December 14, 2004

December 14, 2004

Baton Rouge to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

DAY 180

 

Today was a sunny, calm, cold day. All day we've been listening to people complain about the weather. Apparently tonight is going to be the coldest night in many years here in Louisiana. By the way, that's pronounced "Loo zee ann". We've just finished watching Amazing Race. They kept running weather alerts across the screen, as if some horrible natural disaster was about to strike. FROST WARNING ! ! ! It's going to drop to about 25 degrees tonight < snicker >.

We left Baton Rouge this morning after a brief stop at a Dollar Store, heading west on I-10. We drove about 20 miles on a bridge, crossing over the Atchafalaya Swamp. We are now in an RV Park in Breaux Bridge, just on the eastern outskirts of Lafayette. This is the heart of Cajun Country. This region is known as Acadiana. We are tuned to a Lafayette radio station that plays Cajun music, mostly zydeco. I did not know that there were zydeco Christmas songs.

" Pappy St. Nick is coming down the bayou

with his sachet of toys and a red manteau "

The accent in this area is different than anywhere else, including New Orleans. Here they speak a strange mix of English with a bit of French mixed in, and the last consonant of most words is dropped / silent.

After arriving at this RV Park, and unhitching, we headed into Breaux Bridge for some exploring. We're camped about 6 miles outside of town. The first place we stopped was a specialty butcher / meat market near this RV Park. Poche's Market, Restaurant, & Smokehouse make and / or sell alligator meat, alligator and pork sausage, crawfish sausage, chaurice ( ? ), andouille sausage, boudin ( ? ), duck and chicken sausage, tasso ( ? ), and turducken at $110 a pop ! We wandered around their market, but didn't buy anything today. We will go back to buy some stuff before we leave this area.

We got lost trying to find this RV Park after leaving the Interstate, and we got lost trying to get from the park back into town. The one thing we really notice about Louisiana is really poor directional and road signage. Even in downtown New Orleans. Once we made it to downtown Breaux Bridge, which is where the Breaux Bridge crosses the Bayou Teche, we parked and walked around the old, scenic downtown. It was amusing to us how many of the businesses were closed, with handwritten signage in the windows explaining why. "Gone to Dr. appt., see you tomorrow". "Closed early due to party". "Louisiana Time" seems remarkably similar to "Jamaica Time".

We came back to the trailer by dusk, shortly after 5:00 P.M., where we had a quiet evening. I'm experiencing a bit of a colitis flare-up, and feeling ill as a result. Mr. Colon and Cajun cooking don't seem to get along.

DSK