A Day In The Life Of...

We have been so pleased with how easy our camping experiences have been.  First of all, we packed all the right stuff!  I don't know how it happened, but we have not had one time where we looked at something we brought and said, "what in the world?"  We have also had very few "Where the heck is..." moments.  We know where all our stuff is and have been really good about putting everything back in its place.

As soon as we get to a campsite, up goes Celeste,out comes the cooler, the water jugs, the stove and chairs; we re-arrange our four storage bins, take the suitcases from the car and put them in the Celeste, and can be on our way in 15 mintues if we choose.  David and I have even worked out the signals used so he can back up the car and hitch it up to Celeste in one try!  Wow!  Then when we leave, it is all done in reverse.  Each of us have our tasks which we do without checking out the other.  Very efficient. Here are some photos of us at our campsite and in Celeste.







We did make the mistake of buying a little to much perishable food for the first two shopping ventures, but by now we have gotten used to shopping every two days, and making great use of roadside stands for local produce.

Celeste wasa bit toasty in LA since it was about 95 degrees most of the time and about 90% humidity.  We bought  fan that works well since all the sites have electrical hook ups and we plug Celeste into the hook up and the fan into Celeste's inside plugs.  Of course, we sleep as far from each other as humanly possible in a double bed.

We could not survive with our wonderful GPS (named My Lady), since I am in charge of the navigation.  Of course, surveyor David does not trust her as implicitly as I do, so I am forced to look at maps every so often. David is doing a great job of driving...and I have driven at least 100 miles so far.  I am a far better passenger than driver and spend most of my time looking things up on the internet.

Usually on our vacations we practice the "out of site and out of mind" theory of getting away from it all and are reluctant to even check our emails while we are away.  This trip is quite different, as you can imagine, and we are enjoying all the emails that are sent our way.  We also use the cell phone quite frequently so feel that we are up to date on the goings on of eveyone.  So, please feel free to email and make comments on our website since we would love to know what all of you are up to.

WE ARE HAVING SUCH A GOOD TIME AND MEETING SUCH INTERESTING PEOPLE.  We are so lucky!

Cajun all the Time

When we were in Nashville at the bluegrass dive, Station Inn, the Belgian man, Ed ,we met said that we should go to Mamou, LA to a bar called Fred's which, on Saturday morning had great cajun music.  Since we are acting like feathers in the wind on this trip, we did, indeed leave New Orleans for Mamou, or close to it, staying in Lafayette, LA at an absolutely terrible parrish park with nasty bathrooms, millions of cicadas and owls. However, we were so busy that we spent little time there.

First of all, I declared that it was criminal to eat camp food at all in LA, so we have not cooked one meal in all the time we are in Louisianna, and Lafayette was no exception.

Right afer we got our campsite, we went to Avery Island to visit the Tabasco factory.  Well, David was sure we were going to the wrong place, because he could not figure out how we were going to get to the island since there were not bridge signs and no ferry signs.  Ha!  Our little "island" was really a salt dome...a salt island in the middle of land full of sugar cane fields.  The tour was quite interesting, since they use old Jack Daniels barrels to store the pepper mash for three years before bottling it as Tabasco sauce.  I had pepper ice cream and it was quite tasty.

We then went to beautiful St. Martinsville, home of Evangeline and all things Wordsworth and then to Randol's for dinner and our first taste of cajun music and dancing.  I had 3 POUNDs of spicey, boiled crawfish for dinner.  Did I say they were spicey?  David had crawfish etouffee. We thought the band and folks who were on the dance floor were great.  That is, until we got to Fred's on Friday.

What a hoot!  I thought I could get a cup of coffee and some breakfast while listening to Cajun music and watching the dancing.  Bloody Mary was more like it.  Fred's is the little bar where there is no cover and no pressure to buy anything...great music and the best dancers (especially the men) that I have seen.  I got asked to dance three times...and took two poor souls up on their offer.  Each one thanked DAVID quite nicely after our dance for giving them the pleasure.  We signed a guest book and had our names announced as out of town visitors.  Had our first taste of boudin (pronounced boo-dan) which is a sausage made with pork, rice onions and lots of seaoning. The music went from 9 to 1:30 but we had to leave around noon to race to our boat waiting to take us on a swampt tour.

