It’s going to be a great day today, as we’re heading towards home.

We awoke relatively early and after a cup of coffee, began final preparations for our trip. After hooking up our toad (towed vehicle), the Honda, we departed the campground at 7:20 AM. It has been a good week, but we are glad to escape all the excitement, rich Cajun foods, rain, and bad roads. The morning began with overcast skies and an increasing northwest wind. As we proceeded north we had a couple of options for stopping for the evening. One was to drive 365 miles to the US Army Corps of Engineers Park, Maumelle, in Little Rock, or continue driving just over 500 miles to home. We didn’t make the decision early on, leaving our options open. But as we got closer to home, the more we wanted to be there. As it turned out we made two fuel stops and arrived home shortly after 5 PM.  It’s so good to be home.

Today is Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, in southern Louisiana. This is one of the area’s most celebrated holidays and few businesses are open. The day is filled with parades, while the evening is reserved for coronation ceremonies. Having been to large parades in New Orleans, I opted to stay in the motorhome today while Kay attended a morning parade. We already have tons of beads, but a few more will see us through the year! The parades today are the best of the Mardi Gras season, and Kay saw some of the best floats greater Southwestern Louisiana has to offer.

She gave away most of the beads she collected today and the morning parade was enough for her. For me, a little bit of Mardi Gras goes a long way. We spent the afternoon putting things away and getting ready to leave for home tomorrow.

The Ozark Ridge Runners had a short meeting at 4:00 PM and discussed the evening’s activities, future rallies, and assorted other minutiae.  The meeting reminded me of those we had at work and now I know once again why I retired.

At Kay’s insistence we attended the coronation ceremony for the greater Southwestern Louisiana Mardi Gras King, Queen, and court. We sat in the balcony with the rest of the ne’er-do-wells while the other “subjects" sat on the main floor in their evening gowns and tuxedos. The coronation was replete with jeweled costumes, crowns, and other paraphernalia of pseudo-royalty. It was definitely a site to behold.

We arrived back at the motorhome at about 9:30 PM, and finished preparations for an early departure tomorrow morning. We’re both ready to return home and some semblance of normality.

Once again, we were up too early, at least for us, to visit a crawfish farm north of Crowley.  The purpose of our trip was to tour the farm, learn about crawfish farming and rice farming, and eat lunch.  We go a true-to-life Cajun storyteller that presented an overview of crawfish and rice farming, and told story after story about his life, marriages, and hobby of collecting toy tractors and farm implements.  He constructed a building specifically for the purpose of serving Cajun food, telling stories, and showing his huge collection of farm toys; one room was devoted specifically to John Deer toys.

Lunch consisted of chicken and sausage gumbo, potato salad, and dump cake.  The gumbo was okay, the potato salad very bland, and the dump cake good.

We briefly saw a crawfish farm boat after lunch, then returned to the campground for the remainder of the day.

What a wild and wacky day.  We drove to Point Church with friends and fellow RVers Jim and Cheryl to see the “Going Out”.  This is a reenactment of an old Acadian cultural event where riders would go out to farms in the area collecting chickens, vegetables, rice, money, and whatever else they could get for bringing back to town to make a gumbo.  Often, they would have to chase the chickens in order to catch them.  The modern “Going Out” began in Point Church in 1961, celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.  We arrived for the 8 AM “Going Out” and never in my life have I seen so many riders in costume on horseback; nearly all had already started drinking beer, and the riders were followed by several wagons containing cases of beer, with some water and a few soft drinks.  You had to be there to really appreciate (I use this word lightly) the weirdness of this event.

After the riders and wagons left, we departed for Eunice for the boucherie, or slaughtering of a hog.  Of course, the hog had already been slaughtered, and 3 butchers were on standby to cut it up, and several booths in the area stood by to use ALL the parts.  There were two pots cooking fresh cracklin’s, one pot making backbone stew, another making pork steak sandwiches, a booth selling head cheese, and another making boudin.  We sampled everything but the boudin, and we didn’t sample it because it wasn’t ready.  After seeing some of this stuff made, I’ll have a hard time eating it again!   While in Eunice, we toured the Cajun’ music museum, the old depot museum, and the National Park Service’s Jean Lafitte Acadian Cultural Center.

