March 2002 |
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This seemed like a good place to leave the RV while we journeyed north to Wisconsin & Illinois for curling bonspiel's. Sulphur was originally named because they mined Sulphur hereabouts. The Sulphur is long since played out but the area is rich in petrochemical complexes so the aroma is not completely eradicated. This location would give us access to 3 National Wildlife Refuge's, the Gulf coast of Southwestern Louisiana and the Casino's of Lake Charles on our return from Illinois.
Holly Beach - Situated about 35 miles south of the RV park this area is really undeveloped. It is just about a month since we wandered along a beach and were un-prepared for the number of shells but improvised a bag out of the debris on the beach. We picked up a variety of whelk shells but left thousands of others behind. This is such a quiet beach we wondered how long it would be before this became a popular area for America's Snowbirds. Miles and miles of beach (not awfully wide) just waiting to be explored and the nearest Walmart 35 miles away! On our return journey we called into Sabine NWR hoping to see a Purple Gallinule but no such luck. Linda is beginning to sulk & stamp her feet but it seems they won't appear until later in the year. When we last visited (3 weeks ago) the Refuge staff were conducting a controlled burn. New growth is already sprouting giving food and cover for the wildlife. Although we didn't add any new birds to our collection we did see lots of alligators, including one mother with three babies sunbathing on her back.
Cameron Prairie & Lacassine NWR's - Like Sabine these two Refuges are predominately wetlands near to the gulf coast. These wetlands provide protection to inland areas by absorbing any floodwater during adverse weather e.g. hurricanes. They also produce a rich & varied habitat for birds & other forms of wildlife. Still no Purple Gallinules but the Roseate Spoonbills are so pink they could be mistaken for Flamingo's from a distance. The usual cast was assembled, Egrets of all types, Herons (various), Ibis, Brown Pelicans, aforementioned Spoonbills and of course our friends the Alligators.
Lake Charles Casino's - Since we had already visited Harrah's we felt it only right we should give the Isle Of Capri a visit, especially as it is reputed to have the best Seafood Buffet around. The Buffet lived up to its reputation for Seafood with lots of Shrimp, Crab's Legs and the Louisiana favourite - Crawfish! We had never tasted Crawfish (Linda still hasn't) but since it is a state delicacy Wullie felt obliged to give it a go! The easiest way to describe it is "looks like a miniature Lobster, with big eyes and long feelers". The taste is quite nice. not over rich like some seafood can be. The problem for me was it's a lot of work peeling each Crawfish for such a tiny morsel of meat at the end. Could this be why the locals had their plates (more than one plate!) piled high with the little ugly fella's? All in all the Seafood buffet was good but not too inexpensive. Now the big spending habits of the Keir's could be unleashed on the Gambling area! Will it be Roulette? Craps? Poker? Blackjack? or the Slots? We cash $10 each (that is each!) and search for Slots that take quarters (25c), but they are few & far between. It seems that $1 slots are becoming the common/popular item, but this means we would only get 10 pulls for our money instead of 40. Since the quarter slots swallowed up our $10 (that is each!) in less than 15 minutes we don't feel we will be playing those $1 slots in the near future, unless some kind reader wants to make a contribution to the Keir's retirement fund.
General Impressions - The main industries of Louisiana are Oil, rice/crawfish and sugar. Rice/Crawfish? I hear you say how strange! - but here farmers inspect their fields in shallow bottom boats as rice fields are flooded. When the rice crop is harvested the fields must have a rest. The enterprising farmer re-floods the field and fills it with baby Crawfish which fatten up nicely. When harvested they are sold and the gamblers at the Isle of Capri feast upon them at the Seafood Buffet. The swamplands are full of Fish, Alligators, Snakes, Turtles, Birds, Cypress & Gum Trees and Spanish Moss which decorates the trees without harming them. At first glance these swamps are forbidding but the local people have made their homes in them and live off the land/swamp. The Louisiana swamps have spawned a tourist industry. The locals take tourists on trips through the swamps in their flat bottom boats explaining their culture and the food chain that exists, but more of that later. Louisiana has been owned by the French, Spanish and French again. When the French sold the area to the USA in 1803 it was known as the Louisiana purchase (comprised several states) and is still the biggest real estate deal ever conducted in the USA.