We were the only ones on the boat and had a wonderful guide who took us through the cyprus and tupelo trees through the marsh and bayous.  Saw three alligators, lots of frogs, turtles, roseate spoonbills and other birds including great and little blue heron and lots of kinds of egrets.  Some of the swamp that we boated through really looked like land and some of the plant mats were strong enough to hold alligators, even though they were just floating vegitation.

Then, we had heard on the radio of the Church Point Buggy Festival, so, of course we had to go, despite making promises to one of the couples we had met the night before that we would go to their friend's resaurant for dinner, and passing up the chance to visit Evangeline race track.  Before we went to the buggy festival, however, I really, really wanted to see the Belmont Stakes and we could not find a bar anywhere, even going so far as to stop in a gas station to ask around.  I ended up running into a little, divey lunch place and spied a TV in the corner.  Since we were the only folks there I asked if I could watch the horse race.  The waitress looked around and said, "Horse race?  There's no race in here"  "TV", I shouted and turned it on.  What a disappointment that race was.  Oh well.  The wife of the guide on our swamp boat, plus several other people we met personally knew Big Brown's jockey since he was from Lafayette parrish.

On to the Buggy Festival.  Very light on buggies (6 to be exact tucked into the corner of a gym) but very heavy on accordians.  Cajun and zydeco music and at 8 pm an ACCORDIAN EXTRAVAGANZA!  9 accordians all playing together and then each taking a lick.  What a wall of sound.  What a great day.  the guy in this first photo was the accordian player in the cajun band that we first heard.  As we were sitting down in the bleachers he looked over and gave me a big smile.  Be still my heart.

We keep thinking it can't get any better, and then it does!

New Orleans...nature and music

June 5 was the best day ever!  In the morning we drove out of town a ways to Lafayette National Park, with a boardwalk and pathway tour through a bayou and swamp.  Even though it was about 95 degrees and very high humidity, it was great to see the more natural side of New Orleans. The signage was great because it explained how the terrain changed from marsh to swamp. We even saw an alligator try to catch a squirrel.  Quite a splash.  Great frog sounds too.

Since it was so very hot we left the swamp and went back to Celeste, for a short, hot nap.  The humidity is killing and even though we took showers, by the time we walked back to our campsite, we were dripping again.  People here keep saying that this heat is just normal,  Its in the summer when things really heat up.  No thank you!

We left camp to go to the neighborhood restaurant that the guy on the ferry recommended.  Great choice.  We ordered a dozen char-grilled oysters.  I don't like oysters, and David had to fend off his share with a fork because I tried to eat them all up.

Then the evening really picked up.  We went to the French Quarter and Preservation Hall.  We had been on Bourbon Street the night before and stopped and heard what we thought was a great jazz band  which we really enjoyed. Oh my lord.  Were we in for a treat this night. We went to Preservation Hall, which was not like either one of us expected.  We had heard that it was the premier jazz place, and we knew that it was small and that most people had to stand, and that there was no eating or drinking.  What we didn't know was tht it was a room that hadn't changed since the 1920's!  Ceiling fans, raggedy walls, no amplification...and music that was from the soul!  What an evening.  Luckily my handy dandy sneaky pete recorder did quite well hiding in David's pocket and I can make cd's of the music when we get to Alaska.  the rendition of St. James Infirmary Blues was the best we've ever heard.  it was hard to leave after two sets. The next photo shows the stage while the band is on break and the following one shows the rather unassuming outside.  Notice, there is no visible sign.

Then, reluctantly, we went back to hot Celeste for an early start to Cajun contry in the morning!

