Tabasco Factory - Avery Island

 Tabasco Art (ala Warhol?)

 Tabasco Art - outsize bottles of hot sauces

 Alligator at Tabasco's Jungle Garden

 Snowy Egret and turtles at Tabasco's Jungle Gardens

 Snowy egrets - Tabasco's Jungle Gardens

Bon Temps in Louisiana!

One of our strategies on this adventure is to use the internet to find possible destinations to figure out where we should visit, and things to do and/or eat.  Thanks to Google, we discovered the small town of Natchitoches near the center of Louisiana.  Contrary to our guess, the town is pronounced "nack-a-tish", although we occasionally heard it pronounced "nack-a-tosh". Anyway, the moment we drove into it's historic downtown, we both said, "Wow!"  It was nothing less than charming and beautiful.  

Natchitoches is touted as the oldest city in Louisiana, part of a French colony founded in 1714.  We also learned the town was the setting for the movie "Steel Magnolias".  It is situated  along the banks of the Cane River and Lake.  When the city  was founded, it was on the banks of the Red River, however, in the 1830's, there was a massive log jam which made the river un-navigable.  A flood occurred during this time and caused the Red River to change its course, leaving a 36 mile-long oxbow lake now called the Cane River. This isolation from the newly navigable Red River apparently helped to preserve the charm and diverse culture of the old city of Natchitoches.  

We enjoyed exploring the historic downtown and tried out the meat pies for which Nachitoches is famous and other Southern food (crawfish etouffe, red beans & rice).  We even shopped a tiny bit during a major storm that presented thunder, lightening and heavy rain that lasted about an hour. (nothing like ducking into a shop during the rain and feeling obligated to buy something!)  My favorite shop was the Kaffie-Frederick store, a hardware or general store that is also touted as the oldest in Louisiana.  Hardware and grocery stores are always our favorite places to shop!

We meandered around the town, seeing some of the lovely old homes - including a couple used in the movie.  Many of the larger historic homes are operating as B&B's.  We also made a quick stop at the American Cemetery, which is - you guessed it - the oldest in Louisiana.  We spent another day driving down the Cane River road to see several old plantations, although only three were open to the public.  The Oakland and Magnolia Plantations are actually part of the Creole National Historical Park and the Melrose Plantation is privately operated by the local historical society.   We also stopped at the St. Augustine Catholic Church.  The Melrose Plantation and St. Augustine's were both founded by 'persons of color', i.e. the children of slave Marie Therese Coincoin.  Ms. Coincoin had 14 children, 10 of whom were African-French blood.  She and several of her children were later sold to Thomas Pierre Metoyer who later freed her and her children.  She and her sons later received several land grants and one of her sons built the Melrose plantation and St. Augustine's church, which was the first Catholic church in the USA built by and for 'people of color'.  

We had mixed feelings about touring the plantations - the history of slavery in our country is so horrible and shameful, but it is our history.  We sometimes felt the ghosts of the past as we walked around these properties, especially when Jim reminded me that Cliven Bundy was noted to have suggested that African-Americans were "..better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things.." a frightening suggestion for most of us.  


We have been struck by the open and welcome friendliness of virtually everyone we've met since our arrival in Louisiana.  They're curious, friendly and quite chatty!  In less than 5 minutes after arriving at our Natchitoches RV park, we knew our immediate neighbor, John, his occupation and where he worked and who our other neighbors were, who the RV park owner was and then gave us several recommendations on where to eat!  

Next off to Breaux Bridge, in the heart of Cajun country.

The Rocque House - on the banks of the Cane River

A view of downtown Natchitoches from the Cane River

A side street downtown Natchitoches

The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Trinity Episcopal church

The Laysone Cafe (famous for meat pies)

The Kaffie-Frederick hardware/general store

Beau Jardin - along the river

Front Street (the main downtown street)

Front Street

A view of Front Street from the south

The Taylor House (used as a location in Steel Magnolias - now a B&B)

Old oak trees with 'resurrection ferns' on them at the Oakland Plantation

Interior of the Oakland Plantation store - opened after the Civil War for sharecroppers (former slaves)

Sharecropper's home at the Oakland Plantation

St. Augustine's Catholic church on Isle Breville

African House - on Melrose Plantation

Yucca House - first structure built on Melrose Plantation

The Main House - Melrose Plantation

HUGE Live Oak in front of Melrose Plantation

Farewell/Adios to Texas!

