_7 February ‘09 Saturday

This morning we drove up to the farmers market to see just what we might be missing.  Sure as heck we did find something.   We found some incredible fresh bread that we couldn’t leave behind and we found Loren…  Loren is an African that had a table filled with string beans, Habanera peppers, okra, and a large container of TARO…  Yep, Taro.  Now what do you do with Taro?  That’s all Loren had to hear.  She not only gave us a step by step instruction of how to prepare taro, she gave us a recipe for a dish that she said would tempt us to eat too soon just by anticipating the taste by the smell.  I won’t go into the details of the recipe but it involves pork, okra, a Habanera pepper, turmeric, garlic, onion, fingerling potatoes, zucchini , bell pepper, lemon pepper, and TARO…I can just about smell it now…  Gathering all of our “goodies” and storing them in the car, we pulled the beach chairs and headed down to the parade route.  We weren’t by ourselves, even though we were about an hour and a half ahead of parade time, but they are always telling us that “the early bird gets all the best of the BEADS !!!”.  Yep, we’re really into the beads now.  I’ll fight any little kid on the block to get that small necklace… 

_Well the Mardi Gras Parade started at 1 and by the time it got to us it was about 1:30.  The crowd that was out for today’s parade was much heavier than that of last week’s parade, and thus we didn’t get near as many necklaces. 

_The fun was still there and we will be back for more, whether it’s here or Mobile, we will be back.   

_6 February ‘09 Friday

The first day after arriving in Ocean Springs (Biloxi), we headed out to find the Visitors Center.  It turned out to be in the old train station and right at the beginning of town.  After getting all the usual maps, magazines, and brochures, we also got a listing of our host’s favorite restaurants.  I asked for those that would offer us some of the” local fare”, you know, catfish, shrimp, oysters, and….  Our host also told us about the Farmers Market and the Mardi Gras parade that is set for Saturday.  Well it looks like we are going to have some fun here…  We left the Visitors Center and walked the sidewalks of town to check things out and look for the best location to setup for tomorrows Mardi Gras parade.  Another location that we asked about took us to the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area.  We were looking for another place to put our kayak in and we found one.  We also found another great campground.  The National Park Service has put together a great visitor’s center that manages numerous hiking trails, bayous, a boat ramp, and a 60 site campground that would rate a 9+ in anybody’s book.  As we were passing over a small bridge, I just happened to look down into the water.  Floating not 10 yards away was an alligator.

_He was just sunning him/herself and not bothering anyone.  Fact is, he had company… sitting on a branch coming out of the water were 5 turtles and they also found the sun very warming. 

_A little further down the road we found the boat ramp.  After checking out of the ramp and the waterways around it we decided that this would be a great place to come back too and do a little paddling.  We noticed a smaller motor home sitting about 50 yards away and it looked like some of those that we saw around us during our time camping in Europe.  Sure enough, upon closer examination, we found that they were from The Netherlands.  Well that’s all it took, we had to meet the Dutch couple that found themselves at the waterfront site here in Biloxi.  Leen and Hanny Struik have been traveling North America (USA & Canada) for some months now.  It is their 2nd time to camp their way through the states in the last few years.  The first time they did it in their son’s minivan and this time they wanted to do it with a little more comfort so they shipped their motor home over.  Speaking of shipping a motor home.. In May of 2005 Louise and I met Bob and Helen Grimm/Winkler at a campground in Larne, Ireland.  We were having a problem with our van and they just happened to be parked at a site 2 over from ours.  I remember that just after we had met, Bob asked if we were "Escapees"...well hell yes, we've kind of "escaped"...  At that time he jumped forward and gave me a big hug.  Catching me completely off guard at the time, I was wondering just what I had gotten myself into...  Anyway, we just (not too long ago) received an email from them and Helen was describing their adventures that they have recently been enjoying.  One of them was camping South Africa, and another was were they had taken a grandson to Japan

_and also Bob and his son had taken another trip back to Africa and camped while visiting the wildebeest migration in Tanzania and seeing the mountain gorillas in Uganda...Now that is camping !!! 

