Thanks LindaLee!
I Should Have Stopped At Three
9 hours ago
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Merry Christmas From Croft & Norma
Good Friends and Family, Wherever in the World Today,
We wish you Peace, Love, Health and Happiness!
So; Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Joyeuax Noel, Feliz Navidad from the bottom of our hearts.
Love Croft & Norma (In New Orleans awaiting the arrival of Papa Noel)
Monday, December 23, 2013
New Orleans!
The weather broke yesterday and the tornado never happened so we headed down the highway towards New Orleans "gnaw-lins". NOLA is outside of Cajun Country so we will not be able to expect the same quality food from now on. We told Betty we would be back and we will be! Her park was a great find! Thank you "The Boondocks".
We took the back roads out of Abbeville towards NOLA and eventually ended up on US 90, a concrete road with a bump in it every time you cross a joint. Very annoying. The rain started about twenty miles from our destination and was soon coming down in sheets, slowing traffic down to 30 or 40 MPH on the highway. We found our exit and pulled into the Jude Travel Park on Chef Menteur Highway, a place recommended by Chris and Juan. It is a reasonable $195 per week as compared to the fancy (and admittedly better located) French Quarter RV Park we stayed in last time which is charging$99 $108 per night over the holidays.
It was pouring rain when we arrived so we quickly hooked up the essentials and hunkered down with local cable. We will set up StarChoice this morning.
The weather is calling for rain again today but so far, so good. There is a $5 shuttle to the French Quarter and there is also a bus stop ($.40 seniors) on the street outside the gate. A taxi is about $15 plus tip each way so however we get around it is still a substantial savings over the RV park downtown. We are thinking of just making this a "lay around" day and saving Bourbon Street for Christmas Eve.
We took the back roads out of Abbeville towards NOLA and eventually ended up on US 90, a concrete road with a bump in it every time you cross a joint. Very annoying. The rain started about twenty miles from our destination and was soon coming down in sheets, slowing traffic down to 30 or 40 MPH on the highway. We found our exit and pulled into the Jude Travel Park on Chef Menteur Highway, a place recommended by Chris and Juan. It is a reasonable $195 per week as compared to the fancy (and admittedly better located) French Quarter RV Park we stayed in last time which is charging
It was pouring rain when we arrived so we quickly hooked up the essentials and hunkered down with local cable. We will set up StarChoice this morning.
The weather is calling for rain again today but so far, so good. There is a $5 shuttle to the French Quarter and there is also a bus stop ($.40 seniors) on the street outside the gate. A taxi is about $15 plus tip each way so however we get around it is still a substantial savings over the RV park downtown. We are thinking of just making this a "lay around" day and saving Bourbon Street for Christmas Eve.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
How To Speak Cajun
One of the Cajuns in the RV park gave lessons at Happy Hour. "Cajun looks a little like French but sounds different. You don't use periods, commas, exclamation points, question marks or parentheses. You leave no pause between words and you drop any letters you think are unnecessary. A paragraph should sound like one word. Now you are speaking Cajun"!
Suire's Grocery
The one place everyone said we HAD to go to here was Suire's (rhymes with beer) Grocery and Cafe. This is where true, authentic Cajun food is prepared and served. It is a small, nondescript store about six miles away on a country road. Everything about it says, "Cajun". The clientele could have been straight out of Duck Dynasty! As soon as we walked in we were met by a gentleman who pointed out everything in the store and told us that the cafe would make anything we wanted but that their picante turtle sauce was so good it had been written up in the New York Times! It turns out this man was a local hunting guide / sometimes reality TV host who simply loved the place. We thought he was the owner.
