The Other New Orleans

St. Bernard State Park, New Orleans, LA

Ned and I had enough of the party scene and couldn't wait to get back to nature. Gary & Linda went on a swamp tour (thanks Matt, Rachel & Jessie, what a sweet Christmas present to your folks) while Ned and I headed for the Barataria Preserve.

We took a 4 mile hike through the Preserve, which was mostly on a boardwalk raised above the swamp and marsh.

 

To get there we had to go all away around downtown New Orleans, which would take about an hour. That pesky Mississippi River was between us and the Preserve. As luck would have it there is a ferry boat crossing about 5 miles from the campground. Sounds like a plan to me!

We were in awe of the captain's maneuviring skills naviagating the powerful downstream current.

This pic is of a huge tanker going by the ferry dock. Still can't get used to the hub-bub of the hundreds of tankers and barges in the delta.

It was a gorgeous hike through this National Park, but dang was it hot and humid! We walked for a couple of hours and the big payoff was a lookout over the Marsh Area. On the hike we saw a gator, but I was more impressed (scared to death) of the humongous spiders hanging from overhead branches onto the trail. Yikes!

This area is named after Jean LaFitte. Mmm, so not impressed. His claim to fame was "he led 1000 men of different nationalities into one of the largest, although illicit business enterprises of its day. With 99 vessels LaFitte and his band of Baratarians supplied slaves and luxury goods to the wealthy planters along the Mississippi and to the residents of New Orleans."

 

This map puts into perspective where this Preserve is in respect to New Orleans

Basically, there's not a whole heck of a lot between here and the Coast.

 

By mid-afternoon we met up with Gary and Linda in the Garden District and took a cemetery tour of New Orleans' most famous cemetery. My big takeaway - don't believe the story that the reason the crypts are above ground is because of the water table. It's all about resource management, i.e reclycing the same space over and over to bury as many people as possible.

After the cemetery tour we took a bike ride through the Garden District up and down all the bumpy streets looking at all the historic homes. And because I still hadn't ridden enough I cajoled everyone into doing some more biking around Audubon Park. What a gorgeous park with a paved path just for cyclists!

 

 

After dinner Linda and Gary headed out for another night of dancing on Frenchmen's Street. We cried uncle and headed for the campground.

As I doze off to sleep I'm going to try and not think about all those ginormous creepy spiders and the alligators we saw on our hike. (Notice how every little itch or brush against your leg just gets you twitching? Yeah, me too).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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NOLA: Cruising the Big Easy

St. Bernard State Park, New Orleans, LA

Memorial Weekend in New Orleans. Might as well head for the belly of the beast and go right to the French Quarter.

We arrived late morning committed to staying until my dancing sister got to experience another evening swing event.

The best part of strolling thru the streets is hearing the incredible jazz. The woman in this band just owned the clarinet and had a smooth jazzy voice as well. I could have listened to her for hours, except the sweltering sun kept us moving.

 

After taking a stroll thru the French Market we thought it was time that Gary & Linda were initiated to the wonders of the Muffeletta. As far as we are concerned the Central Market is the only place to go. Proud to announce they are now devotees.

When Gary was in flight school one of his fond memories was putting peanuts in a coke, shaking it up, then drinking it. We all watched as the coke fizzed up and he gave it a swig. He reports it was just as tasty.

 

 

We stumbled into the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park building and there was loud, enthusiastic drumming going on. A woman was explaining the local cultural influences on New Orleans jazz and their very unique Second Line.

They asked for volunteers to do some drumming, and before you knew it Ned and I were drumming away and Linda was joining us in dance before a packed house. OMG - this was so much fun!

 

We walked from the Mississippi River, all thru the French Quarter, strolling each and every street, eventually ending up on the infamous Bourbon Street.

Along the way, Linda found a vintage shop that specialized in swing dresses, the boys snagged some daiquiris, we popped in several hot sauce places and quirky shops, and we all participated in people watching.

By late afternoon we were ready to take a break in a shady court and have some beignets and ice coffee.

We saw several weddings today, including one ON Bourbon Street and many, many Second Lines with the bride and groom dancing, complete with police escorts. Crazy place this New Orleans.

 

 

Just cuz, I put in this collection of signs and things unique to New Orleans. Yeah, I did taste the crawfish jelly. It was pretty good too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 7ish we walked over to Frenchmen Street so Linda could put on her dancing shoes and get in some more swing moves. Gary took a couple of turns with Linda then decided he wanted to experience Bourbon Street at night. We left Linda dancing away and off we walked once more to Bourbon Street.