For a move of less than 100 miles we decided on the quieter/more scenic highway 90, hoping the road would be in better condition than I-10 which is really uneven in parts. Flooded rice fields, some with white discs spaced along the surface of the water, were very evident throughout the journey. The white discs on the surface we were informed later, signify that Crawfish were being farmed and the white disc is the top of their enclosure. As we entered Crowley large rice storage containers, plus other outlets associated with rice reminded us that we were in one of the main rice producing areas of the USA. The next small town, Rayne, welcomed us with a large sign telling us that this town was" The Frog Capital of the World". This whole area of Louisiana, all the way to New Orleans is at the most 6 foot above sea level. This makes the graveyards very noticeable as everyone is buried above the ground. If you make the mistake of burying your loves ones below ground they are sure to float back and haunt you sometime soon, and I thought only sailors talked of a watery grave?.
Maxie's campground, listed in our discount book, was to be our home for the next six nights. The price at $9 a night was good, but it is adjacent to the main highway. For the past four months we have been well away from traffic noise, so this could be a shock to the system.
Local History- The inhabitants of this part of Louisiana are called "Cajuns" and many rumors about their "unfriendly" attitudes have occurred because they live in the swamps and some of the older people still only speak their version of French. The modern Cajuns speak English & French, are very friendly and incidentally have some very good recipes for spicy food (Jambalaya, Gumbo, Etouffee).
Cajun is the abbreviated name for "Acadian" people. They are French in origin and were the original European settlers of what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and most of Maine (Acadie). They were great farmers and during their 100 year + stay the ownership of Acadie changed hands between Britain & France at least 10 times. The Acadians made friends with the Native Americans and exchanged ideas on farming & culture becoming distinctly North American rather than European. In 1713 following the treaty of Utrecht, Acadie became the permanent property of Great Britain, but the Acadian's refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown. Forty years later, in 1755, the British not only forcibly expelled 10,000 of them from their homes but split up whole families before shipping them out to widely dispersed locations like England, France, and the Eastern seaboard states of the USA. They were not too well received anywhere especially not England (a foreign country), they didn't fit in France (were used to being landowners) and were viewed with great suspicion by the mainly English speaking population of the Eastern seaboard states. Help was at hand in the form of the Spanish who at that point in history owned Louisiana and had a need for someone to provide food supplies for the garrison of New Orleans. The Acadians having the reputation of being great farmers were the ideal solution to the Spanish need. In 1763 nearly 3,000 Acadian's found their way to Louisiana and raised cattle and crops to provision New Orleans. One can only imagine the dangers involved in taming & farming this mainly swampland teeming with Snakes and Alligators but also rich in wildlife and trees. Nobody we met spoke about it but it occurred to me that when the Spanish sold Louisiana back to the French and the French quickly sold it to the Americans the Acadian people must have experienced a sense of "Oh no, not again" and endured a very worrying time. Fortunately the story has a happy ending as the modern Cajun people are happy, (just love a party) friendly and pleased to be American. Every time we see a name like Thibodeau or Broussard we will recall the story of the Acadian people.
In light of recent ethnic atrocities in Europe it could be argued that the so called civilised world has not learned an awful lot and is still capable of mass acts of incredible cruelty - but of course not us?
New Iberia - A County in Louisiana is called a Parish e.g. New Iberia is in Iberia Parish. My first thought was that this was due to the French influence but Parish in used in Britain to signify the area covered by a church. There are always some questions you wished you had asked, but if we pass through again I will find out.
One of the main attractions of New Iberia is " Shadows of the Teche" a Southern plantation home & gardens located on the banks of the Bayou Teche. A Bayou is a river or stream and there are many in this area. They were particularly valuable when the area was being developed being the forerunner of roads. This 1813 plantation house was built for David Weeks a sugar plantation owner and four generations lived in the house until the 1950's when it was donated to the National Trust for historic preservation. The tour was quite interesting conducted by a very knowledgeable Southern lady with a wonderful accent. Visit their Website for more details.
Since we eat a lot of rice a visit to the Konriko Rice Mill seemed in order. This is the oldest rice mill in Louisiana using some of the original equipment circa 1920. Konriko purchases the rice from locals growers, process it and ship it all over the world.
Swamp Tour - There are so many swamp tours on offer in Louisiana, all conducted by authentic Cajuns, promising wildlife, culture & history, that choosing can be difficult. Our RV park manager suggested Champagne's Swamp tour on Lake Martin as other visitors to the RV park had returned with good reports. 
