Thursday, 6 February 2020
So we finally saw the deer, 2 of them, just at sunset. With my usual timing, we were just leaving the RV for our last walk of the day when they showed themselves, so I had a hard time getting Dexter to walk a different direction. Luckily, some other campers came in just then and set up camp right where the deer had just been. That plus me and 2 dogs appearing was apparently enough to convince the deer to go somewhere else because we didn't see them again.
Then this morning I'm sure they were around, but we didn't see any and I can't tell you how relieved I was to get out of that campground without a disaster.
I spoke too soon about the weather because overnight we got several bursts of heavy rain, lots of wind, and some really loud thunder. I got up for a bathroom run and had trouble getting in because both dogs were huddled at the door. Gracie apparently wanted to get in to hide in the shower (a nuisance for Lily because her box gets blocked), and I had the door fixed so only Lily could get in. And Dexter apparently wanted to go where Gracie was. So both of them were cowering at the end of my bed, shaking, the poor things. So I patted them for a while and told them we were safe and tried to be soothing. They finally moved to the bed under the table when the thunder seemed to move away.
I had the fan on all night because it had been hot when we went to bed, but when I got up in the morning it was much colder and I had to turn the heater on. The temp plummeted during the night from the 60s at bedtime to the low 40s around sunrise. It's the tail end of that system that's spreading snow and ice all over the northern states. And I heard today that both Mississippi and Alabama had bad storms and flooding and someone in AL actually died from high winds. So we were lucky.
 |
| today's route |
The drive west
I saw a house - just an ordinary house - that had 10 windows on one side, about an inch apart from each other. They looked like ordinary single-hung windows and they took up the entire side of the house. I have to assume there were lots of windows on the other side too and that they were there for air flow. More windows even than those old 1900s houses built before AC was invented, because these were all jammed right up next to each other. It really looked odd.
A sign told me Route 10 that I was on is Zachary Taylor Parkway. Well, first off, it's not a parkway, it's only a 2-lane-no-shoulder country road, And for seconders I hadn't connected any presidents to Louisiana - except Andrew Jackson of course because of the Battle of New Orleans. But I looked it up and learned that Zachary Taylor is the only Louisiana native to become president (he was #12). They honored both that and his effective military service by naming an important road (it crosses the width of the state) for him.
Before I saw that sign, I saw several signs telling me this is a Louisiana Scenic Byway, but I can't figure out why. I mean, it's nice enough country and I'm sure will be quite pretty in the summer, but there's nothing particularly scenic about it that I can see. But when I tried to look it up, all I could find were sites telling me this route is the Zachary Taylor State Byway. So there it is.
I spent all morning on this road and passed almost nothing but small towns, houses and cows. Lots of cows. In fields I saw anything from just a few to a herd of 50 or more. There weren't many crop fields that I could see, just the fields of grazing cows. And an occasional sign for a family dairy farm.
I passed an interesting-looking house. A small 2-story house with a porch around all 4 sides upstairs and down. Except on one side of the house the downstairs porch area was taken up by a carport that was covered by the porch on the 2nd story. And these porches were so wide (more than the width of a car), the porch area may have been bigger than that of the small house itself. I'm guessing these are folks who spend a lot of time outside, though I'd have thought some of that porch area would be screened in. I keep finding a lot of bugs around and it's still just early February. But it looked like a very comfortable place to live.
I went through the town of Clinton, established 1824. And since these small towns are strung along this little state highway, soon after Clinton I came to Jackson (not to be confused with Jackson, MS). I can tell you that Junius "Pappy" Robillard is making a vigorous run for mayor of Jackson. His name sounds quintessentially Louisianan to me, much more so than his opponent Jimmy Norsworthy, who seems to be running a halfhearted campaign. Sorry, I can't tell you anything about either of these folks, though, because there's nothing obvious online about them.