It.was.insane.

Glad to report we survived and made it back to Frenchmen Street to tear Linda away from the dance floor. I'm beat, but my toes are still tapping away to the great jazz sounds we heard today.

 

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Louisiana - Hot & Spicy

St. Bernard State Park, New Orleans, LA

Palmetto Island State Park is a pretty wild place, wild with nature that is. Nutria were scurrying all over, the insects and frogs were roaring, and there were supposedly bears and alligators within the park. Since we pulled in at dark, Ned and I couldn't wait to go for an early morning bike ride and see it first hand. I just loved the ride through the swamp in the early morning light.

 

 

Once the troops were rallied, we headed for Avery Island where Tabasco Sauce is made. We took the self-guided tour through the facility. Ned and I were last here about 7 years ago. They've upgraded the tour tremendously since then. It goes without saying that we had a great time viewing the greenhouse, warehouse, blending and bottling facilities. The best part was visiting the country store afterwards and tasting everything Tabasco from ice cream to soda, and every kind of sauce you can imagine.

 

 

Ned is a funny guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Except when he wants to get another barrel for chocolate aging and carry it across the U.S. Nooooooooo! - once was enough!

 

 

Avery Island also has a Jungle Garden Tour. Ned McIlhenny wanted future generations to enjoy and study the wonders of nature while observing plants and flowers from around the world. The grounds are dotted with massive live oak trees with Spanish Moss hanging from them and there are several gardens, ponds, a bird sanctuary and a Buddha shrine. We spent most of the afternoon exploring them and enjoyed spotting the occasional gator and unique birds.

The Buddha shrine was built by Emperor Hui-Tsung of China in 1101. Centuries later, the temple was looted by a rebel general who took the statue as part of the loot and sent it to NY to be sold. The statue was given to D.A. McIlhenny as a gift by two friend. My two cents: bad karma dude, give it back.

 

On our way to New Orleans, we made a quick stop in Morgan City to show Gary & Linda the riverwall that prevents Morgan City from flooding everytime the Atchafalaya River floods. For the Army Corp of Engineers if it's choice between Morgan City getting flooded or New Orleans, Morgan City loses.

Seeing the different high river marks on the old seawall lead me to believe that Morgan City lives on the edge.

 

After this action packed day we headed straight for New Orleans. Linda had her heart set on dancing at a certain club on Frenchman's Street. Perfect. I was looking forward to exploring that neighborhood.

It was so much fun walking Frenchmen's Street. We took in a Friday night art walk and the music was just pouring out of the clubs. By 9 pm there were jazz players on the street corners and dancing in the streets. Unfortunately, we had to check into our campground before they locked up the gates so off we went to St. Bernard State Park. Great campground just 25 minutes away.

Whew, what a day. We better rest up cuz it's Memorial Weekend in NOLA and we got a lot of partying to do!

 

 

 

 

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Louisiana: Exploring Creole and Cajun Country

Palmetto Island State Park, Abbeville, LA

Our first stop of the day was Natchitoches (pronounced Nack-a-tish) the original French Coloniy in Louisiana. It was established in 1714 and is the heart of the Creole Cane River Country.

We walked around the charming town, did a little window shopping and stopped for a coffee. (Real coffee not the instant we make for breakfast every morning). The boys also tried a meat pie. It was more like an empanada with a pastry exterior.

So what defines being a Creole? Depends on who you ask. It's a mixture of French, Spanish, Native American, African-American, and English/American settlers' culture. One of our guides said it in a way that cracked me up. "It's a culture where you speak French, cook Spanish and are Catholic."

This area has several plantations scattered through out. We opted for the oldest intact plantation that was owned by only one family since 1821 and given to the National Park service in the 1990's.

We arrived in time to take a 12:30 tour of the slave cabins. Our guide was really personable. He knew a lot about the history of the area, this family and the life of a slave on this particular farm.

 

 

We enjoyed that tour so much we decided to take another tour of the main residence. Because it was in the same family since 1821, seeing the original artifacts and how the house evolved over almost 200 years was fascinating! There were pieces of furniture dating back to the original owners, and a 1953 kitchen and bath. One of my favorite things was a gentlemen's outfit coordinator circa 1920's. The picture is the middle one on the left. You dial in what color tie you are wearing and it matches up your shirt and suit. I like to think of this as the original app.

