Friday, 14 February 2020
Happy Valentines's Day!
I had a few errands to do today and on the way saw a few sights and ate at some of the local food stars.
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| today's route |
Since Scott, where my KOA camp was, claims to be the Boudin Capital of the World, I asked at the KOA office where I could find the best boudin. (Boudin, by the way, is pronounced "boo dan" with both syllables accented. My phonics background never prepared me for this.) They agreed I should try a place called The Best Stop, a couple of miles down the road.
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| The Best Stop/Scott, LA |
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| boudin |
They specialize in fried chicken and various sausages, especially boudin. I got a half pound of regular boudin to go, though online comments warned me it'd be a little hot (as in peppers). I'd only just had breakfast so didn't eat it until dinner, but I'll tell you now I just wasn't impressed. It was only mildly spicy and had a mushy texture, and tasted a little like liverwurst. I like liverwurst, but to me this wasn't as good. Actually, the label lists liver as the second-most ingredient, which explains that, I guess. Maybe you have to be from here to be attached to it.
Second, to errands
Trying to avoid I-10, I twisted and turned on 7 little back roads to cover the 4 miles to the local recycling drop-off center. I passed the tiny town of Ulinor, where I saw the beginnings of subdivisions across the road from fields of cows. (Reminded me of when I was in high school and Richardson was cow fields away from Dallas.)
Once at the recycling center, I learned it was for Lafayette Parish residents only, but the nice lady in the office agreed that since I only had a small bag of stuff and was traveling through the area, I could use the bins. No glass recycling, though. I'm beginning to be afraid the only place for that was in Baton Rouge.
And from there I went 3 more miles to a Rouse's Market, a chain I first found in Alabama that's dependable and well-stocked. It's centered in Louisiana, so I'm finding them all over the state.
My next stop was physically located a half mile away, but it took a lot of work to get there because construction barriers were really stacking up traffic, making it hard for me to even get out of the Rouse's parking lot. Along the way, I saw what seemed like a parade of road workers wearing those yellow vests, along with a lot of big construction vehicles.
When I finally got to Marcello's Wine Market, I found a really tiny parking lot and parked across the street at the Walgreen's. I bought something I vaguely needed there as rent for the parking space and went across to the wine store. While I was paying, I asked about the road work and the clerk said they were preparing for a parade that evening. Oh, yeah. It's Mardi Gras season.
Third, to Breaux Bridge
Once again, it took serious work not only to get out of the Walgreen's parking lot but also to turn left onto the main road. By mid-morning, a major 4-lanes-plus-turn-lane had been turned into 2 narrow lanes with occasional pull-offs to turn left, all courtesy of a forest of big metal barriers stretched end-to-end for miles.
At one point I suddenly found myself skidding as if there were a patch of ice on the road. I knew it wasn't ice, what with the warm sun and only cool temperature, but that's what the skid felt like. It happened just as I came to a bridge and I was hemmed in with big metal parade barriers on one side and the concrete-and-metal barrier for the bridge, which I very nearly ran into head-on. But thank goodness for all those years of living up north where driving on snow and ice is a fact of life, because I automatically turned into the skid, which did what they say it'll do. Very scary.
I passed a sign at a car dealership that said, "We make car buying a Brees."Here and there around town I saw decorated pelicans, like this one at right. Actually, it took me a while to decide that pelicans is what they were, but it's all I could figure.
I passed the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus, where there are Ragin' Cajun signs everywhere. When I looked up the Univ. of LA to find the main campus, I learned that there isn't one. Back in the 1990s, Univ. of Southwestern LA became Univ. of LA at Lafayette, and Northeast LA Univ. became Univ. of LA at Monroe. Both schools agreed they'd never use the "Univ. of LA" part without the name of the town attached. One of the oddities - like Rutgers being the only state university not to have the name of the state in it (NJ) - that I'm finding all over these United States.
I passed a sign that said Deaf Action Center and, curious, I looked it up. It's a 501(c)3 founded in 1982 that promotes independence for the deaf and hard-of-hearing by providing services, support and advocacy (they say). Did you know there are several versions of sign language used in the US? This link gives info on the services they provide, https://deafactioncenter.org/services, and this one explains a little about the types of sign language https://www.quora.com/Sign-Language.
I entered St. Martin Parish, driving through rural country, listening to a program called Blues Box on the public radio station. Today they were playing records from the 1920s and 1930s - terrible sound but wonderful music.
Coming into the town of Breaux Bridge I found a 1-lane road, where a sloppy construction worker nearly backed into my right-hand mirror. The road was almost too narrow for me anyway, and this guy was chatting to another worker and apparently forgot where he was. I missed him by about 2".
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| The Breaux Bridge |
It's a very French town with a pleasant old-fashioned downtown around the dominant feature - the bridge - which, of course is on Rue Pont Est (East Bridge Street).
Even though the population's now up to 8,000+, it's still a small town at heart - the phone company still lets residents list themselves with their nicknames so all the folks that don't know someone's legal name can still find them. "Cooch" Romero, for instance. This article tells all about it. https://www.sun-sentinel.com
Fourth, to a po' boy
A few miles from town the narrow 2-lane road widened into a wider 2-lane road with shoulders, a real relief.
