Georgia On My Mind: Indian Springs State Park, GA 6/8/08

We got up this morning and explored, on bike, the beautiful area of Chewacla State Park. It is in a heavily wooded park around a picturesque lake. Apparently, this is THE place to hang out before Auburn Univ. football games. In fact, some people store their huge RV’s here just for game day. We also noticed that many campers brought their own barbeques – you know those huge ones that most people have bricked in their backyards. These people take their barbequing seriously! We packed up and headed for Georgia, our first stop Warm Springs, FDR’s “Little White House.” It is very charming, and the museum is really interesting. Lots of history, films, memorabilia and very informed park rangers. I really enjoyed seeing FDR’s cars and how they were set up for hand controls. His house was much more simplistic than I imagined, but somehow I really enjoyed that. Ned particularly liked the “Stone Walkway of the States.” Each state donated a sample indigenous stone (2’ x 2’) often in the shape of the state. A plaque described the type of stone, the date the state was admitted to the union, and the state motto. It’s definitely hot here – mid to high 90’s. We decided to just go for it and drive the country back roads to our next destination with the air conditioning on. So far, the Winnie has been just perfect not showing any signs of low battery life or alternator trouble. Go figure. This part of Georgia is postcard beautiful. There are lots of rolling hills, pristine white houses with black shutters and big wrap around porches, and charming antique towns. Even though the pine woods are gorgeous, I do find them amusing. This Northern Sierra Girl is used to tall redwood and big fat cedar trees. The pine trees here are tall, but very skinny. They actually look like tiny Christmas trees on stilts. We only ate a light breakfast this morning, the usual cup of yogurt/bowl of cereal because we were holding out for a very special Sunday supper. Our 4:30 destination was “The Whistle Stop Café” in Juliette. It was the actual town and café where the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café” was filmed. I LOVED this place. It’s a tiny little town on the outskirts of a national forest. The café is located next to the train tracks and depot. It is exactly like it was in the movie, very homey, low key and just ordinary folks relaxing. (See photo of me hanging out on the front porch). There were only about 6 people in the café and the young women serving us made us feel so welcome with their southern hospitality. They sat down and talked with us, answering all my questions about the movie, the history of the town, the abandoned factory, etc. We were encouraged to walk around the back and make sure we visited the “barbeque pit”. If you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about. The food here is FABULOUS. I had fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, collard greens & corn bread. Ned was less of a pig and just hand the fried green tomato BLT with a side order of onion rings. Let me tell ya – the best fried chicken I have ever eaten!! Of course, we split some peach cobbler for dessert. It was quiet warm and we couldn’t wait to get to the night’s destination, Indian Spring State Park – the first state park in the US! As usual, we were definitely not disappointed. Soon after pulling in, we blew up our swim rings, hopped on our bikes and headed for the lake. All the lakes so far have been really warm – close to 85-90 degrees. Sure makes me appreciate swimming in the Yuba River!! Anyway, we stayed in the lake until after 8:00 just floating around and gabbing. Damn it felt good. I think we did close to another 10 miles on our bikes today. I have to justify this southern home cookin’ somehow…

