First stop in Louisiana was the Welcome Centre. The guy here was very helpful explaining to us (namely me the navigator) exactly how to get to the Bayou Segnette State Park – only he was one road out so the designated driver had to take control and get us the final couple of miles. Inter state 55 into New Orleans is amazing. It consists of two two lane bridges extending for about 20 miles over swamps, bayous and Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina apparently took these roads out by removing the highway portion but the “legs” were unscathed so the tops were rebuilt and the road was back in use.
We were very close to a little town called Westwego so hopped on the bike and went to check out the museum, part of which was the old Fisherman’s Exchange. This has been left as it was when the doors closed some ten odd years ago. There were lots of interesting little knick knacks in there. We were the only visitors and the lady was so enthusiastic explaining all the exhibits to us along with snippets of local gossip. It reminded me of the lady who runs a little museum back home in Katikati. There was nothing much else to see in town so we headed back to camp. Me for a bike ride, Marty to clean and polish the camper. (Just joking).
On my ride I passed a tree with two turkeys buzzards perched on the top. An adult and a juvenile. As I approached the adult stood up, spread its wings and slowly turned as if to say to me “Bugger off this is our space”. It looked awesome and made me wish I bought my camera along.
Our first full day in new Orleans started with the sound of rain on the roof so we just rolled over and went back to sleep. By tenish it had cleared so we jumped on the bike and headed into the
city and the famous French Quarter. It was an easy 20 minute ride and we had no trouble finding a park for the bike. We spent the day walking along Bourbon Street and other lesser known streets in the French Quarter checking out the shops and bars. We even got really civilized and went into several art galleries. Saw lots of paintings I liked but none my wallet would support. I fell in love with “The Blue Dog”. He is a dog made famous by a local artist and is 
depicted in all sorts of different scenarios. For $3000 I could have had a print. Instead I bought a diary that has about 20 different pictures and cost a fraction of the price. The lovely lady in the gallery also gave us a small Blue Dog pin each so I was happy – and Marty was relieved. I think he thought I was going to become an art collector.
We did the coffee and beignets thing (several times) at Café Du Monde. To the peasants among you a beignet is like a cross between a donut and a chocolate éclair. No cream filling but covered and I mean covered in icing sugar. Lunch time saw us trying Jambalaya and Gumbo. Loved the Gumbo but thought the jambalaya was like rice risotto and no big deal.
To end the day we went to Mulatés Restaurant for tea. They serve Cajun cuisine and have Cajun music. Marty, not being as adventurous as me had Gumbo again. I had Alligator and it was delicious. The trip home was a bit nerve racking as I, being navigator overruled Marty when he wanted to turn onto another freeway. A spooky thing to do at night when my track record for getting lost is so high, but it turned out ok and we got back to the park just before they shut the main gate.
Day two and a big day on the American calendar. Halloween and what better place to spend it than down town New Orleans. Marty is still in his no drinking phase but not me so I made the most of it and ducked in and out of the Daiquiris getting myself all sorts of weird and wonderful drinks. You can walk the streets drinking so there was always a bar to pop into when my glass was empty. There was a street parade about 7pm and the effort people put into their costumes was quite something. And there was definitely a party atmosphere. We had a great night. I even had my Tarot cards read. Afterwards I thought “what a load of bull and what a waste of $20. Marty just gave me that I told you so look and steered me away from the Daiquiris’ bar I had spotted. He was getting a bit worried that I might not be capable of staying on the back of the bike for the trip home.
We left New Orleans the next day with me doing the driving due to some comment I had made days earlier. Being driver meant that I was in charge of dumping. Not a problem except that when I got there another camper pulled up and put me under pressure and consequently it took me twice as long to hook things up and the faster I tried to go the worse I became. Why males just have to sit and stare at a female doing this task is beyond me. Haven’t they got a magazine to read or something?? I had an easy drive to Breaux Bridge – straight road, no hills and very little traffic. My only close call was when I pulled into a parking space on the main street and nearly hit the sidewalk covering with the cab over on the van. I had forgotten all about having that but a sudden squawk and other reflex actions Marty soon refreshed my memory before contact was made. Driving duties were relinquished at this point. Spent the night in a disused Wal - Mart car park, leaving the next morning for a little town called Abbeville where I had booked us into a small RV park for a couple of days. Marty neglected to load our pet block when we left so we arrived there with no front step. We both felt the loss as the block has done most all of the journey with us.