We spent 3 nights parked near the beach at Galveston Island State Park.  It was very windy on our first day, but the weather improved, giving us warm days and cool evenings.  We walked on the beach several times a day allowing Fergus the chance to play ball.  The water was too cold to enter and we were a bit dismayed with the warning sign about snakes in the sand dunes - but otherwise, it was a lovely beach and campground.  We were walking distance to a little gas station/grocery store and enjoyed the stroll to get a daily newspaper.  It was a very relaxing time until the day before we departed.  We forgot to go through our check-list and started to drive out of the park without unplugging our water and electric connections.  The water connection to the RV broke but fortunately, our electric cord was undamaged.  We lucked out and called a nearby Winnebago dealer who had a part that would fit.  The dealer's service department not only sold us the part, but squeezed us into their busy schedule and installed it - saving us lots of grief and time.  Aren't we lucky!  

As it was the Friday of the 3-day President's Day weekend and we had no reservations, we drove to Beaumont, TX, which is not a destination city.  On our way to Beaumont, we stopped at the fairgrounds in Liberty for a break and discovered it had been the site of a German POW camp during WWII.  It had housed about 800 German soldiers (Rommel's desert troops) who the local farmers used to help plant and harvest their rice crops.  It was an interesting discovery in the middle of no where.

In Beaumont, we found a rustic RV park and decided to camp there for 2 nights before heading to Louisiana.  We explored downtown Beaumont, which is along a river and had some nice old buildings with interesting architecture, however, the downtown was strangely empty with virtually no activity.  After a few efforts (I continued to take the wrong exits and/or directions trying to find our way around the town), we found the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center.  It was sort of a sad, out-dated little museum that apparently sees few, if any visitors.  It served as an anti-climatic 'farewell' to Texas.  We were, however, amazed with the abundance of donut shops that popped up in this whole area of Texas. There were almost as many donut shops as Baptist churches! 

Overall, we enjoyed our travels through Texas, with the highlights being Big Bend National Park, Fredericksburg and the Hill Country, our visit with friends and Galveston Island.    On to Louisiana!  

Photos include a "moonrise" courtesy of a neighbor RV'er; a mansion along the beachside of Galveston Island; sunrise photos on the beach; our Tiny Tin parked and the museum in Beaumont.  

Out of the desert!

While we thoroughly enjoyed traveling through the deserts in California, Arizona, New Mexico and southwest Texas, we were ready to get back to green grass and less dust.  The desert is such a diverse and strangely beautiful environment.  We were extremely grateful the snakes and tarantulas were not around and that it wasn't hot this time of year.  

We selected Fredericksburg (FBG) as our next destination.  FBG is a small town settled by German pioneers in 1846.  It is in the heart of Texas hill and wine country.  There were more than 185 wineries in the vicinity of FBG, although sadly we skipped wine tasting/winery touring.  FBG is a popular tourist destination with lots of shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, art galleries, etc.  We chose, however, to spend most of our time visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Museum.  We'd both recently read the book, "Unbroken" so seeing this museum was timely.  It's an excellent museum and the entrance ticket was good for 48 hours - allowing visitors to spend up to 16 hours touring it.  War is horrible - no question about it.  

After our stay in Fredericksburg, we drove to Luckenbach, home to a population of 3. Luckenbach, made famous by a song by Waylon Jennings has only an old store/post office/bar and dance barn, but it was fun to see.  I was even serenaded whilst snapping photos in the bar!  Luckenbach still hosts dances and musicians on a regular basis.

We spent several hours touring the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch, which is now a State and National Park.  While not initially on our list of places to see, we were glad we made the visit.  The still-functioning ranch, which includes LBJ's residence - the Texas White House-  is set along the Pedernales River in the beautiful hills of Texas. It was an interesting and informative visit - reminding us of some of the good things LBJ was able to accomplish while President.  

We next visited Georgetown (GT), home of Southwestern University.  GT has a wonderfully preserved historic downtown and was voted as having the "most beautiful town square in Texas".  From Georgetown, we made a stop in Lockhart, the heart of the "best Texas barbecue", according to a few websites.  We ate at Black's BBQ and left disappointed.  We think Olympia's Ranch House BBQ has them beat, hands down.  

On our way to Houston to rendezvous with friends, we went through several small towns, each with beautiful old courthouses & historic downtowns & homes.  We thought the main squares of either Lockhart or Gonzales could easily compete with that of Georgetown as having the most beautiful town square.  

Our combined failure to use our RV's navigation system, smart phone GPS app and Map Quest's poor directions caused us some aggravation as we tried to find our RV park near downtown Houston, but we finally managed.  Our ultimate rendezvous in Houston was with Kalika & Gautam Sinha (and their 2 delightful kids), friends we met in Romania.  Fortunately, Kalika's excellent Indian dinner, along with fun conversation revived us.   Now, on to Galveston Island.  

Photos include 7 from Fredericksburg; 5 from Luckenbach, 2 from LBJ's ranch; 2 from Lockhart followed by 4 from Georgetown.