Following the boucherie, we returned to Church Point to see the riders come back into town with their chickens; really, they come into town in the form of a Mardi Gras parade.  The parade came into town after 2 PM; remember, these folks had been parading all day since 8 AM, and it was wild.  I have never seen such a spectacle in my life.  Horse after horse, and float after float came by.

We returned to the campground to freshen up and then we were off again, this time to meet Kay’s friend, Donna, and her husband at Pat’s at Henderson for dinner, Cajun music, and dancing.  Pat’s is, in my opinion, the best Cajun restaurant in the area, and we were not disappointed.  Kay and I had etouffee and fried crawfish, and the two dishes were wonderful.  The music was great as well; we were able to hear two of the area’s best bands.  The large dance floor was packed, and dancing was much like bumper bodies.  We did not know how to do the Cajun 2-Step because it’s really a 3-Step, but they played some waltzes, some Texas 2-step, and some Swing.  We tired pretty early and returned home about 9 PM, too tired to even watch the news.

If you don’t like the weather in southern Louisiana, wait a few minutes and it will change.  Well, it hasn’t changed as it’s still raining, and we had a lot planned for today.  Our first stop was Martin’s Accordion Factory about 9 AM.  Martin’s makes the small Cajun’ accordian, more properly called melodian, so popular with Cajun’ and Zydeco musicians.  We were under the impression the tour would be a “factory” tour, but were surprised to be entertained with a 1 1/2 hour Cajun music concert, and it was awesome!  Mr. Martin played the steel guitar, his daughter played the guitar, and his grandson played the melodian and sang.  The quality of the music just blew us away.

During the course of the concert, we learned that Martin’s is a regular stop on the Elderhostel, now Roads Scholars, tour, and that’s a big deal.  Also during the concert, a couple walked into the shop for repair of a melodian, and Kay immediately recognized her as an old friend and fellow educator from Pulaski County. She joined Mr. Martin and his daughter in a couple of songs; she is very talented.  She and Kay conversed and made plans for later in the weekend.  It is truly a small world.

After the concert we had planned to go to the flea market, but the rain thankfully discouraged us.  Severe storms occurred throughout the area, and even a tornado touched down just west of us.  We departed the campground for the Saturday night Mardi Gras parade at 4:30 PM with scattered rain.  As evening approached the rain finally subsided just in time for the parade.  We were stationed near the start, and caught lots of beads.  It’s amazing what “old” people will do for beads.  Until tomorrow, let the good times roll.

The only planned activity today is a Mardi Gras Parade in Lafayette, freeing us for some personal activities. Knowing this, earlier in the week we phoned friends Joey and Robin in Metairie to arrange a lunch date for today.  We departed Lafayette with clear skies and sun, but enroute to Baton Rouge experienced a drenching rain—no umbrella, no raincoats.  Just west of the Mississippi River bridge, traffic slowed to a creep, and we experienced our first major traffic jam since leaving central Arkansas over 6 years ago.  It took us over 30 minutes to cross the bridge and exit off Interstate 10.  As luck would have it, Joey and Robin were caught in west bound traffic, and arrived at our restaurant just before we did.  The restaurant, Chimes, is on the edge of the LSU (geaux Tigers) campus, and is quite popular.  The nearest parking was a couple hundred yards away, and the rain was pouring; Kay and I both got soaking wet, meeting Joey, who did have an umbrella, near the restaurant.  It was so good renewing our friendship after 30 years and occasional conversations.  (Joey was kind enough to phone every few days with encouragement during my recent convalescence, and it was greatly appreciated.)  We had a great lunch, and conversed about trips, kids, and life during retirement.  Life is definitely too short for such infrequent visits.

We arrived back in Lafayette about 5 minutes too late to catch the convoy to the parade, but Kay opted to go solo.  She met some local folks, conversed about RV trips, stood with them, and had an overall great time, collecting lots of beads, while I enjoyed some quiet time in the RV. 

We boarded the bus at 8:15 AM for Avery Island and sights in New Iberia.  We arrived at Jungle Gardens on Avery Island mid-morning, and drove through the area, making several stops.  Avery Island is the home of the Tabasco pepper sauce factory, and Jungle Gardens was created by a 2nd generation McIlhenny family member, a noted naturalist, who used the area to help save the Snowy Egret from extinction.  Jungle Gardens was resplendent with huge live oaks draped with Spanish moss, bayous complete with alligators, azaleas, camellias, and other flowering shrubs.  It was a delightful area, but we would recommend walking or bicycling the roads, and making a good half day of it.

