Louisiana - Day 16 - Acadia and Prairie Coast to Lake Charles

Sam Houston Jones State Park, Moss Bluff
Sunday, 16 February 2020

today's route

Driving south
As I was driving through the park away from the campground, I saw a sign that said, "Drive Carefully - Substandard Roadway."  Truer words were never spoken, as my Momma used to say.  The road was actually 1 wide lane with a stripe down the middle suggesting it was intended for 2 lanes.  I was lucky it was a Sunday, and early enough that I didn't meet anyone towing a boat to the boat launch I was leaving behind.

Along the road I saw campaign posters for various positions in various towns that said "Please Elect ___" - I can't remember anyone ever asking for my vote saying "please."  Kind of nice.

I passed the plant that produces Slap Ya Mama Cajun Products.  Terrible name but I understand they're good products - spices and such.

I passed a sign near the town of Vidrine that offered "Hay Round & Square Baling Service."

I passed lots of empty fields and assume some of them will be planted with hay come spring.

I passed lots of small communities of houses - didn't find names, just houses - and these houses were all strung along State Route 10.  None of them seemed to have more than just a narrow driveway up to the house - no large parking area, and certainly no place to park along this narrow no-shoulder roadway.  So how do these folks visit each other?  Maybe in the daytime they feel safe trundling along this highway on golf carts but surely not at night, and I didn't anyway see any golf carts or 4-wheelers.

I saw a huge flock of Red-winged Blackbirds in a plowed field.

As I drove south I started seeing a lot of very large square ponds and thought maybe they were farming fish?  But I didn't see any signs, which I usually do at fish farms.  Then I started to see lots of what looked like odd buoys dotted in these ponds.  Buoys with red round tops above some kind of mesh.  I finally found a wide spot to pull off and take some photos.

like I said - big fields

closer view of the little "buoys"

Farther down the road I saw whole flocks of egrets fishing in these ponds.  It finally dawned on me that a fish farm wouldn't be so shallow that an egret could stand in it, and anyway no fish farmer would allow birds to eat up all their product.  And then I started to see more and more flooded fields that had buoys and lots of those little sticks in them you can see a few of in this photo above.  That's when I realized these were rice fields.  Duh.  In my defense, I don't remember ever seeing a rice field before - or, at least, nobody ever told me that's what I was seeing.  But I finally remembered this part of the state is famous for its rice.

I passed what looked like company housing, though not the sort of housing I'd have expected for company houses and I don't know what company would be owning them.  But what I saw were 10 narrow white houses - almost like shotgun houses or wooden versions of mobile homes - lengthwise to the highway, a space, then 10 small brown square houses, a space, then 10 more long narrow white wooden houses.  I saw newish pickups beside 2 of the square houses so assume they're occupied.  Very odd.

I saw a billboard that said, "Cancer Is A Bitch Car Crushing LLC."  It turns out to be a real company, registered as a limited liability corporation for the last 5 years, and that's all I can find out about it.

More huge rice fields, some fully covered with water, some with just lots of water between the rows, though those had stalks in them that looked just like the rice stalks, so I guess they were also rice fields that had been irrigated but not flooded.

Lots of Trump supporters in this part of the state.

Eunice

Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum

I came to Eunice mainly because of the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  I was pretty sure it was going to be closed (on a Sunday) and it was, but I didn't want to come all the way down yesterday or wait until tomorrow, so this is one place I'll have to come back to.

Eunice Duson

While I was here, I walked the dogs around a bit - very pleasant old town.  Named for the founder's wife, and there's a statue of her downtown.  The statue photo (right) is from the internet, though it's across the street from the theater, which is mine; she certainly looks elegant.  The town was incorporated in 1895, so I guess that's the era her clothes are from.

I think the '20s-era women in the theater photo are etched on those glass doors.

I saw a sign directing me to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center but I didn't bother to go, figuring it too would be closed on Sunday (it was).  But I later learned it's part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and sounds like it's worth visiting.  Next time.

I saw another sign letting me know the Annual World Championship Crawfish Etouffee Cookoff is coming up on March 29th.  I'm sorry to miss it because I'm sure a good time - and good food - will be had by all.

While I was here, I accidentally discovered recycling bins and dropped off everything except glass.  Lucky.

Back on the road
I passed the town of Iota, which is apparently a lot bigger than its name.  It has a population of 1,500 and calls itself the Little Town with a Big ♥.

I saw several signs advertising the "StL Proud Coalition" which they say is "One Parish Pulling Together to Stop Underage Drinking."  The StL stands for St. Landry Parish, which I was still driving in.  This is apparently a big effort by quite a number of parish organizations and individuals which has specific goals to help reduce or stop kids not only from drinking but also from abusing prescription drugs.  Their effort sounds pretty impressive and is at this link, if you're interested.   http://stlproudcoalition.com/about-us

I entered Acadia Parish.  I'm starting to see some spring green on a few of the trees.

I passed a small family chicken farm, with hundreds of chickens pecking around in a fenced yard.

More rice fields.  Plenty of flat land.  This area is called prairie.

I passed a sign directing me to the Gravesite of Charlene Richard.  Having never heard of her, I wanted to know why there was an actual highway sign about her grave.  She was a local girl who died at age 12 in 1959 amid claims she can work miracles.  There's been a slow push to get her canonized both by local folks but also, surprisingly, by several members of the clergy.  There's some information at this Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Charlene-Richard

Lots of horses today.  And several colts - one of them started bouncing toward another like my dogs do when they want to play.  Very cute.

I've been seeing lots of thistles in Louisiana - big ones, some of them.