We stopped at the tourist info in Lafayette and discovered that there was a Black Pot Festival on there at the weekend which would feature lots of Cajun bands and food so that sounded pretty good to us. There was also a free concert in town that night. We then discovered that Abbeville was 22 miles away which was going to mean lots of traveling to and fro and began to consider changing our camp site to somewhere closer to Lafayette.
Fate has a way of intervening sometimes.
We pulled into Betty’s RV Park and got our allotted slot. We told Betty we would only be staying for a night as we wanted something closer to Lafayette and the action.
She told us we would be disappointed if we did that because there was much more happening in Abbeville and Lafayette wasn’t that far away if we really felt the need to go there. We said we’d sleep on it. Had a look around Abbeville that afternoon and learnt more about the big omelet festival that was on over the weekend. That did sound like fun. We went to our first happy hour at the camp that night and met some of the other campers. They were a lovely bunch of people who also thought we should stay longer.
Happy hour made us late for the concert in town. We arrived in time to hear the last three songs!!
We never did make it to the Black Pot Festival; instead we spent Saturday afternoon at a local bar called Touchets (Two Checks), listening to a Cajun jam session. It was fantastic. Me who never dances was almost ready to take to the floor without the aid of a bevy or ten. Ron and Judy were the only campers brave enough to take to the floor with the locals. We were made to feel very welcome there and it was hard to believe that 5 hours could go by so quickly. I met a lovely lady there by the name of Myrtle. She was in her 80’s and her husband played rhythm guitar. She loved to dance. (As does everyone here). It was hard case to see her, immaculately dressed high heels and all, dancing with a guy in denim shorts and sneakers. But as we discovered it’s all about the food, music and having fun. Speaking of food,
and believe me it is a big topic here, Calvin the bar owner puts on a free meal (Cajun of course) for all those in the bar. And boy can he cook. There is a sign in the bar advertising a beverage of some kind but it is the message that attracts your attention. It says “2 √’s – Adult Day Care Centre”. I thought it summed the place up perfectly. We sure as heck wouldn’t mind being dropped off there whenever the jammers are in.
The omelet festival was the next event on our calendar. I believe it has something to do with celebrating the feeding of Napoleons troops. A huge omelet is cooked in the street which is eventually dished out to everyone to try. There were also craft stalls and food stalls to tempt us. The omelet cooking started with a small street parade with a band leading in all the chefs. 5023 eggs were used in the making of the omelet. A band played, the chefs danced and everyone watched with intrigue as the eggs slowly transformed into an omelet. Once the master chef had given the ok, it was declared cooked and ready to be eaten. We thought there would not be enough to feed the thousands there but in fact you could have seconds if you wanted. It was delicious. 
We had slept on our dilemma of whether to stay or go and found ourselves booking in for another week. Time to visit some of the other local attractions.
We started with a swamp tour. Marty wasn’t that fussed as we had done the tour in the Everglades but I pulled a brownie point out of the bag so that was that. It was an interesting tour though the cypress swamp on Lake Martin. Our guide tried to catch an alligator but had to let it go before it got him. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of year to see many migrating birds but it was still very interesting and beautiful. There is just something about the quiet beauty of the swamp.
We spent a couple of days in Baton Rouge with a couple we had met at the camp. Baton Rouge is about 90 miles from Abbeville and like the highway into New Orleans we had to go across another long bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin. It was particularly beautiful as we crossed an area known as the Henderson Swamp. Les and Janelle spoilt us rotten and fed us till we were ready to burst. They took us into the city which included visits to the old and new Capitol buildings. The old one has a beautiful staircase and huge coloured dome and is used as a museum. It did have a wonderful Blue Dog painting in it so I guess some Senators had good art taste. 
We took the elevator up to the 24th floor in the new Capitol building and were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. All this activity had made everyone hungry so it was back home for Gumbo, fresh bread and more. We had to leave before we could no longer fit into our jeans.