 

Our guide for this tour was even more remarkable. He knew so much detail about the Creole culture, the history of this particular family and did research about some of the slaves on the farm. He wrote a book called "A Blacksmith's Son goes to War: The Story of William Smith." Lucky me, I received a free autographed copy from him!

 

 

It was such a gorgeous day, warm but not too hot with a nice breeze. Perfect for a mid-afternoon picnic lunch!

 

We were so fascinated by this plantation we decided on a quick stop to view the brick slave quarters of the Magnolia Plantation, which was close by.

Again, so fascinating, but to be honest it's a bit emotional to walk the grounds.

I picked up lots of reading material and am looking forward to diving in and learning more about the Creole familes and culture of the Cane River area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's a road trip without stopping by a farm stand? This one specialized in pecans. Who knew there were so many varieties? And yes, we tasted them all including all kinds of amazing things that you can do with a pecan...coat it in chocolate, cane sugar, cinnamon, etc. Delish!

 

 

 

 

 

Late in the afternoon, early evening we drove thru Cajun country stopping at St. Martinsville to see the monument to Longfellow's Evangeline. Such a beautiful setting.

And then finally off to more Cajun food and dancing! This place was great. A dance hall with live Zydeco music. Linda was in heaven. So cute to see Gary and Linda take a few rounds on the floor. Linda would have stayed til they shut the place down, but I knew we had another hour to go before reaching our campsite for the night. So, at 9:30 we headed to Palmetto Island State Park.

For those inquiring minds dinner was: fried alligator, seafood gumbo, corn and seafood bisque, crawfish etouffee and fried crawfish...shared by all. It was superb.

 

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Louisiana: Buddies, Biking and Bayous

Lake Bistineau State Park, Doyline, LA

We had a leisurely morning at the campsite before we packed up and began rolling into Shreveport. We kept our first day traveling as a posse light with minimal travel and few activities. We wanted Gary and Linda to get settled into their rental RV and work out any kinks.

This pic is of the amazing Lake Bistineau where we are camping this evening.

 

 

 

Shreveport was only about 1.5 hrs away, and an easy drive.

We started a walking tour of the city, but after a few blocks of not being very impressed we said fuhgetaboutit and found a Cajun restaurant.

Here's Ned being our fearless leader and guide on the walking tour.

 

 

This is Linda's first trip to Louisiana so we are having a great time introducing her to the local cuisine. Today's lunch was crawdad etouffe (Ned), crab cakes (Linda), catfish (Gary) and blackened chicken and pecan salad (Debi). Of course we shared everything. So tasty! P.S. Linda says these were the best crab cakes ever!

 

 

Gary, you shouldn't be this happy getting eaten by a gator.

 

 

 

Because they're with us, of course they did a bike ride. We rode the Red River Trail and managed to do over 12 miles.

 

 

 

 

Riding the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really windy bike ride, but the upside was watching some cool kites.

 

 

Gary has old army buddies everywhere. This is Sam who served with Gary in Vietnam. After doing the bike ride we met up with Gary and Sam at the El Dorado Casino for drinks and reminiscing.

 

 

 

Tonight we are camped on a bayou. When we arrived the sun was shining directly on the water highlighting the cypress trees and Spanish moss. It was almost surreal. There is a dock coming from our campsite and we all took a moment just soaking in the beauty.

 

 

Had to include this pic cause it's our 13th anniversary. Love you sweetie.

 

 

 

 

 

Camground meals are the best! Tomorrow we head further south through Cajun country.

 

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Texas: Lions & Tigers and Flowers, oh my.

Tyler State Park, Tyler, TX

Last night was one of the most intense thunder and lightening storms we've ever experienced. We were woken up at about 1:15 am with absolutely deafening thunder and lightening striking all around us. It went on for about 20 minutes. It was quite a show and left me quaking. See that magenta area? That was us.

Then when all was absolute quiet a very chatty whippoorwill decided to let out his signature "whip-poor-will" every 2 seconds til dawn. If you haven't read the James Thurber short story "Whipporwill" let's just say it didn't end well - I completely understand.

We were in Dallas at the auto shop, Lord of the Rings, by 7 am. Great shop, awesome owner and best news Winnie is recharged with fresh Freon. The not so good news, she does have an unspecified Freon leak somewhere so who knows how long we'll have A/C for. Time to keep rolling.