Rolling thru the Deep South: Chewacla State Park, AL 6/7/08

We showed up at the Midas shop at 10:30 hoping that the much coveted alternator would be there. No such luck. (Godot never showed – imagine that!) The worst part is that no one had any idea where it was. All they knew was that it was someplace between Atlanta and New Orleans. So, we waited, and waited, and waited. The one silver lining is that Hillary’s concession speech was supposed to be televised around 12:30. The other customers hanging out in the waiting room were mostly African-American. We struck up a conversation about Obama and were all glued to the set during the speech. We had a really interesting chat with one particular gentleman who was quite informed and had been keeping abreast of the Hillary-Barack saga. It was so touching to share this moment with someone who was as enthused as we are. I’ll always remember not only this incredible historic moment, but exactly where we were and who we shared it with. (Molly, I know you are feeling my energy!) When the 2:00 closing time for the shop rolled around, and still no alternator, we decided to take our chances with the original alternator and continue on our journey. The other unthinkable option was to stay in New Orleans until Monday. We looked at the map, made a couple of adjustments and decided to head for Chewacla State Park in Alabama. This meant that we would travel thru Mississippi, along the Gulf coastline, but not spend the night. In our quest to reduce the load on the alternator, we decided to forego the air conditioner. At one point, when we were feeling quite warm and had consumed gallons of ice tea, I decided to check the temp…the outside temp registered 95 and the inside temp registered 102! Yep, we’re official stinky road warriors. (thank goodness for campground showers). We were hoping to accomplish two things: 1) get to the campground before 8:00 and 2) get to Chuck’s Barbeque before 9:00, closing time. I’m happy to report that both goals were met – with minutes to spare. We had watched a TV program about Chuck’s Barbeque on the food channel. It was recommended as one of the best of the smoked, mustard based barbeques. I had chopped pork with a side of beans (didn’t eat the mountain of pickles or 3 slices of white bread that came with it) and Ned had the chipped pork with a side order of brunswick stew and coleslaw. The owners are proud of their born again status, as testified by the “Jesus is the Bread of Life” t-shirts worn by all the employees and the scripture prominently displayed on the walls. (I snapped a pic so you can get a flavor of the place). Anyway, the first of the barbeque tasting has begun. By the end of this trip we hope to be aficionados on mustard, vinegar, tomato and sweet style barbeques. We pulled in the campground at dark, and are looking forward to exploring it in the daylight. (We’ve been averaging about 10 miles a day on the bikes and anticipate continuing that trend tomorrow).

Waiting for Godot or the Right Alternator: St. Bernard State Park, 6/6/08

Well, we biked over to the Midas dealer only to find out that the wrong alternator was delivered. One was finally located (hopefully the right one) and it should arrive tomorrow – from Atlanta. So, knowing that the ORIGINAL alternator was at least working, we asked them to re-install that in the Eurovan and decided to go back to St. Bernard’s State Park. At least that place has a pool, free wi-fi and is a lot more enjoyable than hanging around the hotel. New Orleans has been fun, but I’m ready to rumble again!! We indeed spent the day swimming and just hanging out. It was nice to have a quiet dinner “at home”, get a pedicure (thank you, Ned), wash the van, read aloud and surf the internet. (The photo is Ned making dinner after we washed the car). This State Park has hundreds of bunnies that are always running around and gorgeous bright red cardinals. It’s fun to just watch them. Here’s hoping that tomorrow brings the right part and it works! The big decision we are making tonight is whether to keep to the original schedule and head for Jackson, Mississippi or stay along the coast and then head for Auburn, Alabama thus pretty much by-passing Mississippi. I guess we’ll wait til tomorrow and see what happens with the Eurovan to decide.

Hard Times in the Big Easy: Avenue Garden Hotel, New Orleans 6/5/08

We got up this morning and headed over to the Midas shop, hoping that the alternator was delivered by 10:30 – it was! We left poor Winnie at the shop and biked thru the city, We had a great time biking at the Riverwalk, along the banks of the Mississippi. We eventually made our way to the French Market and decided to have lunch at the Market Café. The one thing we hadn’t yet tried was a muffuletta. We ordered one, thinking we would split it. This thing is huge! It could easily feed a family of four. We sat outside , listening to live jazz, sipping iced tea and eating the best thing yet in New Orleans. The breeze was blowing off the Mississippi and I was thinking that this was the best time I’ve ever had getting a car fixed. We eventually headed back to Midas and had to wait until about 2 for the car. Finally, everything seemed to check out okay and we were on our way. We thanked the mechanics, they waved us off and wished us well on our journeys. We traveled about 10 miles on I-10 when suddenly the Eurovan lost all power and the instruments froze-up. Ned remained completely calm during the ordeal, got us safely off the freeway. We literally coasted into a gas station. We called the Midas shopand after a bit of a wait, Jim the mechanic, drove to us and checked things out. Turns out the NEW alternator was faulty – DOH!!! We called Triple AAA and had the Mighty Winniemobile pathetically towed back to the shop. (See photo of the magnificent Winnie going down…) So, we now need to order another alternator and hope it arrives by tomorrow morning and it works. The Triple AAA tow driver, Melvin, was a reas gem. He also did some diagnostics and agreed that the alternator was dead. We enjoyed his company (and air conditioned cab) as we traded scary alligator stories. While Ned was dealing with car issues, I went into event planner mode. I called the State Park in Mississippi and changed our reservations from Thurs. to Friday night. I also called my assistant – aka Dad – to help us locate a cheap, safe, clean hotel within biking distance. We settled down in a quaint hotel in the Garden District. I tried getting used to the luxuries of air-conditioning and a private bathroom. To tell the truth, I’m feeling a little claustrophobic and am missing the great outdoors and social camaraderie of camping at State Parks. (Seems weird to walk a few feet to the restroom and not hop on your bike waving to other campers along the way). Well, here’s hoping the Winnie hits her stride again soon and we are on our way.