The Dead in the Big Easy

The Big Easy again

Our second day here started with a very long drive hoping to see the point where the Miss empties into the gulf.  However, since the river is so windy, it would have involved another ferry ride and quite a long trip, so we got halfway there.  What was so startling, however, was to ride alongside the levees and see huge ocean going ships floating quite high above our heads.  The sight really brought home how fragile New Orleans really is.  Even though we had seen the photos of Katrina, we really could not visualize levees, having only seen sea walls at the Jersey shore.  But, riding on a road with the river above us, contained only by a dirt wall, was quite graphic.

We spent the rest of the morning doing laundry and then made our first real trip into the city.  First we had beignets at Café du Monde.  Piggy that I am, I ate 4 and then pounds of powdered sugar that was left in the bottom on the bag.  I was completely white by the time I stopped and had to get out of the car and wash off.  David ate two with all the sugar brushed off and came out unscathed.  The Metaire Cemetery was all that!  No grass in site!

Then we took our own walking tour of the garden district.  You would think that the folks living there would get tired of tourists peeping in their houses.  Apparently not so.  We were gawking through the fence on one particularly lovely home when the women who lived there came out to get the mail.  We told her how lovely her home seemed; she thanked us for coming to New Orleans and said that the city really appreciated visitors…and then invited us inside for a tour.  What a wonderful person.  (Hello to you if you read this blog).  We have been so impressed with the welcoming nature of everyone we have met.

Right after our tour we spoke to Dylan in AK and he, having been here many times, recommended a great funky restaurant outside of the center of town where we had a great time!  You never know who knows what!

Even though we were getting really tired due to the great heat and all our walking, we went off to Bourbon Street , where, miraculously, our energy level soared and we heard GREAT jazz at one of the places we had passed the night before. 

The Big Easy

The Big Easy

We left Natchez on June 3 and made our way to New Orleans, stopping along the way in Gibson Point on Church Street to take this photo. What were these people thinking? There were easily 10 churches on the well-named street.

Our campgrounds in New Orleans is in St. Bernard parish, one of the heavily hit places during Katrina and as we came in, we saw many boarded up houses and empty lots.

We had a long encounter with the post mistress in a local post office we told us many hurricane tales: a house that was speared on top of a telephone pole; a house that was taken from its foundation and floated a mile down river, then cut in half by an oak tree and then the two halves floated away; her son who JUST moved back into his home; her neighbor, a contractor who ripped her off $3000 and all the folks who used this time to make much needed improvements.  But, everyone we spoke to emphasized that the physical scars, while they will eventually go away, will take a lot less time to erase than the emotional ones.  But, this woman did say that they won't be right for about 10 years.  And where she is, the parrish built the levees and they are totally inadequate and the feds won't help rebuild.

It seems that the campgrounds, while not very shady, does have wi-fi!  However, we found that for some reason, we cannot upload photos to this site, so we went into town (about 30 minutes away) and spent a full two hours at a coffee house with wi-fi writing and sending the previous two blogs.  Our first great taste of New Orleans.

Then the fun began.  We went to a great and very popular oyster house for dinner and I had my first taste of crawfish.  Messy and good.  Then on to Bourbon Street and a WALL of sound!  Mostly loud rock and roll and electric stuff, but we found two places with real old time jazz that we plan to go back to.

We had a great GPS experience on the way back.  "My lady" (the name for the GPS) has been invaluable, ad even David, while still looking at maps, has learned to trust her.  But tonght we had our doubts as she took us, at 10:30 pm down a main highway and through a sharp left and right where she then said "Now board ferry".  My God.  It was pitch black, we didn't see a soul, no boat and she seemed to have left us stranded.  However, she really does know her stuff and about 10 minutes and $1.00 later we, and about 4 other cars trundled on a little ferry for the trip acorss the Miss.

We did meet a great guy who recommended a wonderful restaurant that we plan to go to tomorrow.

We are so thrilled with the people we have met.  All are so open and willing to share information and seem genuinely glad to see us.

