Louisian Man: Chicot State Park, LA 6/1/08

I skipped the complimentary waffles this morning for my usual cup of yogurt. I figure Cajun’ country is just around the corner and I’m holding out for boudin, bignets, crawfish and other savory delectables. We did one last spin thru Galveston and I have to admit I really enjoyed this populated beach town. (Things I learned: Galveston is the oldest Texas city and the average water temp of the Gulf is 87 deg.) We took the ferry from Galveston to Point Bolivar. It was great to feel the warm breeze, see all the shrimp boats surrounded with birds and watch the hubbub of the port. We drove along the spit and for miles and miles saw sherbet colored houses on stilts and enjoyed the wildlife. At one point, Ned spotted a flying pink flamingo! We stopped at a beautifully arranged fruit stand, selling everything from tropical fruits to hot peppers and green tomatoes. We were blown away by the sweet aroma of the strawberries and peaches. Yep, we had to buy some to add to our papaya, apricot and apples previously purchased. Ironically, we came upon the town of Winnie and had to stop for several photo shoots of the beloved Winniemobile posing near her namesake. We finally crossed into Louisiana and Ned broke out in song, “Louisiana Man.” That boy had been holding out on me!! Who knew he had a Cajun-zydeco song (and several stanzas too) in his repertoire? We spent the next several hours exploring some of the back roads and finally stopped to eat at a local restaurant, Fauste. Ned settled on a crawfish po’boy and I had some tasty chicken-sausage gumbo. It was a wonderfully spicy smoky soup. We took another back road, called the Old Spanish Trail, to our night’s destination of Chicot State Park, in Ville Platte. For most of the time we drove thru flat lands of rice fields and what we guess were crawfish farms (flooded fields with traps). The unexpected beauty of this state park is that the terrain suddenly changes from open fields and flatlands to “pineywoods” (what the locals call it) and hardwood forests. This heavily wooded state park is 6,400 acres situated around a multi-fingered lake. We threw on our bathing suits, hopped on our bikes and headed toward the closest water – the Olympic size pool. It was fairly empty (in fact, this whole park is almost completely empty. There is only one other camper in our section of the campground!). I asked the teenage lifeguard if “the lake was a boating lake or a swimmin’ lake.” He chuckled and said, “You definitely don’t want to swim in that lake. ¬I wouldn’t swim there. There’s gators and stuff in there.” We also were asked not to swim in the deep end of the pool on account it was too cloudy and there wasn’t a clear view of the bottom (ha-ha). After cooling off, we just had to check out the lake. It’s truly something out of a movie-set. The water is deep green, big cypress trees are populated through-out the lake, more of a bayou, the insects periodically make a deafening sound and then are eerily quiet, a bullfrog is bellowing, and the birds make it sound like a tropical paradise. I think we are more aware of nature here because there are so few humans! Everything in Ville Platte is closed, on account of it being Sunday and all, so Ned and I will conjure up a meal of fruit salad, peanut butter and crackers, a glass of viognier, (beer for Ned) and read out loud Jimmy Carter’s ‘An Hour Before Dawn.’ Tomorrow we will begin exploring deep Cajun country, including the capital of the confederacy during the civil war. We ain’t in Kansas anymore.