Deep Down In Louisiana

"Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode"
We are in Louisiana! What did we come for? We came for the Music!
What Music did we come for? C-A-J-U-N.
Well we are as deep in Louisiana as you can get. We been through the swamp and we been through the fields and now we hit the heartland, the capital of Cajun Music.
Its 10.30 on a Saturday morning, but the music has been playing since 9.00.
We are in a town called Mamou. We are in a bar called Fred's Lounge. Its been here since 1946 and it is a room, some chairs a bar and a band plus about 100 people who are having fun. They are here to listen to the band and talk and drink and DANCE.
Sally and I entered by the back door and were warmly greeted by a man in a check shirt - you would have thought we were old friends, or cousins. The only problem was we couldn't hear him because the roof was being lifted by the band (no I do not know what they are called). We squeezed past some dancers and I found Sally a chair and we sat for a bit tapping to the great rhythms. 3 or 4 people came up to us and started talking as they passed us. One woman was from Lafayette, who had moved to north of New Orleans and then come back. She was the daughter of the the original co-owner of the bar (not Fred, the other one).

Tante (aunty) Sue came round,wearing a pink Fred's Lounge T-shirt and talked. Now she owned the place, but insisted on swigging what I think was whisky from a small hip flask sized bottle, and offering it to everyone else around, She confided in me that she was 79. I later learned that she sells the stuff, but every bottle you buy she opens and takes a swig from (no I don't know why, apart from the obvious, that she likes to drink). But she was most generous and welcoming. Tante Sue later came tound offering pieces of free boudin to everyone. What is a boudin? - well, it's a fat sausage served hot which tastes like a cross between haggis and spicy (chilli hot) sausage. Very different. A couple of girls then told me that they lived about an hour away and came there quite often. A total stranger came along and left her camera with Sally to look after and then started chatting away. I told her she need not worry as I pointed to to at least four other cameras that had been put on the table as other people had gone on to the dance floor.

When I eventually made it to the bar, a tall woman just said 'Irish', to no one in particular. After that I found out that she had three kids, an ex husband, came from Mamou, moved up to Lake Erie and had now moved back down and was I ready to move on to the next bar. Being polite, I said I thought that was a great idea and pointed out that Sally was waiting for her drink. She wished me well and sent her regards to Sally. Meanwhile the music just kept beating out. Conversations only happened between numbers. During numbers people talking looked a bit like vampires (bit of an allusion to Halloween I suppose), as you had to get right up to the ear of the person you were talking to,and repeat it twice to be heard above the band. The room was probably about 20x30 ft. The drummer played loudly, the band was amplified to match the drums. Oh it was loud, but above all the Cajun rhythm just drove through everything, you couldn't help but bounce along to it. I couldn't resist buying a couple of T-Shirts, with their message from the management written on the back 'Please do not stand on the tables, chairs, booths, cigarette machines and the jukebox.' By about 1.30 we had had enough and left by the same back door, saying goodbyes to the people we had met. Well, actually it was 'au revoir' and 'excuse moi s'il vous plais', because all these pleasantries were conducted in French.
As we left a trolley arrived and a large number of people fell off the bus, some in bizarre and gaudy outfits, carrying glasses. What was this - a party? a wedding? No, merely a Boudin Tour. Yes I know I can hear your ask. OK, they were really part of a Mardi Gras Krewe from Lafayette! They thought it was about time they got started celebrating Mardi Gras (yes, next April). So they had set off with their Xanadu King and Xanadu Queen and a large number of their Krewe, who are and all girl Krewe, in order to ........ well I' not quite sure what! Just have a party on a bus and Fred's Lounge was on their agenda. So they went in (after a lot of fun on the grass outside) as we came out.
After this we returned to the sanity of our trailer. We are now having a rest, because tonight it is Cajun Music Part 2 '. We are off to the Liberty Theatre in Eunice hopefully to go to a live radio broadcast. We Will tell you more later.


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Rain Dear

Wednesday, the weather took a turn for the worse this week, with showers, which dropped about 4 inches of rain in a couple of days. We have not ventured far, using the weather to enable us to build our energy reserves. However, in staying in the park we have been able to see a little more of the wild life. The deer seem to like to graze on the grass at the side of the park roads, so we are always seeing startled deer as we drive round the park.