Natchez, Mississippi

We visited Natchez proper on June 2., and although we were glad to visit, was not our all time favorite place. In the morning David met an 84 year old man on a motor scooter who lives in Natchez and scooters around the park every morning.  It seems he has a pop-up just like ours and uses it, as he said, for a "play house".  Its never been anywhere and he sits in it and reads!  However, he gave us the best line of the trip.  David asked him, as he always does, for a restaurant recommendation and he said, with perfect sincerity, "We always go to KFC.  You cannot beat their fried chicken and the quality is always the same."  Oh, be still my heart!

In order to fulfill my great gambling habit, we first visited the great "Isle of Capri" a srange and seedy "riverboat" in Natchez Under the Hill.  More like a concrete bunker filled with one floor of slot machines.  We parked in a lot above the river and then took a parking lot shuttle to the boat.  I spent my $20.00 on quarter slots and then it ws really time to leave.  In all, about 20 minutes spent and I was done. 

We went back to the car and drove in a big loop to Natchez Under the Hill restored area for lunch, parked the car, got out, and saw that the Isle of Capri was right in front of us.  We could have spit at the restaurant we were looking for from our riverboa!  So much for surveying!

Natchez is noted for its fine old houses and we visited Dunleith, built around the same time as Maxwell mansion, where Ellen worked, in Germantown.  There the resemblence ended hoswever.  Beautifully restored with a B & B on the upper floors where rooms rented for $89.00 a night with breakfast.  Everyone should go back and have a stay.

FINALLY we got to see the new Indianna Jones movie at a matinee.  David hasn't recovered from a daytime movie yet!  Air conditioning and a good movie...what more could you ask.  But Ellen got busted for trying to bring in "outisde" popcorn and had to leave it in the office until after the movie.

Back to campsite where, on June 3 we prepared to leave for New Orleans. 

Memphis

On May 30 we left for Memphis and stopped at Shiloh battlefield and drove on the Natchez Trace on the way. We went past the grave of Merriweather Lewis's grave on the Natchez Trace which was very meaningful, especially to David.

On May 31 WE MET ELVIS!!! Graceland at 10 am. What an operation. The staging area is across the street from the "mansion" complete with a guy who takes your photo and then tries to sell it to you as you try to leave, and multiple gift shops broken into specialty areas: cars, planes, at the movies, music, etc. A bus takes you across the street to the "mansion" which in today's world is like an upper middle class home, but frozen in time in 1957. Purple bathroom, jungle room with green shag carpet on floor and ceiling and tv's everywhere. The raquetball room has been turned into a trophy room, full of gold records and samples of the suits that Elvis wore while performing. In another area of the grounds are displays of all the outfits he ever wore, and the two planes he owned, and a musem of all the cars and 4 wheeled vehicles he owned. An audio tour took you through all, and, of course, Elvis music played throughout.

Oops, How could i forget the Meditation garden with the graves of Elvis (with an eternal light and many plastic flowers) his parents, his grandmother and his twin brother.

What a hoot. We bought a shot glass for all of our heavy drinking.

After Elvis we spent a few hours in an island in the middle of the Mississippi, Mud island which has a model of the entire Mississippi river and watershed, complete with water running through it. this took up many, many yards and acted as a wading pool for many little kids. Great river musem and guided tour of the model. I took a little snooze because it was very hot.

Off to sloppy, gooey barbecue in a little hole in the wall. All the barbecue we have eaten so far has been served on styrofoam with no utensils. We won't know what to do with real service. The best thing, other than the food, was the owner's 1 year old grandaughter named Lailah, who joined us for dinner and posed for a photo so we could send it to the other Layla.

Our day was still not done and it was off to Beale Street. My favorite place..a combination of tacky, loud South Street and great, great music. Bar after bar blasting live jazz, one place better than the other. It was wonderful!

I am sitting here writing this at our campgrounds outside of Natchex Ms and I am getting covered in all manner of flying things. I supposed this is better than the way I have been writing, which is sitting in the car, with my head covered completely in a towel to cut out the sun and allow me to see the computer screen. However, I now have 4 cockroachy things on my screen, so I am done!