The boat used, a 20 foot Crawfish skiff powered by a 75 HP outboard was designed by the owner allowing it to skip over semi-submerged logs (those logs that swim away are Alligators), holds up to 10 people (8 the day we went). It was a 2 hour tour of the lake, Bayou's and swamps where we learnt about the different types of trees (Cypress & Black Gum) that grow in the swamps most dripping with Spanish Moss. This moss does not harm the trees, it only uses the tree as a platform for catching the sun & moisture which keeps it alive. Spanish Moss has been put to many uses including stuffing mattresses & car seats and mixing in with clay, as a binding agent, when making bricks for building. Numerous Alligators were spotted & photographed sunbathing, which they do as an aid to digestion. There are no reported incidents of Alligators attacking humans but apparently they are partial to small dogs. The Alligator food product that appealed to us Scots was their habit of swallowing Turtles whole complete with shell - adds a new meaning to a Shell Pie from the local bakery! We added the Barred Owl to our collection of birds, he sat proud in a tree and loved being photographed. We also had a close up view of an Anhinga, a huge Cormorant like seabird, which we had only seen from afar previously. Although the sun never penetrated into the swamp, it was a thoroughly enjoyable two hours and we would recommend a swamp tour to anyone, but don't trail your fingers through the water!
St Martinville - A small town whose main attractions are the Longfellow_Evangeline State Historic Site and the Acadian Memorial. The tour of Longfellow_Evangeline was conducted by an extremely knowledgeable but slightly eccentric guide. The Acadian Memorial was well worth the visit to learn about the trials & tribulations of the Acadian people. The memorial is staffed by descendants of the Acadians and it was most gratifying to hear the story so warmly told without any animosity towards us present day Brit's. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect was to realise the story had such a happy ending for those who made it to Louisiana. We spent over an hour in the memorial speaking to local people & visitors as it seems we were not the only ones touched by the tale.
New Orleans - The journey on I-10 was fast and bumpy.
With Wullie's superb map reading and Linda skillful driving we maneuvered ourselves into the French Quarter with only one missed junction, quite exceptional considering the one-way system, very narrow roads, and the fact that we have not driven in a city like this for some time. Armed with a lot of special offer cards for hotels in the French Quarter and convinced we didn't need reservations at this time of year? we parked and set off to find a room for the night. We tried the first hotel on our list at $69 and were told that there were no special offers on this week and the price would be $149, which offer we politely declined. The next one we tried was fully booked (starting to worry?) but we were advised that their sister hotel had vacancies. When checking us in the clerk said "I have a very nice room for you"- where have we heard that before? This time it was true, a lovely spacious room in a charming French Pension, in the USA.
Wanting to utilize our time to the full, we were out exploring by 1.00 p.m. and made reservations for the two hour narrated paddle steamboat tour on the Mississippi and the City Tour, before retiring to the Crescent City Brewhouse for a most enjoyable lunch (how does Linda sniff out these Microbreweries?).
The Steamboat Natchez is one of three which is completely powered by steam - the other two are moored in New Orleans and are looking for buyers. 
The other two are larger and were used for long river cruises with accommodation on board. The cruise was quite interesting down one bank of the Mississippi and up the other with commentary about the other shipping and the history of the port of New Orleans. Linda was slightly disappointed as she has always had a hankering to cruise the Mississippi and envisaged Wyatt Earp gambling at the Poker table while a jazz band played on the upper deck. The fact that a steam Calliope concert took place before the trip started and the Jazz band played in the lounge during the trip was of little consolation.
In the evening we had planned to get all dressed up in our city clothes and hit the nightlife but Wullie realised that he had packed two left shoes. Never mind it was very warm so Linda wore shorts and Wullie put on his Rockports. Landry's Restaurant was a good as ever although very crowded. The French Quarter is very European like, lots of small bars & restaurants including those in the famous Bourbon Street. This has quite a few "naughty" bars (what is a transvestite? Is that French?) and is very lively especially late at night. This evening there were a lot of students at the start of Spring Break making lots of noise so we left it for the young folks and wandered back to our charming Hotel. The following morning seen us up early (well early for us!) for breakfast in the hotel courtyard before taking off on the city tour by Gray Line coach. Tours can be made or added to by the guides knowledge, enthusiasm & wit. Our driver/guide was a native of New Orleans (pronounced Nawlins by us locals!) and had extra large helpings of all those qualities. This made for a very interesting and most enjoyable tour.
