Where was I? Oh yes, the rest of our time in Cajun country. We moved to Bayou Wilderness RV resort in Carencro, LA...
...and had a great dinner in a real Cajun joint called Mulate's, where we listened to a terrific zydeco band. Beau spent a lot of the evening talking to a couple from the area -- he is 86, she is 85 -- and they were doing zydeco dancing. He is also a WWII vet. They were very cute.
 |
| Dave and Joyce, hanging out with us at Mulate's. Nice photo, guys! |
Our daytime pursuits in Carencro were mainly aimed at my "mini bucket list" goal of visiting author James Lee Burke's New Iberia -- whose Main Street Burke describes as one of the prettiest in the nation. It was indeed a sweet little town, with lovely majestic live oaks draped with Spanish moss, and wonderfully preserved historic homes lining the street along Bayou Teche.
Below, a pictorial.
 |
| Bayou Teche |
 |
| A beautiful home in New Iberia's historic district. |
 |
| At Shadows on the Teche, the former home of a sugar planter, and now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation |
 |
| A copy of the shrine at Lourdes, France. |
 |
| Beau (disappointed we missed Buckwheat Zydeco!) outside New Iberia's Evangeline Theater. |
Some quick facts about New Iberia:
- It was founded in 1779 and is Louisiana's only remaining Spanish town.
- The Konriko Rice Mill in town is the oldest in the United States.
- In 1927, the Mississippi broke through protective levees and Bayou Teche rose more than 20 feet, flooding the streets of the town. As a result of this terrible flood, the US Army Corps of Engineers harnessed the Mississippi and its delta.
- Acadian refugees settled in Iberia Parish in 1765, and the area is closely connected with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline.
- During the Civil War, Shadows on the Teche was seized by Union troops (in 1863) and was used as a command post.
- And then of course, New Iberia is the home of the fictional Dave Robicheaux, the protagonist of James Lee Burke's series of crime novels. (Read them -- they are great!)
We lunched in Breaux Bridge, a cool little town named for its unusual lift bridge:
 |
| We ate at a little restaurant called Angelles -- and then we all screamed for ice cream! |
And then we saw this wonderful oddity!
 |
| Beau's hand gesture says it all -- what the heck?!?! |
The guy pulling this saw Beau's expression and yelled, "This here is a Cajun Camper!" Allrighty.
During the day on Sunday, we did other things, including a short stop in St. Martinville, known as Petit Paris (it wasn't), but I want to keep this short.
Four for Texas
Today we had a long drive to Galveston, TX, and are now at a cute RV park (Jamaica Beach) opposite the long, long beach. We can see horses out the windshield.
I will blog about our adventures in Texas in a few days.
Tanks, Panky
No comments:
Post a Comment