I'm including this online photo of a thistle just to show that's what I'm talking about, but some of those I've been seeing are much much larger than this.  Bigger, heavier looking plants with bigger flowers looking like they're weighing down the plants.  I sure wouldn't want to have to get one of those out of my garden.

Crowley
This seems to be a decent-sized old town that was founded on rice.  As I was coming into town I passed the Crowley Grain Dryer.  I don't think of rice as a grain, which is stupid of me because that's what this grain dryer dries.  It's apparently still a going concern, owned by Riceland, which says it's a member-owned company.

The town has its own historical marker.   https://www.hmdb.org  Speaking of historic signs, Crowley's street signs are bilingual.  Probably a nice place, though a little sleepy on a Sunday morning.

Back on the road
I passed a front yard with 3 black & white puppies, maybe 10 weeks old, wrestling with each other around the yard.  Very cute.  That's what my dogs still do.

A sign told me "Bienvenue Vermilion Parish," which claims to be "the most Cajun place on Earth!"  Not knowing any different, I'll let them have their exclamation mark.

State Route 13, that I was on, is in such bad shape along here I had to slow from 55 mph to below 35, just to keep from rattling to pieces.  Even the dogs were looking at me reproachfully.  Really.  I kept telling them it wasn't my fault.

Several times I saw a Belted Kingfisher sitting on a utility line overlooking a rice pond, and I don't think they eat rice.

Along here I started seeing big yellow flags waving in various places throughout the rice fields.  Couldn't tell what they meant but was sure they weren't there just to be festive.

I saw a boat plowing up a rice field, but not in the normal sense.  The field had been flooded, which is why a boat was needed, and the "plow" part was on the rear of the boat and seemed to act like a water wheel, though what was coming up was at least partly dirt.  Very odd-looking.

I drove through the small town of Gueydan and saw a sign: L'Église Méthodiste.  Well, I know that means Methodist church, and I was curious, but I can't seem to find anything online that looks like it's what I saw.  I saw a website for l'Église Méthodiste d' Haiti, but that turns out to be a church in the Caribbean.  Gueydan has a First United Methodist Church, but that's not what this sign seemed to be aiming at. 

I thought maybe the town was founded by, or heavily settled by, Haitians but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The founders were two brothers with the very French names of Jean-Pierre and Françoise Guédon, though they may have been 2nd generation because I can't tell where they lived before nearby Abbeville.  So the Methodist church is still a mystery.

I came into Cameron Parish.  Saw several young calves among the cows.

I passed the town of Klondike (seems out of place in southern Louisiana).

Then back into Vermillion Parish.  And on to Jeff Davis Parish.  I'm telling you, the state must spend a fortune signing these parish boundaries.

I entered the Lake Arthur corporation limits (there had been a Mardi Gras parade yesterday - I could tell by all the beads lying around) and found myself on a very high bridge.  No road signs, but the AAA map says it was the Bayou Queue de Tortue, which seems to translate to Turtle-tail Bayou, and which must be navigable to account for that very high bridge.

A sign said I'm now on the Flyway Byway, a name I'm guessing comes from this area being a birdwatcher's hotspot.

I passed the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge.  I crossed another big waterway, and this time I had to work to find out what its name is: Lacassine Bayou, of course.  Then I saw the turnoff for Lacassine Pool, which seemed a little weird to me - a swimming pool with its own highway sign?  But instead it's a popular fishing spot and a wintering spot for waterfowl; the Fish & Wildlife Service maintains a steady level of water in the pool to accommodate the birds.

Now I was in Calcasieu Parish, driving through a cypress swamp, then fields - some with cows, then rice fields.  Then I came to a very large green field with a large herd of cows, at least a few of which were longhorns.  I didn't expect to see longhorns here.

And on into Lake Charles.  I had to work to get Google to allow me to wander around a little in town, but I've only ever been on I-10 before and wanted to get an idea of what the town itself looked like.

I learned that Calcasieu Parish was originally created from part of St. Landry Parish (back over at Opelousas) and instantly became the largest parish in the state.  It was larger than Delaware or Rhode Island.  It was eventually divided into 5 parishes, but in its original form it was known as Imperial Calcasieu.  Which explains why the local museum I passed is called Imperial Calcasieu Museum.

Downtown Lake Charles, which faces (surprise!) Lake Charles, is old-fashioned and has a nice feeling to it.  Beautiful old houses along Broad Street.  Sometimes I really miss my Momma.

Heading north
I crossed the Calcasieu River on a combined bridge and elevated roadway, like for the Atchafalaya, which I take to mean there's an awful lot of wetlands along there.

I entered the small town of Moss Bluff, which looks like it's becoming a suburb of Lake Charles.  I saw the Moss Bluff Middle School, but then there was the Sam Houston High School just down the street.

I passed a van labeled Heaven On Earth Moving Services and thought that was quite a claim to make about the near-purgatory that constitutes moving one's residence.

I passed the Grab N Geaux Country Store and Smokehouse and should have stopped to see what they were smoking, but by then I was too tired.

Sam Houston Jones State Park
It was named both for Sam Houston - the Sam Houston, who they say traveled extensively in western LA - and Mr. Jones, who was governor at the time the state park was created.

I'd expected the campground to be at least half empty or more because of it being a Sunday evening, but instead found most spots taken.  And dogs.  Lots and lots of dogs.  I had trouble taking mine out for a walk because there were so many dogs.

I'd been intending to stay for two or more nights to work on my blog, but there was no way I'd find any peace with so many people and dogs in this small campground.  I'll have to be on my way in the morning.