St. Louis Cemetery, one of New Orleans "Cities of the Dead" was a highlight with all the graves above ground. Lake Ponchartrain, which we had skirted when driving in to New Orleans, has the longest road bridge in the world (until one in Japan is completed). The Bayou St John is rich in stories of Voodoo & piracy and was used by the pirate captain Jean Laffite, one of whom's Lieutenants was a certain Jim Bowie of the Alamo fame (how on earth did a descendant of the Kincardine Bowie's end up a pirate?).
St. Charles Avenue with the oldest street cars, homes of former Kings & Queens of Mardi Gras and stately mansions leading into the Garden district. A very enjoyable 2 hours, thoroughly recommended to all, left just enough time for a quick stroll around the French Quarter to realise some photo opportunities
before checking out of our Hotel at noon.
There was one other remarkable sighting in New Orleans which may be considered impolite but here goes. We witnessed a lady crossing the road who must have been about 6 foot 6in, weighing in at 25 stone + with wet leather look boots! We both stopped and gawked and agreed we had never seen anything as big in leather boots before.
The weather broke just as we pulled our of the RV park and the rain, sometimes very heavy, stayed with us for about 60 miles until we got ahead of this wet front incoming from Texas. We called into the Tourist Information Centre when we entered Alabama. Maps and brochures collected we phoned the RV park we had chosen to stay at. No vacancies at that one or the other three we tried in that area. (only slightly worried?) We decided to try Gulf Shores State park as most state parks keep a number of sites for those who do not have reservations. This park has over 400 pitches and we got one of the last 4 vacant, how popular this coast is. Although we had to go without a sewer hook-up this was a delightful State Park, Tennis courts, Cardinals & other birds feeding at the doorstep and a 10 minute walk to the white sugar like beach. The State Park also has an 18 hole golf course, a Hotel & Restaurant and cabins for rent. We were told that the reason the whole area was so busy was that the Snowbirds were still around (seems like half of Michigan was there?) and the early Spring Breakers had arrived.
Gulf Coast Beaches - Alabama has a tiny amount of beaches on the Gulf of Mexico and other than the large area covered by the State Park is quite developed with more development taking place. The beaches are beautiful, white castor sugar type sand and turquoise water necessitate the donning of shades! The beach at the state park is one of the nicest beaches we have visited anywhere in the world. As we strolled along on our first visit we picked up a few Sand Dollars even although we had vowed not to collect any more, but these were Alabama Sand dollars!
Tennis Courts - There were two courts in very good condition and two more not yet prepared for the tennis season. It didn't take too long for us to get back in the swing allowing us to play just as badly as when we played in Texas. We made a few visits to the Tennis courts and on the last occasion were invited to play pairs with Philip & Mary-Ann Stevens from Cape Cod. Spent a couple of evenings with them enjoying their company and a few drinks.
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge - This area sees a lot of bird activity in the spring with migrants (mainly warblers) returning from their winter home in Mexico. After a long flight they are glad to take a rest at the first landfall. Bon Secour NWR is renowned for the number of different birds and we added another 3 to our ever growing list. The warblers didn't seem to have arrived as yet but the trail deposited us on yet another few miles of deserted sugar white sands. During our return to the truck we met a couple from the south of England who were visiting on holiday and were anxious to know if we had seen any Armadillo's as she just loves them. We had to say no, only dead ones by the roadside. A few yards further on we met a Jambo (Everyone has problems?) from Edinburgh who was spending a year at the University of Illinois as part of his American Studies course, and visiting Alabama for Spring break.
Dauphin Island - This is another area renowned for its different types of birds and is located on the other side of Mobile Bay from Gulf Shores. This necessitates a 45 minute ferry trip which was quite enjoyable if not the cheapest we have encountered in the USA. The intention when we set out was to do a loop taking in Dauphin Island, Bellingrath Gardens & Mobile. However we spent so long birdwatching on Dauphin Island (added another 3 birds to our list) we never made it to the other two. So many people had visited Dauphin Island that there was a long queue for the return ferry, which was running 45 minutes late, but we got on with room to spare. On our return to Gulf Shores we were greeted with lots of traffic all trying to reach a restaurant just like we were. Needless to say the restaurants were busy with waiting time for a table. Sitting at the bar we decided that all this busy and noisy scene would do us good and make us appreciate our normally quiet life!