New Orleans – Dead People and Dead Cars: St. Bernard State Park, LA 6/4/08

We had a really late night last night hanging out in New Orleans, so we took it a bit easy this morning just hanging around the campsite until noonish. When we finally headed into the city, we decided to have lunch at Jacques-Imo’s, famous for it’s fried chicken and cornbread. (Thanks Alan for that tip). It’s located a little out of the way, but on a really charming, funky street. When we got there we discovered that it was open only for dinner, so we walked around and ate a little neighborhood café. Afterwards, while still strolling around we came upon a gelato pazzo. Not one to pass up ice cream, we headed in amongst all this commotion. Turns out the owner was having a portable ice cream freezer delivered, but it was delivered upside down on a pallet. She was very much “atwitter” and stressing way too much. Ned scoped out the situation and figured out a way to fix it. Kinda funny, Mr. Handyman can’t even go on vacation! (No, she did not offer to give us a free gelato, but we decided it was good karma anyway). We then headed over to the Garden District, unloaded our bikes, and rode up and down the streets checking out the grand old homes. We both commented that the neighborhood reminded us very much of Alameda, especially the Gold Coast area. Seriously, the architecture and trees were just like our ol’ digs. The best part of the ride was checking out the cemetery and exploring all the really old crypts. Most of them were completely dilapidated, but beautiful nonetheless under all the old magnolia trees. We then headed back to the French Quarter, I ran into a local post office to drop off some postcards and when we went to restart the winniemobile – nada, nothing, zilch. We used our deep cycle battery to jump start the car and were able to go on our merry way. Ned thought it best to have it checked out, since we were in a major city and not stuck in the middle of nowhere. We found a Midas dealer down the street and turns out the alternator needs to be replaced. The bad news is that we can’t get the part until tomorrow noonish, but good news is that we are stuck in New Orleans (it could have been El Paso!!!) So, tomorrow we’ll hop on our bikes and do some more exploring while the car gets fixed and then decide to either make a late night run for Jackson, MS or hang out for another night. We headed back to Jacques-Imo’s for that much awaited fried chicken dinner. It was tres magnifique!

Gators, Plantations & Obama: St. Bernard State Park, LA 6/3/08

We woke up early this morning, about 6:30, and sat out on the deck overlooking the bayou. It was so peaceful watching the fish jump and feeling the coolness of the morning. At first we couldn’t believe it, but we saw two alligators swim right by us. Yikes! Really, this place is just amazing. This inspired us to take a swamp tour, so by mid-morning we were at McGee’s Swamp Tours on a boat cruising thru the Atchafalya Basin. Our guide was a darling old Cajun who had a very strong, lilting French accent. (See photo of Curtis and me after the tour). Unfortunately, I only understood about half of what he said. We went on about a two hour tour and saw osprey, egrets, cypress trees hanging with moss, and yes – even another alligator. We stopped at a little town in the heart of Cajun country, called Breaux Bridge and had lunch at Café Des Amis. (Crawfish pie for Ned, grilled crawfish on a croissant for moi). After that we headed for New Orleans via the Great River Highway and Old Plantation Road. It was so beautiful to drive thru miles and miles of sugar cane fields. We stopped along the way and saw some of the stately old plantations. Our favorite was Oak Valley Plantation. What was really bizarre was driving down this windy river road, with the mighty Mississippi on our left with the huge tanker ships poking up over the levy, the plantations and sugar cane fields on our right, and an occasional big industrial refinery every so often. It was weird having all these worlds collide. We pulled into St. Bernard’s State Park, about 18 miles outside of downtown New Orleans and were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful and new it is. Apparently, it was totally rebuilt after Katrina. The best part – it has free wi-fi!!! Well, the first thing I did was fire up the computer to check on the election results. It was great to sit at the campsite and watch the early results. Ned had to pry me away with promises of touring the French Quarter (oh – all right). We went to Mother’s Restaurant and had a cup of jambalaya (for me) and a cup of gumbo for Ned. We then walked all thru the French Quarter, stopping later on at Café Du Monde for a cup of café au lait and beignets. Absolutely delish!! We continued strolling thru the French Quarter and eventually ended up on Bourbon Street, getting caught up in the vibe of music and people. Every bar had sports playing on the tv, but we actually managed to find one that was playing the election results on CNN. Does it get any better than this? Hanging out in New Orleans, after an incredibly wonderful day of seeing gators and graceful plantation homes, and then watching Obama secure the nomination