_5 February ‘09 Thursday

This morning we left Louisiana and slowly made our way into Mississippi.  We followed the lesser traveled roads all the way.  First we took LA-36 to Slidell, found a tire shop to top off the air in our rear tires, and then headed east on LA-90 on our way to Ocean Springs (which is just outside of Biloxi).  Just as we were to cross into Mississippi on I-90, we found ourselves detoured.  The detour took us onto a very narrow secondary road that had some really old Oak trees that over hung the roadway and made us duck our heads each and every time we came upon one.  After about 10 miles on our detour we ended up coming out to I-607. 607 they took us back to I-90 and we continued our drive down to the blue waters and the white sand of the Gulf Coast.  I-90 travels right at the edge of the white sand as far as we were to travel today.  Just as we saw Biloxi in the distance we pulled into a pull-off and enjoyed a seaside lunch from the dining room of our coach.  One thing about driving the Gulf of Mexico coastline is being able to see the total disaster remains of the past 3 major hurricanes.  From the moment we arrived by ferry onto Galveston Island until now we have seen total destruction all along the coastline.  Everything from trees blown over or torn completely out, to boats that were thrown hundreds of yards inland, houses and commercial buildings leaning or just plain gone, and hundreds of foundations sitting there wondering if there would ever be another home constructed on top.  Finished with lunch we continue on to Biloxi.  As we traveled this coast road through town, we were blown away by all the casinos we had on each side of us.  Now these were more like the casinos of Las Vegas than those that we see alongside the highways we’ve traveled the last few years.  We just were not aware of the interest for major casinos that we found here, but one thing’s for sure, they’re first class establishments and apparently very busy as they are building at least 3 more that is posted to be opening by the end of 2010. 

_4 February ‘09

Wednesday

The day before moving on, we try to clean up around the site by picking up our patio carpet and drying it out, putting the bikes back on the bike rack, and dumping the tanks.  I’m trying to get this and more done today because the weather forecast for the morning is REALLY COLD !!!  Fact is, they are telling us it will be in the low to mid 20’s…that’s the coldest we’ve been in for a long time. 

One of the destinations that we’ve had on our books to see is going to happen this afternoon.  Abita Springs has its own brewery, Abita Springs Brew House, and it seems to be making its self quite a reputation for great beers.  They started brewing in a small store front in the middle of town and after a year of success they had to move a mile down the road.  Now after 23 years and 7 major renovations and still putting out one hell beer, they find that every Wednesday through Saturday at 2pm people start lining up for the tour through their plant.  Of course having an “Open Bar” might have something to do with it.  As you walk in the fancy doors of the tasting room, the management is there to meet.  You are handed an empty glass and instructed to go to the pull tabs at the bar and pull hard…

_There is a little chit / chat among all the beer drinkers for the first half hour and then we are asked to find a seat in front of any of the huge flat screen TV’s.  We watched a 15 minute introduction and explanation on brewing before we were led into the brewing areas to see just how this fine brew was brewed. 

_Hell, I knew all there is to know about brewing, I just wanted the free beers…(not true, but I did enjoy the free beers…).  By the way, I have found the raised homes here to be very interesting, so I wanted to put a couple more pictures here for you to see and me to remember: 

_3 February ‘09 Tuesday

Monday’s seem to be the perfect wash day (clothes that is…).  I don’t have an idea as to why, but it does, and besides, yesterday was Groundhogs Day.   What does Groundhogs Day have to do with anything…well it’s my birthday that’s what.  Actually it goes like this…  We woke to heavy rain and didn’t have any additional plans for the day.  Sooo with the laundry bag getting close to full, we decided to get the laundry done.  Once that was done we were open to do what we wanted, rain or shine.  Well we ended up just staying home and staying warm and cozy.  Louise made a wonderful stew for dinner and the only thing I can say about that is, it smelled so damn good for so long that it was hard to hold myself from eating before it was done. 

This morning we decided to “take a ride”…  After dropping by the City Hall of Abita Springs to offer our LARGE supply of Mardi Gras beads (those that were tossed to us from the floats), we stopped by the Tourist Information office.  We were looking for a place to go that we might have overlooked this last week.  After going over some maps and additional literature we decided to see some of the “Plantations” around the area.  Following the map inside of the New Orleans Plantation Parade brochure, we headed out.  Our map lead us out towards the northwest of New Orleans by about 40 miles and then follow the Mississippi River levies.  Along the way we saw quite afew of the older homes that sit from 1 foot to as high as 20 feet above the ground.  This is to give a little air-conditioning during the summer time and a little relief from the flooding waters that seem to affect this area. 

_There are 7 different Plantations on this route and try as we could, we were only able to see 4 of them.  Unfortunately, just about half of this route took us by so much heavy industrial that it about destroyed the impact of these beautiful pieces of history.  The San Francisco Plantation was totally surrounded by an 8’ cyclone fence that came as close to the mansion as 20 feet.  On one side and the back it is set against a huge industrial building, on the other side, a large parking lot.  The building and the grounds are in total disrepair and really didn’t beckon us to visit.  It’s really sad as this “Grand Mansion” was beautifully designed with elaborate Gingerbread work and was once known as the most opulent Plantation in the South.  It also had some of those "Ghost Trees" that we see here in the deep south. 

