Louisiana – Riveted

Bayou Teche Scenic Byway

Laura Domela — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:30:00 +0000

We drove the Bayou Teche Scenic Byway yesterday from Lafayette to New Orleans. SO glad we didn't just take I-10. These first few shots are around New Iberia, LA.

Apparently the Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival is going on in New Iberia right now.

We were driving down one of the main streets through New Iberia and we heard a bunch of sirens and realized it was coming from behind us. We pulled over, and three or four motorcycle cops and a couple of SUV cops were escorting a school bus through town, fast! with sirens and lights going. We figured perhaps it was Sugar Cane Queen and her Court.

Gator on a stick. We don't have that at home.

We turned off the main road and headed over to the Tabasco Plant on Avery Island. There's tons of great information here on their website. Here's a quick bit about Avery Island though: Avery Island is one of five salt dome islands rising above the flat Louisiana Gulf Coast. These islands formed over the eons when alluvial sediment covered a vast plain of salt left behind by an ancient saltwater ocean. Surrounded by low-lying swamps and marshes, Avery Island stands at 163 feet above mean sea level.

The Tabasco Country Store here is killer…tons of fun Tabasco sauces and things you don't find in regular stores. They make jalapeno ice cream and raspberry chipotle ice cream and both are pretty good and interesting. We picked up a couple bottles of sauce and some spicy green beans that we had tonight in our martinis and they're good…and spicy.

More shots as we continued:

Downtown Franklin:

We had a little bit of rain, which resulted in the Airstream getting a bit of a wash (yay) and a cool double rainbow:

This was one of my favorite shots and it was good in color, but better in black and white:

We're crossing the Mississippi!!

Here's our new spot at Ponchartrain Landing:

Oh yeah…I forgot to tell you that yesterday as soon as we entered Louisiana, I saw an armadillo (road kill)! But still!! I thought it was cool. Kevin (from Texas) was not so excited about it. Whatever.

Graveyards and Po’Boys

Laura Domela — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:36:34 +0000

This morning before we headed out we took a quick drive around Lafayette. We stopped at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, a historic Roman Catholic cathedral. It was the first church in the Lafayette Parish, founded in 1821 on property donated by Jean Mouton, built in the Romanesque Revival style. Cool-looking, isn't it?

Behind the cathedral is the St. John Cemetery — the oldest in the city of Lafayette. The high water table in South Louisiana makes above ground burial almost a necessity.

The tomb of Jean Mouton, who donated the property for the church, is in this cemetery, along with his son, Alexandre Mouton, governor of Louisiana from l843 to l846, and his grandson, J. Alfred Mouton, a West Point graduate and general in the Civil War.

More Moutons:

Also, this enormous oak tree next to the cathedral! It's almost 500 years old, it's trunk is 9 feet in diameter, and has a circumference of 28 feet 8 inches. It's about 126 feet high with a spread of 210 feet across. (Click picture to enlarge a bit.)

After traipsing around the cemetery for 20 minutes or so, we headed over to the Olde Tyme Grocery to get the shrimp po'boys we'd been hearing about in almost everything we researcged about Lafayette. This place is worth all the mentions. (Olde Tyme Grocery comes up as the #1 rated restaurant in several review sites we visit…Yelp, Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon….)

And they aren't kidding about the shrimp po'boys. They were fabulous. Well, the large one that we split was fabulous. The other one is in the fridge for later.

This place does a very brisk and efficient business and it was fun just to watch 'em work!

Heading out into Cajun country/the Bayou Teche today on the way to New Orleans!

Acadiana Park Campground in Lafayette

Laura Domela — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:48:10 +0000

Here's a shot of our campsite this morning:

And here's a shot of our end of the campground:

Pretty place (lots of cool sounds from the trees last night!), not too crowded. So far our AT&T cell service is hanging in the 3-4 bars range, and we're using our Verizon data card for internet successfully.

Check out the outside of the Airstream this morning. Basically, what we've got here is a 27 foot long aluminum container full of 72-degree 43% humidity air, in an 86-degree 84% humidity environment.

We’re in Louisiana! With the Airstream!

Laura Domela — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:55:21 +0000

We drove from New Braunfels, TX to Lafayette, LA today. We're happy to be back in Louisiana…it's been a while.

Here's downtown Houston as we breezed by:

You know you aren't home anymore (unless you live in Louisiana) when you see about 18 billboards in a row advertising places that have boudin and cracklins. (Eighteen is not exaggerating, either.)

Oh, and a couple of "hold the baby alligator" signs mixed in as well:

We pulled into our campground in Lafayette (Acadiana Park Campground) with an hour and eight minutes until the restaurant we wanted to try closed…so we unhooked the Airstream, locked up, and headed out for some late dinner at the Blue Dog Cafe. It was great. We had crawfish wontons, blacked catfish topped with crawfish etouffee, and some grilled shrimp with sauteed spinach and a little angel hair pasta. Our waiter was fabulous, and there was a good guitar player on stage in the bar area (Scott Alan Stagg). Great vibe all around.

Our campground (from what we could tell in the dark) is great. There's a gate (you get a code to get in), nice wooded spots with water and electric, a dump station, and it's just a few minutes off of I-10. (Oh, and it's $13/night.) Deal! Will let you know more in the morning.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to New Orleans for a few days (via the Bayou Tech scenic byway) after we do a few things in Lafayette. We want to check out St. John's Cathedral and the cemetery there, as well as the 500 year old oak tree, and pick up some shrimp po'boys at the Olde Tyme Grocery. We hear they're magic.

Note: The area of Louisiana we're exploring now is referred to as "Acadiana." (Basically, it's the French part.) More info can be found here.