He also pointed out the Pistolettes which he was eating at the time. What are Pistolettes you might ask? You take a large dinner roll, hollow out a space inside which you then cram full of a mixture of creamy sauce and either crab, shrimp or crawfish. And then what do you do? Remember you are in the Heart Of Cajun Country. Well, you deep fry it of course! The result is delicious! A crusty bun stuffed with about a quarter pound of lava hot (temperature, not spicy) deliciousness! I had two, a crab and a shrimp, and almost had to use a toilet brush on my arteries after! I would go back for seconds any time! Norma had the "Plate Special", a huge serving of spaghetti and meat sauce with egg rolls (?), bun and desert. We bought a huge slice of pecan pie to take with us.
Before we left we raided their freezer full of prepared dishes and took home several frozen portions of true Cajun delights as well as a bag of desert portions. When you are down this way, do not miss Suire's! The food is delicious, the conversation priceless and their prices are much less than the fancier places in town.
The thunder roared, the lightening flashed and the rain came down in many brief cascades last night but the storm passed over us safely and is now east of New Orleans so today is a travel day. Stay tuned, Life in Cajun Country is good!
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Tornado Warning
We are under a heavy rain and tornado warning here in Abbeville right now. Although if you look closely at the map, Abbeville is down in the very lower right corner of the affected tornado area. The green is rain and it is headed this way.
We are scheduled to move tomorrow and as (bad) luck would have it we broke our rule and made reservations in New Orleans for tomorrow night. The heavy wind warning continues through tomorrow so we might have to phone them and see if they will let us shift our arrival time by a day or two. I think we will be better off here at Betty's than on the road in high wind conditions.
We are scheduled to move tomorrow and as (bad) luck would have it we broke our rule and made reservations in New Orleans for tomorrow night. The heavy wind warning continues through tomorrow so we might have to phone them and see if they will let us shift our arrival time by a day or two. I think we will be better off here at Betty's than on the road in high wind conditions.
Betty's RV Park
Here is Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, LA, "In The Heart Of Cajun Country". It is a small 17 space park with full hookups, fast WIFI and lots of friendly people!
And now for the best part! Every afternoon at 4:30, Happy Hour starts. Betty has a large common room that holds everyone quite nicely. Everyone brings a dish and there is always enough to go around and then some. Last night someone asked if anyone was interested in pizza so we all chipped in and someone went to pick up four huge pizzas. It cost us $4.50 each and there were actually two pieces left over when we finished. It was a fun evening.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Exploring To The South
Today we headed to the south to check out a couple of places people said are worth exploring, Jefferson Island and Shadows On The Teche.
Jefferson Island is a large estate once owned by Joseph Jefferson, the "Dean of American Theater". Jefferson was best known for his performance of Rip Van Winkle which he performed over 6,500 times! He performed all over America and Europe and had three houses in the USA. He spent three or four months per year in each house. This was his favorite and the only one he built himself.
Jefferson was very progressive for his time (late 1800's), insisting on treating his black servants as equals. Every mansion of it's time had two staircases, the main one used by the homeowner, family and guests and the other, in the back, used by servants. This mansion has only one staircase, used by everyone. This is causing problems now because the law insists that every building open to the public must have two staircases for safety purposes. The result is that everything above the main floor is closed to the public.
The grounds are very well kept with lots of flowers, plants, oak trees with Spanish Moss and peacocks. Here are some photos. Scroll down for Shadows On The Teche.
Shadows On The Teche was a Civil War mansion and cotton plantation encompassing thousands of acres on the shore of the Bayou Teche. Cotton was a crop that at the time people believed could not be grown without the use of slave labour. It was a very labour intensive crop and having to pay any form of wages would make it uneconomical to grow so Shadows On The Teche had hundreds of slaves. Every year after the crop was harvested the slaves were given two weeks with no work to do, an unheard of practice at the time. The owner was a judge and a Senator in the Confederate Government and fled when the Union forces approached. The slaves were freed although many former slaves stayed on as paid employees working for three dollars a month plus room and board. The house was saved as a historical location while the adjoining cotton farm eventually became the town of New Iberia.