Two ways to go to Carrabelle - Interstate 10, the fastest, or highway 98, the scenic coastal route. We chose the scenic route which was okay but from Penascola to Fort Walton Beach (Emerald Coast) was extremely busy and slow due to built-up areas and road work.
This 230 mile trip took about 7 hours with a couple of short stops. During the journey we changed to Eastern time and are only 5 hours different from home. The RV park looks over the Gulf Coast and a small beach (white & beautiful) is just across the road. We
are here on a fact finding mission for quiet places to stay next winter after 2 months in the busier Southern Florida.
St Marks NWR - Another of the many NWR's around the gulf coast although this one is amongst the largest, so we were surprised by how little information we were given about hiking/birdwatching opportunities on the refuge. 
The staff all seemed to have started work that day, in fact when asked if any Purple Gallinule's had arrived the reply was "I'm from Oklahoma".
We sorted out a 7 mile hike which took us through forest, alongside swamps and round open marshes on a fairly hot day. We only added 2 new birds to our list but Wullie nearly got tangled up with a snake which was sunning itself in the path. An exaggerated length and dimension was offered to Linda! about the snake that is? Alligators and waterfowl were in abundance, but the highlight was our first sighting of a LIVE Armadillo foraging for food at the finish of our hike. We had seen lots of dead Armadillo at the roadside but this was our first live one and reminded us of the English couple in Alabama.
We drove the rest of the refuge road to Apalachee Bay, home of the 1831 St. Marks Lighthouse. Brown pelicans were basking in the sun and the mosquitoes were biting everywhere so it was back to the truck and away.
St Joseph Peninsula & St George Island - Both of these locations have a state park with space for RV's at economical prices but no sewer hook-up. Both have long white sugar beaches on the Gulf of Mexico and access to the sheltered bay side of the island. Either will do us for a two week stay, with St George maybe the favourite. Either of these puts us within reach of St Vincent NWR which is only accessible by boat but seems well worth a visit. Spring is here and so are the Ospreys - nests are being re-furbished - wives sit while hubby goes off to catch fish for her dinner. A very considerate husband as he feeds her and the young for the entire nesting period - it was ever thus in oor hoose! The Bald eagles are also building their nests at this time.
Cedar Key - We decided to go further afield on our fact finding trip and stay a night in a Motel in Cedar Key on the west side of Florida. We presumed we would find a room OK as it would be Easter Sunday and visitors would be going home. Stayed on the coast as much as possible during our outward trip, but didn't see anywhere to attract us for a long stay. There are little or no beaches on this part of the Florida Coast. On one lonely road we stopped when we saw a large turtle crossing the road in front of us. Linda wanted to pick it up and transport it to the other side of the road but decided that it might not be too happy with that.
Lunchtime we had a meal in a seafront restaurant at Cedar key and Linda had good old Scottish fries (Chips with the skin on?) with her meal.
We found a small motel right opposite the fishing pier so we could watch the fishermen/women catching their tea.
With the novelty of being in the hub of things we had cocktails in the happy hour, went back to the room for a quiet hour before hitting the nightlife. The problem was there was NO nightlife, even the restaurants were closed by 7 p.m. We found a rather expensive hotel for dinner - splashed out on a bottle of wine, then tried to find a bar for a nightcap, but even these were closed presumably because they had earned enough over the weekend. Our good night out turned out to be watching the TV by 10 p.m.
We decided that we would not be staying in this area next winter. Nice if you like fishing and have a boat, but no beaches to wander along. The one very small beach was covered in horseshoe crabs that were matting and had arrived at the beach to lay their eggs. Never seen crabs like this before!
Called into Tallahassee (Florida State Capital) on the way home for Linda's beer supply as she had been dry since Louisiana. Believe that if you will?
It's now time to start heading for Illinois - first stop Lake Lureen State Park, Alabama.
NEXT MONTH: Gracelands - Memphis, Grand Ole Opry - Nashville, Triumph - Illinois. Home to Scotland.
Miles travelled this month: 2,161
Accumulative miles: 72,975
Interesting Hyperlinks:
Shadows on the Teche - Louisiana
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