Deep in the woods

Thursday - With Sally slowly improving, but not well enough to go out, we have been looking in more detail at the wild life around us.
So far it seems that there are a lot of amardillos, like this one.
I saw a small group of Cotton Tail deer from the car.
We had a visit from a couple of raccoons last night, they were busy investigating some petrol cans I had left out at the front of the trailer, we could hear them moving around in the dark.
Yesterday while we were having coffee our on our patio we were fortunate enough to see a Pileated Woodpecker close up. This is the largest woodpecker, apart from the very rare Ivory Billed Woodpecker, which is now only found in one part of Sout East Florida. It is also the one which modeled for the famous (amongst oldies) Woody Woodpecker. It has a very loud drum which really does sound like a pneumatic drill. It is between 12" and 15" long.

Chill Down

Wednesday, we are now well settled at Chicot State Park in Louisiana and it is very pleasant, it is 6500 acres of forest surrounding a huge lake.
The lake level is low at the moment, so lots of old cypress tree stumps are exposed. I took a walk down there this morning, dozens of large herons of all sorts, I heard an alligator belch somewhere, lots of mosquitos (but the good old 'Go Juice' took care of them).
I have a photo here of a large white heron, with an enormous, but dead, Cypress tree in the background, if you look very carefully there is a very large turtle sunning itself on a little saandbank. I have put in a close up of them.

It is very beautiful and very quiet and peaceful. One downside at the moment is that Sally is not feeling too well, so it is a good job we are taking a fairly long rest here.

Chicot State Park

Monday - We have moved 50 miles north to Ville Platte and the Chicot State Park. It is a large (270 sites) RV park on a lake, however the lake levels are very low at this time. We have a nice site in the middle of the forest and we can see one other site about 30 yards away. This site feels very secure, with State Park Rangers on the entrance to the park about a mile down the road, a camp host parked at the entrance to the RV site, locked gates at night (you get a combination number) and rangers patrolling. This site is costing us $20 p.n. (£14). So we have booked to stay a week as we think it is time for a holiday and this looks like a nice place for us to relax, do very little and recharge the batteries. (metaphorically)
This will give our mail a chance to catch up with us, which includes a part for the trailer and an extra cupboard (cabinet) door for our bedroom area. As our phone has blue tooth I have also bought some blue tooth stuff for the laptop, so that we can download pictures directly, and also be able to use the voice controls for our GPS. We will see if this all works or not.

Moving On - Lafayette

Sunday - Well we have had a good look at Baton Rouge and are ready to move on. We are going to travel about 50 miles along I10 to Lafayette. This is moving us closer to the centre of Cajun music. Unfortunately most campgrounds are more expensive here - from $35-45 (£24-30) per night, except for the local City Park which has a RV park in it. It is called Acadian City Park. However having arrived there, we are not happy with the area, which looks run down, or the state of the campground, which is run down and not clean (bottles, and trash lying around the campsites). Worst of all the security looks non existent with no locked gate at night or security staff, for the first time leaving us feeling quite unsafe. Admittedly it is only $13 p.n., but you expect to feel safe in a park at any price
We ventured out to a Golden Corral for an All You Can Eat buffet meal and decided that we would move up country to Chicot State Park, although 50 miles north it is actually closer to Mamou, which is claimed to be the birthplace and centre of Cajun music (we have yet to explore this theory, but we are on the case).
We will return to Lafayette for the Black Pot Festival this weekend and also to visit an accordian shop where they make accordians (or at least modify them to be used for Cajun Music) and you can tour their factory to find out more.

Rosedown Plantation

On Saturday we decided to leave the big city and drive north into the Louisiana countryside and visit Rosedown Plantation, near to the historic town of St Francisville, which was interesting in itself.

Rosedown was a plantation which was built for Martha Washington (grandaughter of George Washington) and her husband in 1835, it remained in her family intil 1950, then passed on to others who restored it and finally sold it to the State Parks who have maintained it ever since. We had a very pleasant guided tour through the house, which was as it was in 1835, most of teh furniture and the wall coverings were imported from the North or direct from Europe, Here Sally is standing beside a giant four poster bed.
We then were able to wander the grounds, where we ate our packed lunch.
It is a traditional antibellum (pre civil war) planation house. Its most stunning feature is the avenue of live oak trees and its gardens. We had a lovely day there.

