Saturday, December 26, 2009

on to Cajun Country

The rain Thursday kept us tethered in the Jude Travel Park on the day we planned to travel. The terrible snow storms up north translated to powerful thunderstorms moving across the gulf coast. Dragging a giant shoebox along a highway in a thunderstorm is a recipe for disaster, so we stayed put. I went to the local Winn-Dixie, along with what seemed like everybody in the whole country. The checkout lines snaked so far back into the store that shopping the aisles was difficult! But, I managed to find the greens and some chocolate that were required for our dinner.

Dinner Thursday night was local oyster, brie and spinach soup. Oh, it was yummy! I also had a green gumbo, another local dish, but we quit after the first coarse. Well, we saved room for the chocolate balsamic truffles I made for dessert. So, the day passed, me in the kitchen or reading, and it was a nice day. We listened to WWOZ, the local public radio station most of the day. Click and Clack entertained us in the evening with their version of Scrooge, and Missy and Hannukah Ho hosted a wonderfully irreverent music show afterwards. I'm marking my calender, and tuning my internet connection for their show next December 24!

Friday, we greeted a cold but sunny day, hitched up the Cottage, and pulled it across the city, west to Cajun territory. The roads were pretty quiet, and the short section of I-10 we traveled was as awful as our memory said it would be. The settling makes the road surface a nightmare for towing anything. Thank goodness for the old US 90. Not only was it a better road surface, but it gave us a tour of the local agriculture and geography.

We followed and crossed many bayous, ending up close to the important Bayou Teche, in Iberia Parrish. Both Stuart and I are particularly drawn to New Iberia because of the fictional hero, Dave Robicheaux. Having either listened to or read several books, we feel like we know the place. Bayou Teche was a vital shipping link beginning about 1830, when the first steamboat arrived in New Iberia, and remained an important transportation hub for the next 100 years. Today, much sugar cane is grown here, and the industry supporting the oil business sprawls over much land that is not devoted to housing and cane. Billboards along the main roads are begging for workers in the oil support industry: divers, pipe fitters, laborers, and job titles that mean nothing to me.

Our newest temporary home is Laboulaie Travel Park, in Broussard. $25/night. There are exactly 2 transient sites here, the rest of the 50 or so sites are for monthly rentals. Construction workers, temporary housing. We went into the little town, looking for a place to walk after a few days of inactivity before settling in for the evening.

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