Okatoma Resort & RV Park, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house. ~ Proverbs 17:13
With a 5-hour, 254-mile drive looming ahead of us, we took off early this morning, headed for the Louisiana Bayou, and it’s entirely possible we won’t have service for a few days, which means I’ll be behind again on my postings. There are three possibilities why I get behind – we’re too busy running around collecting stories and pictures for the blog, I’m sick (very rare), or we don’t have service (or not-so-fast service). If we’ve been doing something really fun and exciting or educational (like Boston or Gettysburg this year), it also takes a lot longer to put together. And if service is slow, it takes much longer to get the pictures from my laptop into the post. And a new development has just taken place – – for some unexplained reason, my laptop doesn’t want to accept the occasional picture from Blaine’s phone. That means I have to try to transfer them 1-2 pictures at a time, until the offending photo is revealed. And there’s no reason for that photo to be refused. Anyway, just take heart and know that I’ll get my act together as quickly as possible, because I hate being behind. 😊
The first half of today was mostly just a long and boring drive. I’m certainly not complaining and neither is Blaine, but most of the road looked just like this,
I had fairytale dreams of working on the blog. I almost always have visions of being able to do that when we travel. And almost always, I’m unable to because the roads are too bouncy. I can set my laptop on my lap (😊) on top of a pillow and it seems to make it more stable than riding on top of the dining room table, but there’s not a good place to set the mouse, and the first curve or bump and the mouse is on the floor if I’m not holding onto it. Today was no exception. I tried the table first, but everything was jumping around, so I tried my lap, until the mouse ended up in the stairwell. And that was it. I put it all away. I asked Santa for a laptop tray, but he responded the other day that I’m too picky, and so I’d be on my own to have my wish fulfilled. So far, I’m not having any luck because I have this need to actually see it and try it out before I buy it. I’m having a great deal of trouble finding them in stores – even Best Buy.
Anyway, it ended up being fine, because that’s just about the time the drive got interesting. You’ll see from the pictures later on.
But first, let me tell you about something incredible we witnessed that has no picture. So, we’re tooling down the expressway, when suddenly and without warning, a red-tailed hawk swooped down from the right directly in front of us! He landed on the median and snatched something out of the grass there! It was soooo exciting! And I was sure glad I was looking out the windshield instead of at a laptop screen!
Look at the road. bumpity-bump-bump-bump . . .
Looks like a lot of people haven’t!
Once we left the expressway, we had some miles of interesting, before we arrived at the State Park.
Part of that drive included an 18-mile bridge! We didn’t know that’s what we’d be traveling on until we saw a sign that said, “Trucks in right lane only for the next 18 miles”. We thought that kinda strange, and due to our size, we operate like a truck, so right lane it was. As the bridge went on and on, we realized it was most likely an 18-mile bridge, and we were right. However, there were many truck drivers who apparently can’t read road signs, because they were zooming past us and the truckers who could, by the dozens.
They’re barricaded, so you best be sure you’re supposed to be on it, because you can’t get off.
We also learned something about this foreign country we’ve entered. (more on that later 😊) At least some of their words are spelled differently – like this bridge for example. It’s called “Breaux Bridge”, but pronounced ‘bro’. There were also other signs like that scattered along out journey, including one that was probably meant to be funny, that advertised “sneaux”. Did you get it? It’s snow. 😊
And as we were crossing Breaux Bridge, we entered the realm of standing water, Live Oaks, Spanish Moss and occasional Palm Trees.
After the bridge, the final 20 miles continued to add memories to our repertoire as we zig-zagged our way over to the State Park where we’ll be living for the next 7 nights – including taking us through a sugar cane processing plant area! For a few minutes, we were very concerned that we’d made a wrong turn! But realized that unless someone transplanted the road sign, we were in the right place.
That means we won’t have much room to turn either!
But a week later, when we were moving out of this area,
we discovered that this is actually steam coming out of the ground from the processing plant.
We never did learn why they do that.
And we have to leave this way too!
That’s the levee on the left.
Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, St. Martinville, Louisiana
The ladies in the office were really nice, but we had to listen hard, because they have these rich Acadian accents. We’re in the heart of Acadiana in the US. Actually, the birthplace of Acadia in Louisiana. Turns out, we’re in the place where the exiled Acadians from Nova Scotia ended up in 1764 – shortly before the Revolutionary War broke out. Do you remember the story from 2 ½ years ago when we visited Canada? The Acadians were already loyal to France and were getting along fine with the Native Americans and everyone else, when the French and Indian War came about. They remained neutral in the battle between the French and British for control of the region. The British won control and wanted to force them to be loyal to Britain and sign a document saying they’d turn on France, but they refused, so the British forced them out of their homes – hundreds of thousands of them – and sent them packing.
This is where many of them ended up, because the area already contained a French presence. Subsequently, they settled down to create that characteristic culture we know today. The name changed because the French called Acadians “Cadians”, and the Acadian accent slurs “d”s into more of a “j” sound, so we ended up with “Cajuns”.
The Park is virtually empty, and they’re not expecting more than a handful of people to show up during the week we’re here, so they told us we could stay at the site we originally asked for (chosen a year ago after Blaine’s research with Google Maps), or go check out any of the other available sites and let them know where we ended up. Wow! Our pick of almost the entire place!
So we did. And we ended up right where Blaine originally chose.
Here’s why.
There were sites alongside the river that runs through the Park, but they were surrounded by trees (no satellite TV) and no sewer (limited flushes, dish-washing and showering at the bath house). One site would’ve had satellite, but still no sewer. In the end, since we’re staying an entire week, it was important to have satellite and other amenities – like water usage. So we stayed put. There are so few of us in this Park that if we decide we want to go sit by the water, we can.
So why is satellite so important?
Because it’s our only link to the outside world for an entire week. And even more importantly?
OSU plays Wisconsin on Saturday for the Big 10 Championship. So it’s either satellite, or Blaine has to go find a bar that’s showing the game. . . . 😊