 

We were out of the shop before 9 so we decided to take advantage of being in Dallas by visiting the Arboreteum and Botanical Gardens.

 

 

 

Even tho rain was threatening we took our chances. We arrived just when the Gardens opened and had the place to ourselves for awhile. The flowers were simply breathtaking as were the different gardens and waterfalls scattered throughout the grounds.

 

 

 

 

We also came across several sculptures scattered here and there. I enjoyed them almost more than the flowers! We learned that this was part of a sculpture exhibit from Zimbabwe. There were over 100 sculptures beautifully placed among the landscape. I loved that you'd walk round a bend and there would be this art piece. The skies did open up for about 15 minutes, then we were treated to sunshine. So interesting to see the juxtaposition of the Botanical Gardens during both the rain and sun.

 

 

 

 

After spending almost 3 hours at the Gardens we decided that a bike ride around White Rock Lake would be fun. We had just gone a couple of miles when Linda and Gary asked if we wanted to meet up at the Tiger Sanctuary. Heck yeah!! A quick u-turn and off we went towards Tyler, Texas.

First, it was great meeting up with Gary and Linda our travel buddies for the next several weeks. And second...those tigers! There were pumas, servals, bengals, and lions. We spent an hour or so walking around with a guide learning about each of the cats when the skies opened up again. Fortunately, we were at the end of the walking tour so getting drenched wasn't too bad.

Note: Ned and I looking like Safari hotties.

 

Went for BBQ again tonight at a local place called Bodacious. It was the usual meat and 2 sides. You know the drill.

We were joined by Gary and Linda and Butch and Gail. Gary attended flight school with Butch 42 years ago. Butch is a real character and a great story teller. He kept us in stitches telling stories about growing up in Texas. He's also an amazing artist and woodworker.

Tomorrow we travel as a posse and the adventure continues. Louisiana are you ready?

 

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Texas: Bikes, BBQ and Bridges

Hickory Creek Campground, Lewisville Lake, TX

 

This was our final destination tonight. Not a bad spot on the shores of Lewisville Lake on the outskirts of Dallas. Lots of bunnies, birds and fish jumping in the lake.

We've officially left the dry western desert and have entered into the land of the humid. How do I know? My hair has gone from straight to very curly in just one time zone. From past experience most likely this will be the last time our towels will be dry for the next several weeks. Ah humidity, bring on the sweet tea.

 

The journey today took us mainly thru small towns that were boarded up or barely surviving. So sad to see town after town with vacated brick buildings. You could tell these were once thriving communities. Where did everybody go?

We've never been to Wichita Falls and thought a good way to experience it would be on a bike path that took you past the falls and through several parks. Only one small problem. Most of the paths were flooded out and the falls were not running. We did ride about 10 miles next to the Wichita River and over several rickety bridges. I don't see us swimming in this red, muddy water anytime soon. Oh South Yuba River you've made us swimming snobs. Wichita Falls, although expansive, also has seen better days.

 

 

While in Texas we had to make sure and sample some local "que." Yelp is helpful, but the true test in Texas is how many local pick-up trucks are parked in front of the restaurant at lunch time. Bingo on the Branding Iron. Unassuming restaurant, no windows, but sure had the pick-ups.

This place was the real deal - a plate and 2 sides. Ned opted for the BBQ pork loin and I got the BBQ pork shoulder. Of course it comes with Texas Toast. We opted for the coleslaw and beans. It was delish! The pork shoulder just melted in your mouth. We washed it down with tea. Ned went with "sweet tea" to fully embrace the experience.

 

We were going to stay at Lake Arrowhead tonight. Unfortunately our air conditioning went out again...Sigh. We found someone in Dallas who works on VWs (his shop is Lord of the Rings) who will take a look at 7 am tomorrow.

We found this sweet Corp of Engineer campground, close to Dallas, that has tons of bike trails, so that was a plus. We spent most of the afternoon exploring the place on bike. Seems to be our day of riding across bridges. So fun!

We snagged a great spot right on the lake. We're really enjoying the peace and quiet on a Monday night. We're resting up for New Orleans over Memorial Weekend. That should be insane.

Tomorrow we meet up with Gary and Linda at Tyler State Park. Here's hoping for a quick fix on the A/C. Luckily, the van is running top notch in all other categories. Worst case scenario we ride with the windows down and the wind in our hair...

 

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