Cajuns & Bayous: Lake Fausse Point State Park, LA 6/2/08

First of all, congrats to Josh for getting the internship at KPBS! He'll be a news reporter for the summer. Way to go!!! Today was the day for sinking our teeth into Cajun culture, both literally and figuratively. We started our day in Opelousas, the “Birthplace of Zydeco Music”, “Birthplace of Swamp Pop Music”, “Capital of Louisiana during the Civil War” and just about the capital of everything Cajun including “Home of the International Cajun Joke Telling Contest” – I kid you not. We skipped breakfast at the campground and instead ate at the Palace Café in Opelousas. (Yes, biscuits were part of the egg breakfast.) We spent the next several hours on back roads driving windy roads thru sugar cane fields and lots of bayous. We spent a lot of time in Iberia Parish, playing tourist to such places such as “Evangeline” the historic site that commemorates Longfellow’s poem of the same. We eventually made our way to Avery Island, to visit the Tabasco factory and explore Jungle Island. The Tabasco tour was interesting, but nothing compared to the country store where we sampled everything Tabasco: Tabasco ice cream (2 varieties), Tabasco soda, all different sauces and were even a product development test panel for Raspberry Chipolte Tabasco. We gave it a thumbs up, so if it hits a shelf near you, thank us. We also tasted boudin, but neither of us much cared for it. From there we took the tour of Jungle Island and saw exotic birds, a stolen Buddha statute (in my mind bad karma) proudly displayed, tropical flora all meandering next to Petit Bayou Anse (the original name of the Tabasco product). From there we drove thru more Cajun country where every street corner had someone selling some form of crawfish. My favorite sign was “Drive thru – live and boiled crawfish. Now accepting food stamps!” We were hoping to get in a tour of the Konriko Rice Factory, “America’s Oldest Operating Rice Mill” (and it looked it), but were too late. We did manage to visit their country store and sampled their rice with all kinds of seasonings to choose from. Our favorite Road Food book suggested some local restaurants, but we either couldn’t find them or they were closed. Let me digress and explain the roads here – NOTHING is marked or labeled. Often we found ourselves driving down a windy road only to find that it dead-ended at a bayou or became another road. I’m working between two maps, the one given to us at the Louisiana Visitors Center and a Triple AAA map. Neither map matches up. Anyway, I asked some guy walking down the street if he could recommend a local restaurant, so we took our chances with “Lil River”. It was pretty good. Between the two of us we sampled etouffee crawfish, fried crawfish, bisque crawfish and bread pudding in rum sauce. From there our travels took us to Lake Fausse State Park. I picked this camping spot because it was the most remote one I could find situated in a bayou wilderness. All I can say is that it is UNBELIEVABLE! This is the most gorgeous, wild camping spot I’ve ever experienced. The camping site comes with a “deck” right on the bayou. (See photo. Ned taking a moment when we arrived to experience the beauty). I couldn’t wait to get on our bikes and begin exploring. There is a 3 mile mountain bike trail that goes thru the bayou so even tho it was dusk (about 7:30 – 8ish) we decided to go for it. What started out as beautiful and exhilarating soon turned to sheer terror. I am not kidding. We are literally in the thick of the bayou, the insects are making a deafening sound, several are buzzing our heads and body, and you cannot veer off the path one inch or you will be IN the friggin’ swamp. Before we took the trail it warned us of: alligators, water snakes, 200 lb. snapping water turtles, armadillos, coyotes, bobcats, red fox, & poison ivy. They were not kidding! The first couple of armadillos were cute, then as it got dark they were just plain scary. The snake that slithered on the path inches from my bike was terrifying (I think this is the place where I started crying), and an owl flew over our heads and began hooting. As I was peddling like hell, Ned was behind me reassuring me that everything was okay. Needless to say, when we finally returned to asphalt I was ecstatic. It was a lot like taking an E ticket ride at Disneyland, but without the safety net of knowing it would work out okay. I can happily report that I’m writing this in the safety of the locked winniemobile, as possums wander by.