2016 Louisiana Trip – Final Thoughts

The two day trip home was just the way we like it – totally uneventful.  We drove about 400 miles on day one to the first decent campground I could find, located in Tuscaloosa – the ladies were anti another Walmart stay.  Sunset RV Park is located on the south side of town and judging from all of the unoccupied RV’s sitting in spots, I’m guessing the main business here has to do with Alabama football games.  It was perfect for us as it was near the interstate, easy to get to, and had sites that could accommodate us without unhooking the car.

As a trip summary:

Roads:  We spent most our time on I-59 thru AL & MS and it was my favorite road, primarily due to the low traffic volume and scenery, and while it was being repaired in several places, there was some light rough surface.  I hated I-10 and believe all of the vehicles that would normally be on the more northerly routes were on I-10, especially westbound.  Except for a few spots of bad joints, the surface was pretty good but the worst part was the giant back-up just east of Baton Rouge and it was even backed up as we were heading east fairly early Thursday morning – I will be avoiding it in the future if possible.

Weather – While not as warm as we’ve seen in south Florida, it was still pretty nice with more warm than cool days and definitely warmer than at home.  While not a place I would go to spend the whole winter, it was still good for the two week visit we made.

The campground – Cajun Palms is a very nice RV Resort and obviously caters to families with kids and according to our neighbors, who were from Baton Rouge, it is very hard to get into during their season.

The area – I really liked the area and the Acadian culture and accent that permeates the place.  The French influence can be seen everywhere - for example in the architecture, business, family, & town names, street names (Rue Bibliotheque), etc.  It was very flat, with the highest hills being the interstate overpasses, and very watery as evidenced by the paths many of the roads had to take.  There is way more to see and do than we were able to accomplish (swamp tour for example), so I would definitely like to go back.

The people – They are supposedly a friendly and fun loving group of people and our experience confirms this to be completely true.  We were treated very well by everyone we came in contact with and as evidenced by the amount of music and dancing, even for breakfast, they like to have fun and they know how to cook and eat good food.

The food – I saved this for last because I cannot rave enough about it especially when we were able to avoid the tourist food.  I divided the food into three main categories – Cajun/Creole, crawfish, and seafood, which was usually fried.  We loved the restaurants we ate at and the availability of fresh and nearly homemade items from markets.  I’ve posted about Hebert’s and Poche’s who are meat processors that butcher, process, and smoke their own products in addition to serving cooked items.  I’m sure there are several more of these places around and of course there is the availability of fresh fish and off-the-boat shrimp from nearby Delcambre (del-cum).  The Cajun and Creole recipes we’ve looked at are pretty simple with basic ingredients so I’m hopeful we can replicate them in our kitchen with the good ingredients we brought home with us.

I had a very good time, am glad we went, and hope to return someday, perhaps for a later-in-the-year Madri Gras, and spend a few days in NOLA as well as visiting Acadiana again.  My only regret is not getting to meet up with local resident and blogger, Margueritte (Cajun Delights), who was out of town - maybe we'll catch her next time.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

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