At the traffic circle across I-20, I found no fewer than 3 truck stops with attached casinos.
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| Chicken on the Bayou & Boudin Shop |
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| ½ a shrimp po' boy |
This little place has maybe a half-dozen tables to eat inside, but I got mine to go so I could feed the critters. They had a sign saying they had fresh-caught Gulf shrimp, so that's what I got. They were good shrimp and it was a good sandwich. I think they charged me $6.
Fifth, to Opelousas
I was heading to Opelousas for several reasons. I'd heard it's a very French town, which I thought would be interesting. And it was once the home of Jim Bowie. And it was on the shortest route to tonight's campground. And best of all, it had an easily accessible vendor of propane, which the last 2 nights of really cold weather had used up much of my supply of.
I found on the way that State Route 347/Bushville Highway has been designated Albert "Pyook" Berard Highway, and I looked him up. He was a local very successful Cajun musician and music producer who died suddenly a few years ago of an aneurism, and the locals wanted to honor him.
I passed fields of horses and donkeys; a pond with Mallards and Anhingas.
A stretch of my road was on the Louisiana Trails and Byways route designated Bayou Teche Byway, the same route I was on near New Iberia down south.
A sign said I was now in St. Landry Parish.
I passed a building with a sign that said "Dieux Bayous," that looked like it might have been an art gallery, though a very rugged one. Nothing fancy about this place, but it looked arty to me. Sadly, I can't find anything on the internet about it at all.
In the small town of Grand Couteau, I saw a city sign that said "Litter Bugs Everyone - Don't Do It." (little play on words) There were also several signs saying "Happy 300th Birthday Opelousas," which had me confused about where I was at first, because Opelousas is about 15 miles away.
The road along there says it's the Zydeco Cajun Prairie Byway.
This whole drive was past big fields, some planted with sugar cane, and small towns, and scattered houses, and scattered trees.
I passed a sign saying the intersection of State Route 182 (which I was on) and incoming State Route 358 has been designated St. Landry Parish Memorial Intersection. I have no idea why. All I could find in a search was the state act that created it. The act contained no information at all about why, and I didn't see a sign on the highway that explained it. I never saw a memorial intersection, or an intersection designated anything else for that matter.
I passed a large cemetery with all the graves below ground. So maybe it's a water table thing?
I passed Diamond Farms with registered Charolais, and Darling Farm that does something with horses. I keep forgetting that there's a horse racing track in Bossier City, up near Shreveport, as well as a track in Opelousas.
I passed a trio of trees: 2 star magnolias on either side of a tulip magnolia, all in full beautiful bloom.
I passed a historical marker titled Battle of Opelousas, about a little-known Civil War battle near here. Southern soldiers stopped the Union's campaign to capture Texas. https://www.hmdb.org
I chose a state route that parallels I-49 to see more countryside than an interstate usually affords. The problem was the road was so bumpy it was tiring - very noisy in the RV, the steering wheel was hard to hold, and cars piled up behind me. So my head started rattling as well.
I'd heard that a home of Jim Bowie's family (he of Bowie knife and Battle of the Alamo fame) had once lived in Opelousas and that a Chase bank is now on the site, and that's true. There's also a historical marker there. https://www.hmdb.org
I saw several signs notifying folks that coming soon would be the Jubilee of the Word Marathon - the Bible read cover to cover - at the Holy Ghost Church in town. I don't know how long they expect that to take or how many readers will be participating, but I imagine folks will be tired afterwards.
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| St. Landry Catholic Church |
It's immediately next to its cemetery in the old-fashioned way, and that cemetery is so old it has its own historical marker. https://www.hmdb.org
I drove on 3 sides of the church to get to the Tractor Supply, where they sold me some propane. It was a beautiful day but the temp at night was forecast to be near freezing.
I passed the C'est La Vie Independent Living Center (for older folks). Nearby was the Prompt Succor Nursing Center (the next step, I guess).
I passed a sign that read (I swear):
← Doctor Office
Meat Market →
which seemed a little weird, somehow.
Opelousas has decorated fiddles in public places around town. I saw some murals with titles in French (but not in English). It was where the chef Paul Prudhomme grew up. And it has an interesting Civil War-era history, including serious racial tensions during and following Reconstruction - ironic since the town is now 77% black, 20% white - more white flight? If you're interested, it's at this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/Opelousas And Opelousas hosts an annual Zydeco Festival, which is probably a lot of fun.
Finally, on to the state park
Once I left town, I found myself on a road that was almost smooth, in comparison to what I'd had before. What a relief.
I passed fields with rolled bales of hay.
My smoothish road lasted only about 15 miles before I got to Ville Platte, which calls itself Home Of Chicot State Park. Which is actually about 7 miles north of town.
The Chicot State Park contains the Louisiana State Arboretum, which claims to be the oldest state-supported arboretum in the US (established 1961). I wanted to go but was just too tired.
I saw a sign that read Chemine du Parc Chicot, and I don't know what it referred to. I can't find a translation online for "chemine" except "cheminée" which means chimney which makes no sense at all. Maybe it's something to do with the arboretum?
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