The grounds here are beautiful as well and the steamboats docked right at the house when there was cargo to load or the owners wanted to travel to New Orleans. It seems that the owner knew from the start that the house would be left to the public and every record was kept. She saved every receipt for furniture, taxes, wages paid, repairs... everything. The entire attic was found filled with all the plantation records plus all of the family's clothing. Nothing had been thrown out. Today she would be called a hoarder. In her case, she created an historical treasure. 17,000 individual records have been processed so far by the University of Louisiana.
Jefferson Island is a large estate once owned by Joseph Jefferson, the "Dean of American Theater". Jefferson was best known for his performance of Rip Van Winkle which he performed over 6,500 times! He performed all over America and Europe and had three houses in the USA. He spent three or four months per year in each house. This was his favorite and the only one he built himself.
Jefferson was very progressive for his time (late 1800's), insisting on treating his black servants as equals. Every mansion of it's time had two staircases, the main one used by the homeowner, family and guests and the other, in the back, used by servants. This mansion has only one staircase, used by everyone. This is causing problems now because the law insists that every building open to the public must have two staircases for safety purposes. The result is that everything above the main floor is closed to the public.
The grounds are very well kept with lots of flowers, plants, oak trees with Spanish Moss and peacocks. Here are some photos. Scroll down for Shadows On The Teche.
Shadows On The Teche was a Civil War mansion and cotton plantation encompassing thousands of acres on the shore of the Bayou Teche. Cotton was a crop that at the time people believed could not be grown without the use of slave labour. It was a very labour intensive crop and having to pay any form of wages would make it uneconomical to grow so Shadows On The Teche had hundreds of slaves. Every year after the crop was harvested the slaves were given two weeks with no work to do, an unheard of practice at the time. The owner was a judge and a Senator in the Confederate Government and fled when the Union forces approached. The slaves were freed although many former slaves stayed on as paid employees working for three dollars a month plus room and board. The house was saved as a historical location while the adjoining cotton farm eventually became the town of New Iberia.
The grounds here are beautiful as well and the steamboats docked right at the house when there was cargo to load or the owners wanted to travel to New Orleans. It seems that the owner knew from the start that the house would be left to the public and every record was kept. She saved every receipt for furniture, taxes, wages paid, repairs... everything. The entire attic was found filled with all the plantation records plus all of the family's clothing. Nothing had been thrown out. Today she would be called a hoarder. In her case, she created an historical treasure. 17,000 individual records have been processed so far by the University of Louisiana.
Papa Noel
In Louisiana Santa is known as Papa Noel. Since there is never any snow, the Jolly Old Man trades in his sleigh for a piroque (a small, flat bottomed boat) pulled through the rivers, levees and swamps by alligators named Gaston, Ninette, "Te-Boy", Celeste, Suzette, etc, all led by Nicollette with her huge glowing green eyes.
In order to help Nicollette and Papa Noel find the small settlements along the waterways, residents gather on Christmas Eve to light bonfires on the shore where tradition states that everyone must bring wood to contribute to these communal bonfires. Papa Noel then leaves a small gift for each child and goes on his way.
In case you have been following the latest debate on FOX News about the color of Santa, I will throw in my opinion. Prepare yourselves. Santa is NOT white. He is descended from Saint Nicholas who was from the south of Turkey which at the time was part of Greece. Therefore he is olive skinned, probably dark olive. Sorry to disappoint, but now you know.
In order to help Nicollette and Papa Noel find the small settlements along the waterways, residents gather on Christmas Eve to light bonfires on the shore where tradition states that everyone must bring wood to contribute to these communal bonfires. Papa Noel then leaves a small gift for each child and goes on his way.
In case you have been following the latest debate on FOX News about the color of Santa, I will throw in my opinion. Prepare yourselves. Santa is NOT white. He is descended from Saint Nicholas who was from the south of Turkey which at the time was part of Greece. Therefore he is olive skinned, probably dark olive. Sorry to disappoint, but now you know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