Farr Park Campground

The Farr Park Equestrian Center and RV Campgound is a County Park, operated by the Baton Rouge East Parish. It is situated very conveniently for Downtown Baton Rouge. It is very quiet, you cannot make reservations. The facilities are basic, but servicable. Water pressure at this time was very low. No campfires allowed. NOTE: LSU home games are blackout days, as it is only a mile from the gound and all sites are pre reserved.
$20 per night.

Baton Rouge Day 2

"Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train
And I's feeling nearly as faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,
It rode us all the way to New Orleans."

How many times have I heard those romantic lyrics sung either by Kris Kristopherson or Janis Joplin? And here we are in that famous city.
Today we were going to get some music, we planned to be in Baton Rouge for the 'Live After Five' concert behind the Old Capitol building.
So we had a lazy morning and drove into Baton Rouge for lunch, parked and had Crawfish Etouffe in Lloyds, a Po Boy Seafood restaurant (though cafe was probably a more apt description. "Etouffe?" I hear you say. This is the third dish that is famous in Cajun Culture. As per usual the dish is served over rice. It is a roux sauce (oil and flour and milk) with all cajuny bits added. In this case it was their secret spices and Crawfish Tails, (small freshwater lobster). It was very nice.
We then toured the Old Capitol building which was built in 1835, only to be burned out by the Union army due to a cooking accident! The rebuilt in 1880. It has a beautiful cast iron spiral staircase right in the middle of the entrance hall. Apart from that not a lot really. So after that we went for a nice cup of coffee (tea for Sally) and unleashed ourselves into the concert. Curtis Coubello and the Insta-gators. Three guitars, fiddle (sometimes accordion) and drums playing coutry, zydeco and swamp-pop. It was great fun, as we joined about 3000 other people in the small arena area. We talked to loads of people and the music was excellent.
Came home about 7.30 having had a great day.

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Huey P Long

One of the most fascinating politicians I have never met. He was the Governor from 1928 to 1932, He was supposedly a very corrupt Governor, with many stories attached to his term in office. He was a very powerful man, who eventually was looking to run for President against Herbert Hoover.
He became very popular in Louisiana because he ordered the building of thousands of miles of roads, built the first bridges across the lower part of the Mississippi (named surprisingly the Huey P Long Bridge, we wrote about how scary this bridge is to cross when we came to New Orleans last year). He also opposed the power of Standard Oil (LA is very rich in oil) and removed the Poll Tax, yes you had to pay a poll tax if you wanted to vote, surprisingly few poor people voted in the state elections, white or black.
He was very unpopular amongst other politicians and Standard Oil, because he removed power from them and gave it to himself as well as enfranchising many poor people. He also sacked many hundreds of public officials and replaced them with his family, friends and people who had supported him in his campaign.
Arguably his biggest enemy was the President himself, as he had eyes on that office. He was appointed to the Senate (national) in 1930, but did not take up the post until he finished his governorship in 1932. He made many deals with people in Washington, pushing his doctrine that there should be wealth and work for all (remember this was at the height of the depression and the official line was to make drastic budget cuts), so powerful did he become in Washington that Franklin D Roosevelt was forced to create his 'Fair Deal' programme of public works and job creation, which was intended to cut the ground from under Long's feet, yet only succeeded in increasing his popularity.
In 1935 he was assassinated in a crowded corridor of the Capitol Building in 1935, supposedly by a Doctor Weiss. who was the son-in-law of a judge who had been removed by Long. Dr Weiss was shot dead at the scene by Long's security men, there were 61 bullets holes in him, they made sure that he was dead. Long died two days later. Weis's gun was not recovered at the scene, because he was not carrying a gun and it was found in his car! There was no Autopsy. Later (years later) forensic evidence showed that the gun was not the weapon that was used to assassinate Huey P Long. He was actually killed/murdered by his own security staff, for reasons unknown (though check on the enemies he had made). So Huey P Long was assassinated by his own men in his own building, before he could declare himself as a presidential candidate.
Many people think that had he lived he would have won the election in 1940 and been president during the war. Oh by the way his foreign policy was that he was an Isolationist - America should not involve itself with any foreigners.
There were some very interesting politics in those days. I urge you to read more abut him and his family on Wikipaedia and his official Bio page. The award winning book 'All The Kings Men' is a thinly disguised biography of him.