A contributing factor to us staying had been the opportunity to go and see Taj Mahal in concert. (He is not a building in India but a blues musician). We weren’t disappointed. Well actually we
were because he didn’t play our favourite song but that was a small detail we were able to overlook. Marty got a signed T Shirt and CD so he left a very happy camper. Discovered that he has children living in NZ and will be touring March/ April 08 so maybe we will get to see him again. The ride home at 2am was cold and foggy but we hardly noticed we were still caught up in the music.
The lateness of the hour in which we crawled into bed meant we didn’t get up in time to go to Breaux Bridge for the Zydeco breakfast but we more that compensated for that by going to
Erath with our fellow campers for another jam session. Les and Janelle came across for it, but had to get a police escort to the venue because they couldn’t find it. When they did eventually arrive they realized it was just across the road from where they had asked directions and been sent miles the other way. We all had a great time and Marty was a hit on the spoons.
After much chewing of the fat we sort of mutually decided to stay here for another week. Meant we could order a set of tyres for the bike on the net (much cheaper) plus partake of more gorgeous food and great music. Not to mention attending the nightly happy hours at the camp. Always good for a laugh.
We have actually done a fair amount of traveling in the camper since we arrived here. Today we moved to our 4th site, which is also the first site we had and the one we like best of all.
We took a ride to Avery Island. The home of Tabasco Sauce. Sampled a few of their wares including Jalapeno Ice cream and Tabasco Soda. Thumbs up for the ice cream and down for the soda. Avery Island is also home to what is known as the Jungle Gardens. These were established by one of the family in conjunction with a plan save the almost extinct Snowy Egret. Thousands of these birds and numerous other water birds now flock here each year to breed. It is an amazing sight apparently. The Island also has it’s own salt mine and oil field both of which have been made to blend into rather than stick out of the landscape. We didn’t tour the gardens as we visited at the wrong time of the year. To appreciate their full beauty you need to go when the azaleas and camellias are in full bloom and of course the birds are there.
Rice is a big cash crop here along with sugarcane. So off to New Iberia we went and a tour of the Konriko Rice Mill. This is America’s oldest working rice mill. Built in the early 1900’s by a local grower to process his crop, he soon found other farmers wanting to use the facility and it has been producing rice products ever since. They are still using cats for rodent control. As the building is on the National Register of Historic Places it doesn’t have to reach today’s rigid health requirements but that also means that they can’t sell some of the by products which other up to
date mills sell for good money. It was very interesting. Marty finally got to see me spend my last brownie point when I got tickets to see another Antebellum home. This one was called Shadow on the Teche and was just around the corner from the rice mill. After Longwood I’m afraid it fell a little flat but is always interesting to see how the wealthy lived. We made it back to camp just in time for happy hour. It doesn’t pay to be late when Wendell is in charge.
Riding the back roads we found a lovely little Cajun grocery store come restaurant. The food was delicious and they are quite proud of the fact that they have had a right up in the New York Times and some other food magazine. Thankfully the fame hasn’t affected them and it remains a true country store.
Betty and Wendell cooked a chicken and sausage Gumbo for everyone one night and it was delicious. During the course of the evening everyone was writing on a list what they would be cooking for the Thanks Giving dinner and doing their best to convince us that we should stay another three days and have Thanks Giving here but we resisted and never put an entry on the list.
We went with Bud and Jan to a Zydeco breakfast one Saturday morning. We arrived there at 7.15pm and there where already people queuing up to get in. We got a table but delayed ordering breaky as the band wasn’t due to start till 8.30 and a note on the wall asked you to vacate your table once eaten so others could enjoy the event. There was no other seating and we didn’t fancy standing for three hours so our delaying tactics worked quite well. After half a dozen songs we decided weren’t for us so we headed home via the Wal Mart car park to retrieve our block that was sitting exactly where Marty left it. Great we have our step back again.
We made our last visit to 2 √’s last Saturday and are almost considered local. The music and food were great as per usual. Marty played the spoons and I was even caught tapping in time to the music. I think I have finally found my musical niche. If only I could get a washboard………..
