December 13, 2004

December 13, 2004

New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Louisiana

DAY 179

 

Today started out sunny and warm again, although the evening cooled down quite a bit. It was one of those days where no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't seem to get out on the road early. We pulled out of our camping site early enough, but then it was one stop after another. First we drove across the State Park to the trailer dumping station to dump the holding tanks. Then we drove to a nearby service station that we had noticed last night had a great price on diesel fuel. They were sold out. Yeah, right. I've been in business. It's one of the oldest scams in the retail book. Undercut your competitors by a huge amount ... on product that you don't have in stock ! Then it was a stop at Piggly Wiggly for groceries. Another stop at another gas station for diesel. Lastly, a stop at Wal-Mart, which infuriated me. We waited ten to fifteen minutes at the checkout for a "customer service manager" to come over and "approve" our traveller's cheque. We have cashed a lot of traveller's cheques at a lot of Wal-Marts, and we've never had a delay before. Sometimes you just run into business ineptitude ! Finally ... we were on the road.

Southwest on Hwy. 90 out of New Orleans, and onto Hwy. 3127 following the Mississippi River to the northwest. Quite frequently we saw storks alongside the road. At the town of Vacherie we took Hwy. 20 north a very short distance to Great River Road, running right alongside the Mississippi River Levee. A levee is the raised banks of a river. I guess we would just call it a dyke.

We stopped for just a few minutes in the town of Vacherie to buy stamps when I saw the town's Post Office as we drove by it. I pulled over onto the shoulder, turned on the flashers, and waited while Joanne ran into the Post Office. Within a minute there was a sheriff with flashing lights pulling up alongside me. "Y'all alright ?" Yeah ... fine, thanks. "Well ... what y'all waiting on ?" My wife ... buying stamps. And away he drove ! My first encounter with a southern sheriff.

We wanted to drive on Great River Road along the Mississippi to visit a "Plantation". This stretch of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge was known 150 years ago as "Millionaire's Row". It was all wealthy sugar cane plantations. The cotton plantations were north of Baton Rouge. South of Baton Rouge, to New Orleans, was a bit too wet for cotton, so they grew sugar cane. They still do. We stopped and visited Oak Alley Plantation. What a magnificent place. It has been used in many movies, TV shows, and commercials.

Our first stop at Oak Alley Plantation was the restaurant, for a late lunch. The table we were seated at had a framed photo of the actors Gerald McRaney, and Delta Burke, in her wedding dress, having their wedding dinner at that table. Oh, my ... what a lunch ! Joanne had chicken, ham, and andouille sausage gumbo. I had shrimp gumbo and an oyster po-boy. A po-boy is a sandwich, like a sub, made with a French roll, usually with oyster, shrimp, or soft shell crab. It used to be the "blue collar" lunch of choice for "poor boys". For dessert Joanne had fresh pecan pie, somewhat of a specialty down here. I had Praline Cheesecake. Pralines are another specialty down here. We saw a few places in New Orleans yesterday selling Pralines. They are sort of a fudge like cookie.

After lunch, we walked across the grounds to "The Big House", the home of the plantation owner, his family, and the "house slaves". The "field slaves" lived in a series of outbuildings. We took a guided tour, led by a woman in period costume. After the guided tour, we walked around the grounds some more, sipping on a mint julep. A mint julep is 2 parts bourbon, and 1 part mint syrup, with, of course, a sprig of mint leaves sticking out the top. Quite nice ! Must be a great drink on a hot, humid Louisiana summer day. I can picture "Missy Joanne" walking around sipping on a mint julep, giving gentle orders to the house slaves, mumbling under her breath about how hard it is to get good help.

As I typed the last sentence, Joanne called me to dinner. HUH ? What's this meat and rice

stuff ? "Jambalaya." And what's this vegetable that looks like a cross between peas and lima beans ? "Butter peas." She keeps coming out of the groceries stores down here with stuff that she has absolutely no idea what it is, but it's certainly making our meals interesting.

Anyways, after leaving Oak Alley Plantation, we continued northwest along Great River Road. I noticed a plaque on the side of the road, and read as we passed it something about the site of the first Acadians in Louisiana. Cajun is just a bastardization of the word Acadian. The French Canadian Acadian "refugees" from Nova Scotia are the forefathers of the Louisiana French Cajun culture. We have explained that numerous times during this journey, to Americans, who seem to be totally unaware of that. I stopped, and we got out to look at the plaque. Even more interesting was that we were parked right beside a rural Louisiana graveyard, on the muddy banks of the Mississippi. The big old trees in the graveyard are all dripping with creepy looking Spanish moss. The ground is so soft and swampy that the graves are not dug down. The coffins are placed on the ground, or perhaps in very shallow graves, then enclosed in brick, then concrete is poured over the brick. The graveyard is a collection of these concrete crypts in various states of disrepair, depending on how old they are. On the very old ones, the concrete has completely crumbled. Much of the brick work has crumbled, especially the tops / roofs. You can look down into the tops of these crypts and see nothing but swamp water down below. It's easy to see where Louisiana voodoo culture and mythology comes from.

When we got to Hwy. 70 we once again crossed north over the Mississippi, and followed Hwy. 70 to Interstate 10. We got on I-10 heading northwest towards Baton Rouge. We're camped tonight in a private RV park on the southern outskirts of Baton Rouge.

We finally got to hear what Bo's bark sounds like. He barked when Teddy decided to stick his head underneath Bo's, and share Bo's dish of dog food. It's hard to believe Teddy is that stupid !

DSK