_3 more miles further down the road we came upon Laura: A Creole Plantation.  This Plantation was named “Best History Tour in the US” by Lonely Planet…  Unfortunately we were so far by it before we realized it, we decided to continue on to the St Joseph Plantation.  All of the Plantations we visited were “sugar” plantations and spread out as far as you could see.  Heading towards our next plantation we found another building of high interest…a Cajun Restaurant.  Now we’re a long way from nowhere and we come across this little restaurant.  Of course we had to stop.  It is a seafood market that doubles as a Cajun restaurant at the same time.  The small restaurant is set-up off to one side as you walk into the market.  The moment the menu was presented we knew we had found “THE PLACE”.  Louise ordered a cup of rice/seafood gumbo while I ordered an appetizer of mixed seafood.  The mixed dish was battered in light and spicy flour and then deep fried.  It consisted of 6 crab/spears (the small claw with the meaty end), 4 catfish, 6 alligator chunks, hushpuppies, and something called Boudin Balls (rice, sausage, and..REALLY GOOD !!!).  All the food was really good, and there was plenty of it.  This was our first time to taste alligator and the Boudin Balls.  As I mentioned, the Boudin Balls were really good, but the alligator, well a little chewy and it kind of reminded me of chicken gizzards.  OK, back to our tour of plantations.   The St Joseph Plantation wasn’t my favorite, but it was in pretty good condition.  We only took the “grounds tour” which gave us the chance to visit the 2 desk schoolhouse,

_the small slave quarters, and of course a walk-around of the mansion.  The large manor house was built by Louisiana Creoles of French descent in 1830.  Now with time getting really short we decide to make the next one our last.  About 3 miles further down the same road we’ve been on for the afternoon, we find an incredible mansion that was set way back off of the road.  Huge OLD Oak Trees lined the walk that took you to the front entrance of the Oak Alley Plantation.

_This plantation was built sometime in the early 1700’s and then the “Big House” was completed sometime in the early 1800’s.  Jacques Telesphore Roman, a wealthy Creole sugar planter, and his wife became the original owners.  Unfortunately after a couple of years, the “Mrs.” wanted to move back home, so she left and became an absent wife.  Jacques sent for her many times but she didn’t budge until after his death.  Then after coming back and trying to run the plantation she took it into financial devastation.  Their son then took it and try as he might, his mother kept spending the monies until there was nothing…  This was a good stop as we were able to see, feel, and almost feel a part of Oak Alley (ya right…). 

_1 February ‘09 Sunday

The TV and all the radio stations that we’ve been listening to have been telling us over the last couple of weeks that today is…”SUPERBOWL SUNDAY” !!!  Well that it is, but for us and hundreds around us, it is also one of Slidell’s Mardi Gras parade days.  We were heading out the door by 10:30 this morning and on our search for the best seat on the parade route.  Slidell is about 35 minutes away and the parade wasn’t to start until 1 PM so getting there early paid off beautifully.  We found a place to park the car above the curb.  Leaving room between the car and the roadway, we placed our beach chairs for the best views and for our comfort.  While waiting for the parade to start, we walked around the parade route for about a mile and then headed back.  On our walk, we noticed a couple of businesses we’ve seen around as we arrived in Louisiana.  This business is called “Your Daiquiri Stop” (or similar name).  We weren’t too sure as to just what they sold so we went into one of them to investigate…sure enough, they sell DAIQUIRIS !!!  They have about 12 different daiquiris available and even offer added shots of rum, vodka, or just about any other liquor you might want.  They even offer drive-up service…Starbucks, you’ve got to look at expanding…  Of course business today was booming.  Finally parade time arrived and with the police escort leading, the bands, marching groups, and the large two-storied decorated trailers started flowing down main-street. 

_With this being our first Mardi Gras parade, our goal was to catch as many beads as possible.  At the end of the hour, we had accumulated about 80 necklaces, 6 stuffed animals, a whistle, and a couple of furry neckpieces.  Not a bad haul, now what do we do with them???  Well we brought them all back with us, that is for now…  Last night we stopped by the little “fish market” in Abita Springs and purchased 3 pounds of Crawfish and a couple of pounds of shrimp to go along with our bottle of Champagne for tonight’s game dinner.  Well now that the game is over (sorry Arizona) and dinner is finished, I must say it was YUMMY…