Our last happy hour with The Gang was a lot of fun. Wendell had made another jug of margaritas and I seemed to be only one consuming it. Threats were being made to block our camper in with various large vehicles so we couldn’t leave but when I awoke this morning from my margarita induced sleep there were no such obstacles in place.
Our time in Louisiana has come to an end. It has been great fun but we have to move on and see what Texas has to offer.
We were very close to a little town called Westwego so hopped on the bike and went to check out the museum, part of which was the old Fisherman’s Exchange. This has been left as it was when the doors closed some ten odd years ago. There were lots of interesting little knick knacks in there. We were the only visitors and the lady was so enthusiastic explaining all the exhibits to us along with snippets of local gossip. It reminded me of the lady who runs a little museum back home in Katikati. There was nothing much else to see in town so we headed back to camp. Me for a bike ride, Marty to clean and polish the camper. (Just joking).
On my ride I passed a tree with two turkeys buzzards perched on the top. An adult and a juvenile. As I approached the adult stood up, spread its wings and slowly turned as if to say to me “Bugger off this is our space”. It looked awesome and made me wish I bought my camera along.
Our first full day in new Orleans started with the sound of rain on the roof so we just rolled over and went back to sleep. By tenish it had cleared so we jumped on the bike and headed into the
city and the famous French Quarter. It was an easy 20 minute ride and we had no trouble finding a park for the bike. We spent the day walking along Bourbon Street and other lesser known streets in the French Quarter checking out the shops and bars. We even got really civilized and went into several art galleries. Saw lots of paintings I liked but none my wallet would support. I fell in love with “The Blue Dog”. He is a dog made famous by a local artist and is 
depicted in all sorts of different scenarios. For $3000 I could have had a print. Instead I bought a diary that has about 20 different pictures and cost a fraction of the price. The lovely lady in the gallery also gave us a small Blue Dog pin each so I was happy – and Marty was relieved. I think he thought I was going to become an art collector.
We did the coffee and beignets thing (several times) at Café Du Monde. To the peasants among you a beignet is like a cross between a donut and a chocolate éclair. No cream filling but covered and I mean covered in icing sugar. Lunch time saw us trying Jambalaya and Gumbo. Loved the Gumbo but thought the jambalaya was like rice risotto and no big deal.To end the day we went to Mulatés Restaurant for tea. They serve Cajun cuisine and have Cajun music. Marty, not being as adventurous as me had Gumbo again. I had Alligator and it was delicious. The trip home was a bit nerve racking as I, being navigator overruled Marty when he wanted to turn onto another freeway. A spooky thing to do at night when my track record for getting lost is so high, but it turned out ok and we got back to the park just before they shut the main gate.
Day two and a big day on the American calendar. Halloween and what better place to spend it than down town New Orleans. Marty is still in his no drinking phase but not me so I made the most of it and ducked in and out of the Daiquiris getting myself all sorts of weird and wonderful drinks. You can walk the streets drinking so there was always a bar to pop into when my glass was empty. There was a street parade about 7pm and the effort people put into their costumes was quite something. And there was definitely a party atmosphere. We had a great night. I even had my Tarot cards read. Afterwards I thought “what a load of bull and what a waste of $20. Marty just gave me that I told you so look and steered me away from the Daiquiris’ bar I had spotted. He was getting a bit worried that I might not be capable of staying on the back of the bike for the trip home.
We left New Orleans the next day with me doing the driving due to some comment I had made days earlier. Being driver meant that I was in charge of dumping. Not a problem except that when I got there another camper pulled up and put me under pressure and consequently it took me twice as long to hook things up and the faster I tried to go the worse I became. Why males just have to sit and stare at a female doing this task is beyond me. Haven’t they got a magazine to read or something?? I had an easy drive to Breaux Bridge – straight road, no hills and very little traffic. My only close call was when I pulled into a parking space on the main street and nearly hit the sidewalk covering with the cab over on the van. I had forgotten all about having that but a sudden squawk and other reflex actions Marty soon refreshed my memory before contact was made. Driving duties were relinquished at this point. Spent the night in a disused Wal - Mart car park, leaving the next morning for a little town called Abbeville where I had booked us into a small RV park for a couple of days. Marty neglected to load our pet block when we left so we arrived there with no front step. We both felt the loss as the block has done most all of the journey with us.We stopped at the tourist info in Lafayette and discovered that there was a Black Pot Festival on there at the weekend which would feature lots of Cajun bands and food so that sounded pretty good to us. There was also a free concert in town that night. We then discovered that Abbeville was 22 miles away which was going to mean lots of traveling to and fro and began to consider changing our camp site to somewhere closer to Lafayette.