Our next stop was the Tabasco factory gift shop and tour.  The gift shop had samples of great Tabasco flavored ice cream and jalapeno flavored ice cream as well as many other Tabasco food products, and Tabasco branded paraphernalia.  The tour was a bit disappointing in that we just saw the bottling facility.  Of course, it would be difficult to see the peppers fermenting, etc.

Lunch was at the Little River Inn in New Iberia, where we enjoyed a great meal of shrimp au gratin and twice baked potato; in our opinions, this was the best meal yet.

Following lunch we toured Shadows-on-the-Teche, a National Trust historic site.  Shadows-on-the-Teche is among the oldest of Louisiana’s plantation houses, having been completed in early 1834.  It is unique in that all the furnishings are original to the family who built and occupied the house through 4 generations.  While I have not see a bunch of old plantation houses, this was by far the nicest.

Our final stop was the Konriko Rice Mill, America’s oldest.  I opted to stay on the bus, but Kay visited the company store, and toured the mill. While in the bus, I sneaked a peak at emails on the Droid, and my neighbor and close friend, Wayne, offered a solution to the refrigerator door; he had repaired one earlier for a friend.  Wayne can do anything, so we’ll wait until we return home to fix the door.

We really enjoyed the sights around New Iberia, an area neither of us had ever visited.  A quiet evening followed our long day.

Kay’s Take:  We chose to sit at the back of the tour bus when we boarded.  There are several older RVers in our group with a few physical challenges.  We noticed when we came back to our bus after lunch that Kay’s jacket was somewhat wet and we suspected that the air conditioner was leaking and we reported it to the driver. After the last stop, we loaded back on the bus and headed north toward Lafayette. The bus took a sharp right turn and all of a sudden water poured out of the condensation vents right above my head. Both of our seats were wet, but most of the water fell on my head and top. I don’t think I could have gotten any wetter if someone had poured a pitcher of water over me. I screamed, of course, and we both got up to shake off as much of the water as we could. I don’t think the driver even noticed what had happened. Another RVer made room for me to sit in another seat and we kept moving on down the road. Someone told us later the driver was either talking on his phone or listening to the dispatch conversations the entire time he was driving. I would say he was a ‘distracted driver’. When we got back to the campground, I had to rewash my hair and our clothes. Who knows what was in that ‘air condtioner condensation vent’ that dumped on us.

Our day began mid-morning with a carpool trip to Henderson, LA, to take an Atchafalaya Swamp tour.  The Atchafalaya Basin is America’s largest river swamp ecosystem.  I had the privilege of working on a US Army Corps of Engineers planning project dealing with the Atchafalaya Basin from April 1977 through March 1981.  It is still one of the highlights of my career.

We arrive at McGee’s Landing, and after bathroom stops, boarded a tour boat for a brief trip into the basin.  Actually, we didn’t get out of sight of I-10, and didn’t experience the semi-wilderness aspects of the Atchafalaya, but it was a nice tour.

We did see a number of water birds, and several alligators.

The tour guide, a dyed-in-the-wool Cajun, was entertaining, with a fairly accurate description of the swamp, and a large array of Cajun jokes.  After the brief tour, we returned to McGee’s for lunch, where we enjoyed a grilled shrimp salad or a fried shrimp po’boy. 

Late afternoon saw a couple of fellow RVers consulting about the refrigerator door problem.  There appears to be a good fix, but we don’t want to rush into things!

Dinner was at Mulate’s at Breaux Bridge.  Kay had fried catfish with an etouffee sauce on top, and I had a Cajun salad.  The food was okay, though Kay’s catfish was almost burned on the bottom.  Both of our dishes were grossly overpriced, but we had a coupon that helped reduce the cost.  The restaurant had a good authentic Cajun band, and Kay “encouraged” me to dance with her.  It took a minute or so to get the Texas 2 Step looking halfway decent, but we managed to make it around the floor a time or two. 

