Louisiana  Swampland

Saturday, November 10 2007

We weren't sure if we would leave today or Sunday.  Donna had a couple of 'business' items to take care of and then we went to Pete's for breakfast at 10.  We hung around there till nearly 11:30, headed home, and I started loading a few things in the coach while Donna went to the grocery store.  While she was gone, she met Scott and handed over the pagers.  Since we keep the coach pretty well stock, there was not a lot to do, except the groceries.

We managed to get loaded and left home about 2 or so.  We pulled off on the side of the road at Pete's, grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch, and showed Edwina the coach when we left right at 3:00.  Donna drove to Newton, about half-way (the easiest half) and I drove the rest of the way to Kinder and the Casino RV Park.

We got here about 6, and about 7 we caught the shuttle to the Casino, staying until about 11:30.  Donna finally wound up winning about $200, and I lost about $200.  So I guess you could say we 'broke even'.

We plan to hang around here tomorrow and leave Monday morning headed for New Iberia, Morgan City, and Houma.  We will find a headquarters in that area and spend a few days exploring the South Louisiana swampland.  At least, I think that area is real backcountry backwater.  We'll see.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Another day at the Coushatta Casino.  The RV park here was almost full when we arrived last night, but folks started leaving early this morning, and by noon it was about 10% occupied.  I guess everybody has to go back to work tomorrow.  How sad !!  LOL  We slept fairly late, although I was up several times, but got up the last time about 9.  I went on over to the Casino about 10, and Donna followed about 11.

We came back to the coach about 3, took a nap for a couple of hours, then back to the Casino about 6. I broke about even today and tonight, and I think Donna did about the same.  It's about 11 now, back in the coach trying to find out who won the Nascar race today.  Maybe I can find out tomorrow.  Only thing on ESPN right now is football highlight.

We will leave tomorrow for Morgan City and Houma, hoping to park somewhere and explore the swamplands south of those two cities.  We may even slip in to New Orleans one day.  We'll see.

Monday, November 12,2007

I was up pretty early today, something like 5 the first time, then again about 7. Donna finally rolled out about 8:30.  When I got up, it was pretty cloudy and even a few sprinkles, but I thought it would clear up some.  Right now its about 9:30 and not raining hard, but a fairly good drizzle.  Donna is getting dressed and putting in the slides.  I got the truck set-up for towing before the drizzle really got started.  Only thing left to do outside is unhook the electricity.  We will probably leave here within the next half hour, headed to Houma, La. down in the Bayou country.

We left the Casino RV Park about 9:45, and headed south on 165 to I-10 in a light drizzle. About 40 minutes late we hit I-10 and headed east to Lafayette.  This stretch of I-10 used to be really rough, but has been re-built over the last few years and is in great shape.  It started raining harder and I only drove about 50 to 55 most of the way.  Lots of trucks passing us, and that caused some very limited visibility from all the spray from their tires.

By the time we got into Lafayette the rain was letting up, and soon we were in sunshine, with no more rain.  We headed south of Lafayette on US 90 headed for Houma, about 90 miles away.  The road was really pretty bumpy for the first third, somewhere past New Iberia, then got better, and then about 40 miles or so from Houma, it was very good, freeway type road.

From Morgan City to Houma was mostly on bridges through swampland.  Donna said she thought she saw one alligator, but was not sure.  We found the only 'campground' in Houma easily.  It is actually a Mobile Home Park, with some RV space at the rear and separated from the MHP.  The space itself is fairly nice, but the hookups are very wrongly placed.  The lady told us we would have NO problem with either satellite.  Boy, was she wrong !!!  Several trees blocked the sky, and we couldn't get both satellites to work at the same time. 

Since the site was real deep, we had at least 30 feet extra to work with.  After at least and hour of trying and only a few minutes before deciding to request a refund and going back to Morgan City, I turned the coach around, found just the sweet spot for both of the satellites, and bingo..  we have TV and Internet.  Since we are out of the Houston Network Channels 'footprint', we won't get any Network programming, but that's why I have the DVD at home set to record our favorites.

Its now about 3:30, Donna just went to take a nap for an hour or so, and I may do the same.  We will go exploring a little later.

More later.

After Donna's short little nap, about 4:30 we drove downtown to take a look.  Really old downtown, with a bayou running along the edge.  The main road is one-way on each side of the Bayou, making for some getting used to by us 'out-of-towners'.  We drove around downtown a while, then headed to a Cajun restaurant we had been told about.  Boudreau & Thibodaux's, a really nice place, not real big, not real busy, but really great!  We both had Seafood Gumbo, which came with some very good potato salad.  We agreed the Gumbo was the best we have ever had.  And the Potato Salad came in a close second to Felton Lemke's German Potato Salad at the Wurst Haus.

Back to the coach about 7, just watching the news, checking email, and generally surfing the web and channels.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

We hung around the coach for a while this morning, waiting on the fog to lift.  About 9 we went back to Boudreau & Thibodaux for breakfast.  Biscuits were really great, but everything else was kinda mediocre. 

We headed out of town to the south along one of the canals that runs out to the Gulf.  It is about 30 miles to the end of the road, with houses on both sides of the road, and sometimes on both sides of the canal.  The road took us through several little villages, including Chauvin, with the end of the road being at Cocodrie. 