Fate has a way of intervening sometimes.
We pulled into Betty’s RV Park and got our allotted slot. We told Betty we would only be staying for a night as we wanted something closer to Lafayette and the action.
She told us we would be disappointed if we did that because there was much more happening in Abbeville and Lafayette wasn’t that far away if we really felt the need to go there. We said we’d sleep on it. Had a look around Abbeville that afternoon and learnt more about the big omelet festival that was on over the weekend. That did sound like fun. We went to our first happy hour at the camp that night and met some of the other campers. They were a lovely bunch of people who also thought we should stay longer.Happy hour made us late for the concert in town. We arrived in time to hear the last three songs!!
We never did make it to the Black Pot Festival; instead we spent Saturday afternoon at a local bar called Touchets (Two Checks), listening to a Cajun jam session. It was fantastic. Me who never dances was almost ready to take to the floor without the aid of a bevy or ten. Ron and Judy were the only campers brave enough to take to the floor with the locals. We were made to feel very welcome there and it was hard to believe that 5 hours could go by so quickly. I met a lovely lady there by the name of Myrtle. She was in her 80’s and her husband played rhythm guitar. She loved to dance. (As does everyone here). It was hard case to see her, immaculately dressed high heels and all, dancing with a guy in denim shorts and sneakers. But as we discovered it’s all about the food, music and having fun. Speaking of food,
and believe me it is a big topic here, Calvin the bar owner puts on a free meal (Cajun of course) for all those in the bar. And boy can he cook. There is a sign in the bar advertising a beverage of some kind but it is the message that attracts your attention. It says “2 √’s – Adult Day Care Centre”. I thought it summed the place up perfectly. We sure as heck wouldn’t mind being dropped off there whenever the jammers are in.
The omelet festival was the next event on our calendar. I believe it has something to do with celebrating the feeding of Napoleons troops. A huge omelet is cooked in the street which is eventually dished out to everyone to try. There were also craft stalls and food stalls to tempt us. The omelet cooking started with a small street parade with a band leading in all the chefs. 5023 eggs were used in the making of the omelet. A band played, the chefs danced and everyone watched with intrigue as the eggs slowly transformed into an omelet. Once the master chef had given the ok, it was declared cooked and ready to be eaten. We thought there would not be enough to feed the thousands there but in fact you could have seconds if you wanted. It was delicious. 
We had slept on our dilemma of whether to stay or go and found ourselves booking in for another week. Time to visit some of the other local attractions.
We started with a swamp tour. Marty wasn’t that fussed as we had done the tour in the Everglades but I pulled a brownie point out of the bag so that was that. It was an interesting tour though the cypress swamp on Lake Martin. Our guide tried to catch an alligator but had to let it go before it got him. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of year to see many migrating birds but it was still very interesting and beautiful. There is just something about the quiet beauty of the swamp.
We spent a couple of days in Baton Rouge with a couple we had met at the camp. Baton Rouge is about 90 miles from Abbeville and like the highway into New Orleans we had to go across another long bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin. It was particularly beautiful as we crossed an area known as the Henderson Swamp. Les and Janelle spoilt us rotten and fed us till we were ready to burst. They took us into the city which included visits to the old and new Capitol buildings. The old one has a beautiful staircase and huge coloured dome and is used as a museum. It did have a wonderful Blue Dog painting in it so I guess some Senators had good art taste. 