I spent the first 18 years of life living within 9 miles of US Highway 167, and for the next 42+ years haven’t given a thought about where it came from or where it went.  Yesterday, we turned on US Highway 167 at Batesville, like we’ve done hundreds of times before, but this time, we followed it all the way through southern Arkansas, then into central Louisiana where we departed the highway for I49.  It is a marvelous road, and is 4 lane practically all the way to Alexandria.  There was not a lot of development along the highway, particularly in Louisiana, and the surroundings were typically rural.  However, our journey was not without some excitement.  About 50 miles from our stopping point, we stopped for gasoline, and Kay opened the refrigerator door for lemonade.  The door kept opening and came completely apart from the rest of the refrigerator.  Kay was able to “stick” it back on and fasten it so it wouldn’t come undone again.  More about this later!

Our destination for this trip was Lafayette, Louisiana, joining the Ozark Ridge Runners for a Cajun Country Mardi Gras.  We arrived at our campground, Bayou Wilderness RV Resort, about noon, and after setting up, looked at the refrigerator door, and observed that the plastic hinge had broken.  We called Norcold, the manufacturer of the refrigerator.  Of course, the “voice” on the phone said to go to their website for the information needed.  Well, the RV park does not have WiFi, so thank goodness for the smart phone.  With a few button pushes using the Droid’s internet, a service company was found in Baton Rouge.  A call to them revealed that one cannot purchase just the hinge, but because it is part of a plastic frame around the entire door, we would have to purchase the entire refrigerator door; I didn’t even get upset or mad!  They also said it would take about 7 to 10 days to get it in, just about the time we’re leaving the area.  I looked up the location of a service center near where we live and found one at the local RV dealer.  The good ole boy verified the previous information, but said if we could wait, he might get in an inoperable refrigerator, and use the door off of it.  That’s customer service.  Meanwhile, we met other members of the RV club, and found 4 other couples from our home area.  One said he had had a similar problem, and pop riveted a piece of angle to the door, installed a nylon bushing, and it had worked just fine; sounds like a winner to me.  We will probably try that tomorrow afternoon.  One thing about RVing is you have to be flexible and a sense of humor helps.  The rest of the day was downhill.

We had a short club meeting, discussing the week’s activities.  For dinner, we opted for Prejeans, and it was very good, though a bit pricey.  We split the crawfish platter (what else!), and brought about half of it to the motor home.

Tomorrow, we travel to the Atchafalaya Basin for a swamp tour and crawfish lunch.  Gotta go and get some rest. 

After a 5 months absence, we’re back in the RV, this time headed to Lafayette, LA, for Cajun Country Mardi Gras.  This is our first trip in 2011.  This has seemingly been one of the longest winters we’ve experienced, as you will read in the following paragraph.
For those of you who may not be aware, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer on September 20, 2010.  We immediately made an appointment for the Mayo Clinic, and over the course of the next three months, made three 1400-mile round trips there and back, including one for a radical prostatectomy on December 15.  We arrived for the surgery a couple of days after a record December snowfall, and record low temperatures.  We rarely saw temps above “0”.  Thanks to God, the surgery was successful, and I’m pretty close to being back to normal.  Enough about that, let’s get back to RVing.
After the diagnosis, we sold the truck and our Saturn toad, and bought a Honda CR-V.  With a new toad, i.e. “towed” vehicle, pre-trip preparations included having a tow plate installed, having the lights wired to accommodate the motorhome, wiring the emergency break-away switch, and attaching eyehooks for the Protect-A-Tow; all was finished yesterday afternoon.  We welcomed spring-like weather three weeks ago after a large snow, and used the time to dewinterize and ready the motorhome for this trip.
Finally, we departed home this morning at 8:45 AM, towing the Honda for the first time; all went well.  We traveled through Melbourne, Batesville, Little Rock, Sheridan, Fordyce, and El Dorado, Arkansas, and into Louisiana.  Enroute, wild cherry trees were blooming, tulip trees were flowering, jonquils and forsythia were in full color, and Bradford pears were blooming.  Though the forests had not yet leafed out, the grass is already turning green.
At about 4 PM, we stopped to spend the evening at Lake D’Arbonne State Park.  Lake D’Arbonne State Park includes a 15,000+ acre cypress-studded lake surrounded by rolling, pine-covered hills.  One interesting note:  premium campsites were $18, BUT the State of Louisiana tags on a $6 processing fee.  Guess one has to pay for their thrills.  With states feeling the pinch on their economy, we expect to see more of this.

After setting up, we opted to hike a short nature trail, still covered with debris from the winter.  First in line, Kay performed trail maintenance, while I took advantage of the many photographic opportunities.