Near Cocodrie, we came upon an old store and bait shop named for the owner Cecil Lapeyrouse, established in 1916, and still in the same family, now the fourth generation.  Really neat place.  At right is a view of their patio / courtyard area behind the store.

We missed a turn coming back toward Houma, but found another cut-off taking us to Dulac, Four Point, and Theriot.  From Theriot we went on further south to the end of the road.  The Oyster fishermen were coming in with their catch of the day. They all seemed to be manned by Mexicans, and had all gotten their limit.

 As you can see in the picture to the right, the boats were literally loaded to the maximum.  An 18 wheeler was backed up to a conveyor, where they unloaded the bags of oysters on to the refrigerated trailer, owned by Wilson's Oyster Co.

The first boat had 62 bags of about 115 lbs in each bag.  We met a young guy who is a son-in-law of the owner of Wilson Oysters.  He was supervising the unloading of the boats.  He told us the fisherman gets $25 per bag.  The Wilson company contracts with 28 boats.  The boat owners check with the company each night to see if the company will order oysters for the next day.  Boat owners are subject to the market, just like the Wilson Company.

The Oysters catch is really good right now, because just yesterday the state opened up a large area for Oyster digging that has been closed for a while.  When state areas are not available, the Wilson leases 20,000 acre on which only their contract boats can dig oysters.

Each boat had a crew of 2, the boat owner and a helper.  The boat with 62 bags, had only been allocated by the Company to bring in 50 bags, but the company does not turn down any excess.  At $25 per bag time 62 bags, the boat owner made $1,550 for the day's dig, which started at 6am and they were unloading by 2pm.  Not bad for 8 hours work.

We talked to one guy on the side of the road that said the day before just one of the companies had loaded 3300 bags of Oysters.

We got back into Houma about 3:30, and not having had any lunch, we starting looking for a good place to eat.  Dave's Seafood Kitchen was mentioned in one of the pamphlets we had, so we gave it a try.  Really good food, I had fried shrimp and Donna had fried frog legs.  The waitress was a young lady, with limited experience apparently, so it was difficult to keep my coffee cup full.  But I did manage.

New Orleans tomorrow !

Wednesday, November14, 2007

We got up fairly early today.  About 7 for Donna, and earlier for me.  We were on our way to New Orleans, about a 50 mile drive, by 8.  I was pretty foggy when we left, as it has been every morning but it cleared up fairly quick.  We drove through a McDonald's in one of the towns between here and N.O., and got a sausage biscuit.

We enter N.O. on the OLD US 90, from east of the river and near the Garden District.  We crossed on the OLD Huey P Long Bridge, which I heard was built in 1928.  Not sure that's correct, but that old sucker is old!  I just checked and it actually opened for traffic in 1935. Click here for more information about the Huey P Long Bridge.  The bridge has two railroad tracks in the middle and 2 lanes for vehicles on either side of the tracks.  Because the trains cannot handle steep grade, the bridge for the trains is much longer, and are above the vehicle lanes except at the top.

We spent the first hour or so driving around the Garden District, along St. Charles Ave., viewing the old homes and beautiful old Live Oaks.  There seemed to be very little damage to the trees from Katrina.  We saw that there is still a lot of construction (remodeling) going on, but it seems that we have noticed a lot of that in this area.  Many of the homes are considerably over 100 years old.  We talked to a guy who told us that St. Charles only had about 4 feet of water, and many of the homes are built with the main areas much higher than that.

The St. Charles street car is back in operation, although it is not yet able to continue to the end of St. Charles.  It appears that the electrical wires are being replaced, and it is appears it will be back in operation soon.  The tracks appeared in good condition, and the median area containing the tracks seemed to be a favorite of the joggers, many of whom seemed to be from Tulane University and Loyola University.

In this area is one of New Orleans' most famous restaurant, Commander's Palace, which is back going strong apparently, since the beer truck was unloading,

After leaving the Garden District we went on downtown and wandered around the French Quarter for several hours.  Jackson Square, shown at the left is a very nice park with a church as the focal point. The Bourbon Street are is much the same as it has always been,  Of course, at this time of day there was not a lot of activity, other that deliveries and a few tourist just seeing the sights.

Many, if not all, the clubs and retail shops were up and going with 30 days of Katrina.  According to a guy at the Visitors Center there was about 1 foot of water in the area of Jackson Square, and only a bit more on Bourbon street.  One lady, the owner of a hand-made rug shop told me their shop sustained no damage at all, and since they also live in the French Quarter, their home had no damage either. 

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Today we drove down Hiway 1 to Grand Isle, right on the tip of a little spit of land running out into the Gulf.  I guess the southern most point in Louisiana.  The drive took us through several small towns, over the inner-coastal canal, and along a small canal or bayou.  This area seemed to be home to a lot of shrimp boats.  We even saw several 'shrimping' in the canal.

At the end of the road is Grand Isle, a settlement of beach houses, most high upon stilts.  Some were rather old, had been there a while.  Many appeared to have recent repairs or additions, probably from Katrina.  There was also at least two new gated developments, with man-made canals for private boat docks and homes.

Very few pictures today, none worthy of posting here.  Guess was just not in the mood for being the photographer today.

Back to Kinder tomorrow and Saturday night.