For much of today's drive, the road has been lined with trees and occasional houses and more fields of cows. This area must be Louisiana's dairy region. The road has also been moving up and down over low hills, though I'd've expected flatter land since we're coming up on the Mississippi River: Hwy. 61 that runs south from St. Francisville to Baton Rouge roughly parallels the river, and you can see it in today's route map.
St. Francisville
My original idea when I was planning today's drive was to stay the night here and do some sightseeing. But when I looked more closely at what's in the area, I changed my mind. Mostly the sights to see are plantations which, in my view, charge a whole lot of money to show folks around 150-year-old splendor that was possible only through slave labor which the tours don't seem to want to mention. Although I'd like to see some of these houses, I don't want to feel like I'm helping perpetuate this myth that white folks did all this alone - which apparently a lot of people believe. I heard of a plantation farther south that has their tour focused on the slavery, rather than on the masters, and that's what I'm willing to pay money for. Even the Audubon State Historic Site here is actually a plantation where he stayed for a few months and they charge $10 admission. Anyway, I decided not to stop long in St. Francisville.
But I needed some groceries and we all needed to stretch our legs and take a bathroom break and have some lunch. I'd found online a new grocery store called Audubon Market (though it has nothing whatever to do with him) and I'd planned to stop there. But the parking lot was small, crowded, and the entrance had a raised lip that made me not want to try it. I've seen those often in this state - the entrance to a driveway is raised even as much as an inch - whole neighborhoods are built with driveways like this. Even driving a regular car I've found those lips to be a nuisance, but in my RV they can cause serious balance problems. If I don't go over them very slowly, the whole vehicle rocks violently, including all the vehicle's contents. Exiting over the lip is bad enough, but entering is more than a nuisance. But while driving to this market, I'd passed an IGA grocery and I like that chain, so I decided to go back there. Turned out to be a good decision because they had almost everything I wanted. And we had our little rest stop besides.
To New Roads
I took a side road from St. Francisville for 2 reasons: I wanted to get over to a road closer to the Mississippi River, and I wanted to see the town of New Roads. There's nothing special about the town that I know of, but it's the center of population for Louisiana. I found an interesting article about centers of population if you're interested. https://www.howderfamily.com/blog/state-centers-population
More interesting than the town, though, was getting there. I had to cross the Mississippi River, which is always an event, it being a river of some size. At this location, the crossing is on the John James Audubon Bridge (remember I said when I first got to this state that all kinds of utterly unrelated things are named after this famous man?).
 |
| John James Audubon Bridge |
New Roads is just an ordinary small town - pop. 4,800 - that's oriented around a different river - the False River. The town got its name from a new road that was built in the late 1700s to connect the Mississippi River with the False River. The river got its name from it not being a river at all, though it was until the early 1700s, when it was a main channel of the Mississippi River. But over time the river moved farther east and this section got cut off into an oxbow lake.
Main Street in New Roads was clearly almost the only street a long time ago, because just past the small area of shops and things are some very nice houses, followed by some small modest houses, all nicely kept. Seems to be a very pleasant little place.
On the drive south
I'm beginning to see cemeteries with above-ground graves, which to me means the water table in this area is shallow, though I may be wrong about both the water table and the reason for the above-ground graves.
I've been seeing egrets here and there. I got a good view of a Red-tailed Hawk and passed a Kestrel hunting.
This whole drive is along the Great River Road and for much of its distance is running right next to a levee. Actually, in Louisiana there are 2 Great River Roads, one on either side of the river. In all the other states I've been in, the river's been a state boundary line; here, it runs right through the state on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Hwy. 61 that I was on before I turned to cross the river, is the eastern route of the Great River Road for part of its distance, and I'm driving on State Route 415, the western route. I'm just amazed to see people living their lives with their houses within yards of this river. Maybe it overflows less frequently than it seems like it does, but why would you want to rebuild in the exact place that got flooded last time?
I passed cows grazing on the levees in small fenced fields (though the cows don't have any choice about where they live).
And I went back to this campground where I'd stayed a week ago. It's not cheap, but it's a comfortable place for the dogs and it's close to Baton Rouge where I wanted to visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment