February 3-9, 2014- Louisiana and New Orleans

After 11 days, we finally left the huge state of Texas. In our original plans I had us spending 12 days in Louisiana, but the weather being cold had us rethinking some of our side trips. We only spent 7 days here. We cancelled our planned overnight motorcycle trip along the Mississippi River along with our visit to Natchez and Vicksburg.  We changed one ride to a stop in the coach.

 Our friend John had visited Louisiana last year and said a stop at the McIlhenny Tabasco Factory was worth the time, so we detoured south to allow us to stop there. Avery Island LA is the only place Tabasco sauce is made. 

They bottle only 4 days a week; we were lucky and were able to see the machinery in action.  It is quite the process, with the smashed up peppers sitting in kegs for 3 years to age.

Salt is a very important component in the process.  It coats the top of the barrels and keeps impurities out of the pepper mash.

 

Out in the yard they have this really big Live Oak covered in Resurrection Fern. 

The highlight was actually the Company Store. You can taste all the different flavors and products that are made by the company. 

Also on the island is Bird City.  E. A. McIlhenny (of the Tabasco Sauce family), or “Mr. Ned” as he was affectionately known, founded a bird colony in the 1890s — later called Bird City — after plume hunters slaughtered egrets by the thousands for feathers to make fashionable ladies’ hats. Mr. Ned gathered up eight young egrets, raised them in captivity on the Island, and released them in the fall to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico. The following spring, the birds returned to the Island with others of their species — a migration that continues to this day, as thousands of snowy white egrets and other water birds return to Bird City. The snowy egret is a medium-sized, white heron with a slender, black bill, black legs and yellow feet. It was an interesting stop.  I highly recommend it.

 

I’m used to areas with lots of water, but not like this part of the county.  Waterways are everywhere and houses are built on stilts. We continued back north to catch the interstate heading east to Baton Rouge and our next stop. 

 I love the architecture of this area

Mike’s Cycle Supply is a name that is well known in the KTM off-roading community.  We started phone ordering parts from them more than 20 years ago, before online shopping became the norm.  Marie, Mike and their son Glen are practically family to all of us.  When we decided to make this trip, Mike’s Cycle got put on the list of “Must See” places.

When I needed a place to send a package, Marie was kind enough to let me use her address. We arrived about an hour before UPS was due, and after some time for conversation, Glen took Wayne and I to the world famous Tony’s Seafood market. 

Billed as the largest Louisiana Seafood Market, it takes up about a city block, especially if you count the parking.  They get so busy the local police have to help with crowd control at certain times of the year. Of course we had to try some of the boudin; it looks like sausage, and is made with pork, rice and various vegetables, like green onions. You scoop it out with a spoon and eat it with crackers or bread.  Wonderful, I wish we had bought more to freeze.  We also had to get some of the shrimp boil, another local favorite.  I had to pass on the live catfish.

We spent the night at the L’Auberge Casino and hit the buffet for dinner.  It is a great way to try a bunch of local foods, a little bit at a time.  We had lots of shrimp, crab, gumbo (yum!!!) fried catfish and alligator sausage.  All of it was great!

The next day it was off to New Orleans and the RV Park on Lake Pontchartrain.  We picked there because they have a shuttle that goes into New Orleans, meaning we could leave the motorcycles in camp.

Friday we took the shuttle and walked around the French Quarter along the waterfront.  We had to stop in all the little shops, looking for the perfect shirts for our kids, and of course Beignets! 

And the place to get beignets is the Café Du Monde, the original French Market Coffee stand, established in 1862.

Beignets were brought to Louisiana by the Acadians. These were fried fritters, sometimes filled with fruit. Today, the beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. They taste like a doughnut, but lighter.

 Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans

St. Louis Cathedral

When it was lunch time, we headed to the Crescent City Brewhouse. We had the gumbo, with shrimp, blue crab and Andouille sausage.  Ahhhhh…..

After lunch we took a bus tour of the city.  Our guide was a retired middle school teacher.  He was a wealth of information, very humorous and had a wonderful voice and accent. A subject he really knew was local architecture. It’s hard to believe that the French Quarter and surrounding area were all built up before the Civil War, no empty lots left at that time.  Now there are many , thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

Creole Cottages are common in the 9^th Ward, the area hardest hit by Katrina. They are very distinctive, with their 2 doors on either end and 2 windows in between. The area is currently undergoing a rebirth.  The young are buying them, renovating one side of these duplexes, while renting out the other.  Once done, they switch sides and renovate the other.

You can still see the X-code marking left by the rescue and recovery teams in the weeks after Katrina.  This one shows the date, the search team (LSP Louisiana State Patrol) and the number of bodies (0).

The NE on this X-code means they could not enter, usually due to safety concerns for the team.

 Resurrection Ferns, appropriate for a neighborhood going through rebirth.

We stopped at the St Roch Cemetery. As is the tradition in New Orleans, this is a City of the Dead, or above ground tombs. Once purchased, the tomb belongs to the family forever and is used for more than one body. Once a body is interred, the tomb cannot be opened for a year and a day.  This guarantees that a body spends at least one summer in the 300+ degree tomb.  When needed again, the remains are swept to the back or dumped into the bottom, another casket is added, and the process begins again.

 Our guide

 The Frey tomb: This tomb has at least 15 occupants.

 Another type of home commonly found in New Orleans is the shotgun house.  It is usually too narrow to have a hallway, so it is 4 rooms, with the connecting doors lined up front to back.  It is said you can shoot a shotgun through the front door and out the back, without hitting a wall!!

 Our last stop was at the City Park and Sculpture Park. We took a stroll and found some neat stuff including this one titled Karma.

 This guy really is one strange duck…

Before the Civil War this was part of the South, and slaves were not just at the plantations. These wings with the shed slanted roofs were slave quarters built off the back of the main house. Small, single rooms without much in the way of ventilation; now they are studio apartments with a shared bathroom.

The tour also took us past Xavier, Loyola and Tulane Universities and then back to town through the Garden District.  It was a great way to spend the day. 

On Saturday we were back in town, this time riding the street car

 and walking around the American side of town.

 We took a quick lunch stop at Manning’s Bar (no Peyton in sight)

and then boarded the Creole Queen paddle wheel boat for a ride up the Mississippi River.

 We got off the boat at the Chalmette Battlefield. This was the location of the Battle of New Orleans during the last days of the War of 1812. 

 A walk along the levy

 This house was not there for the battle, as it was built later

 Our Parks Tour Guide shared information on the battle

 

After the boat ride, we headed up to Bourbon Street.  Friday we had stayed closer to the river, but Saturday we were looking for the weird and wonderful that is New Orleans.  We danced and drank (a bit) on our way down Bourbon Street.  The music wasn't always what we like, but it was live and had an energy you couldn’t deny.

We left New Orleans the next day. This is a place I would like my daughter and her husband to see.  I hope we get to come back here with them someday.