We took the elevator up to the 24th floor in the new Capitol building and were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. All this activity had made everyone hungry so it was back home for Gumbo, fresh bread and more. We had to leave before we could no longer fit into our jeans.A contributing factor to us staying had been the opportunity to go and see Taj Mahal in concert. (He is not a building in India but a blues musician). We weren’t disappointed. Well actually we
were because he didn’t play our favourite song but that was a small detail we were able to overlook. Marty got a signed T Shirt and CD so he left a very happy camper. Discovered that he has children living in NZ and will be touring March/ April 08 so maybe we will get to see him again. The ride home at 2am was cold and foggy but we hardly noticed we were still caught up in the music.The lateness of the hour in which we crawled into bed meant we didn’t get up in time to go to Breaux Bridge for the Zydeco breakfast but we more that compensated for that by going to
Erath with our fellow campers for another jam session. Les and Janelle came across for it, but had to get a police escort to the venue because they couldn’t find it. When they did eventually arrive they realized it was just across the road from where they had asked directions and been sent miles the other way. We all had a great time and Marty was a hit on the spoons.After much chewing of the fat we sort of mutually decided to stay here for another week. Meant we could order a set of tyres for the bike on the net (much cheaper) plus partake of more gorgeous food and great music. Not to mention attending the nightly happy hours at the camp. Always good for a laugh.
We have actually done a fair amount of traveling in the camper since we arrived here. Today we moved to our 4th site, which is also the first site we had and the one we like best of all.
We took a ride to Avery Island. The home of Tabasco Sauce. Sampled a few of their wares including Jalapeno Ice cream and Tabasco Soda. Thumbs up for the ice cream and down for the soda. Avery Island is also home to what is known as the Jungle Gardens. These were established by one of the family in conjunction with a plan save the almost extinct Snowy Egret. Thousands of these birds and numerous other water birds now flock here each year to breed. It is an amazing sight apparently. The Island also has it’s own salt mine and oil field both of which have been made to blend into rather than stick out of the landscape. We didn’t tour the gardens as we visited at the wrong time of the year. To appreciate their full beauty you need to go when the azaleas and camellias are in full bloom and of course the birds are there.Rice is a big cash crop here along with sugarcane. So off to New Iberia we went and a tour of the Konriko Rice Mill. This is America’s oldest working rice mill. Built in the early 1900’s by a local grower to process his crop, he soon found other farmers wanting to use the facility and it has been producing rice products ever since. They are still using cats for rodent control. As the building is on the National Register of Historic Places it doesn’t have to reach today’s rigid health requirements but that also means that they can’t sell some of the by products which other up to
date mills sell for good money. It was very interesting. Marty finally got to see me spend my last brownie point when I got tickets to see another Antebellum home. This one was called Shadow on the Teche and was just around the corner from the rice mill. After Longwood I’m afraid it fell a little flat but is always interesting to see how the wealthy lived. We made it back to camp just in time for happy hour. It doesn’t pay to be late when Wendell is in charge.
Riding the back roads we found a lovely little Cajun grocery store come restaurant. The food was delicious and they are quite proud of the fact that they have had a right up in the New York Times and some other food magazine. Thankfully the fame hasn’t affected them and it remains a true country store.
Betty and Wendell cooked a chicken and sausage Gumbo for everyone one night and it was delicious. During the course of the evening everyone was writing on a list what they would be cooking for the Thanks Giving dinner and doing their best to convince us that we should stay another three days and have Thanks Giving here but we resisted and never put an entry on the list.We went with Bud and Jan to a Zydeco breakfast one Saturday morning. We arrived there at 7.15pm and there where already people queuing up to get in. We got a table but delayed ordering breaky as the band wasn’t due to start till 8.30 and a note on the wall asked you to vacate your table once eaten so others could enjoy the event. There was no other seating and we didn’t fancy standing for three hours so our delaying tactics worked quite well. After half a dozen songs we decided weren’t for us so we headed home via the Wal Mart car park to retrieve our block that was sitting exactly where Marty left it. Great we have our step back again.
We made our last visit to 2 √’s last Saturday and are almost considered local. The music and food were great as per usual. Marty played the spoons and I was even caught tapping in time to the music. I think I have finally found my musical niche. If only I could get a washboard………..
Our last happy hour with The Gang was a lot of fun. Wendell had made another jug of margaritas and I seemed to be only one consuming it. Threats were being made to block our camper in with various large vehicles so we couldn’t leave but when I awoke this morning from my margarita induced sleep there were no such obstacles in place.Our time in Louisiana has come to an end. It has been great fun but we have to move on and see what Texas has to offer.
