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___ From Simmesport, Louisiana we rode to New Roads, Louisiana. Just as we got to the Mississippi River we hit 2000 miles!!
We wanted to get the Mississippi River in the background of this picture, but there was a huge levy in the way. We followed the levy most of the way into New Roads. It was a very cold riding day, but the sun was out and it was a beautiful ride through the sugarcane and cotton fields
Apparently, the wind we had experienced the night before when we stayed in the restroom also affected some trees. This one had blown down onto the road. In New Roads we camped at Jim’s Campground, which is right on the edge of False River. Our plans were to meet Dad there the next day. He was driving down from Ely, Nevada to spend Thanksgiving with us! We set up our tent on the lake’s edge and went into Jim’s bar for a steak poboy and a Coke. While we were eating, the park manager came up to us, introduced himself and offered to let us stay in one of the empty mobile homes they have in the campground. He said that it was supposed to get down to freezing and he didn’t want us to be too cold in our tent. We were very grateful and the mobile home was a nice break from the cold weather. We turned up the heat and watched The Fiddler on the Roof while we did our laundry. Dad arrived the next day around noon. After eating some lunch, we headed north to St. Francisville for some sightseeing. In order to get from New Roads to St. Francisville, we had to cross the Mississippi River on a ferry. This was very exciting for all of us. It was the first time Dad or I had ever seen the Mississippi. Rob had seen it before, but only at the headwaters in Minnesota. We all went down to the water’s edge and put our fingers in to feel the water.
Dad and I are posing on the West side of the Mississippi while we are waiting for the ferry to arrive The ferry ride was only about 15 minutes. The Mississippi wasn’t as wide as we expected. We expected it to be wider than the Columbia River in Washington, but it’s about half as wide at this location. We did see several big barges go by as we crossed. On the other side, an old barge and crane had found their final resting place on the shore.
Here I am in my favorite role as tour guide. I am busily perusing some brochures trying to figure out the good things to see in St. Francisville
We drove around St. Francisville and saw some beautiful old, southern and cajun style homes in the historic district. We also stopped at the local museum to learn a few facts about St. Francisville. We learned that St. Francisville was once a part of the Independent Republic of West Florida. That was an area of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida that was not purchased by the US in the Louisiana Purchase. It still belonged to Spain, but the locals formed an army and fought until the Spanish army left. Soon after, the US army came to West Florida and all the land became part of the US because President Madison declared it to be so. The Independent State of West Florida has a blue flag with a white lone star in the middle. It was the first lone star flag before Texas flew its lone star. The museum had several displays about James Audubon, the famous bird naturalist. He came to visit friends in St. Francisville and saw so many new types of birds here that he started the drawings and scientific notes on birds that would make him famous. He worked here as a tutor and spent his spare time bird watching and documenting. His wife, after being separated from him for many years, also came to St. Francisville to work as a tutor. She used the money from this job to support her husband as he finished his work in England.
Here Dad and I are sitting on a park bench in St. Francisville trying to catch some warm rays of sunlight.
I’m not sure what we we’re discussing, but it sure looks important from the expression on our faces. Rob says he likes this picture because it shows how I look like my Dad. He labeled this picture “Like father like daughter”. We rode the ferry back across the Mississippi and Rob was able to get some very nice pictures of the river at sunset.
While Dad was visiting we crossed the Mississippi River a total of 6 times! After our trip to St. Francisville, we went back to Jim’s Campground and played a few games of pool at the bar. Dad and Rob are pretty darn good. My shooting leaves a lot to be desired. But they humored me pretty well.
Don’t you think Dad looks like a pool shark with the nice red glow of the Budwiser sign in the background?
Here I am making a difficult shot. You should have seen Rob and Dad’s face when I knocked all the balls in at once and won the game!! The second day of Dad’s visit we went to Baton Rouge. To get there we crossed the Mississippi on I-10. Our first stop was at the state capital building. This is the state capital that the infamous Huey P. Long had built during the great depression. He used his persuasive talents to convince the state legislature to fund the huge project of building the new capital. If you don’t know about Huey P. Long, you should read the book All the Kings Men. It’s an excellent book and it will give you a good idea of the type of character Huey was.
Here is the state capital building in Baton Rouge. It is the tallest state capital in the US. It has a total of 30 stories.
Each of the stairs leading to the entrance of the state capital have the name of a state and the year it joined the union. They are in order from bottom to top of when the state joined the union. When the capital was originally built, there were only 48 states. So both Hawaii and Alaska are on the top step.
The inside of the capital was very ornate. Here you can see the Senate Chambers. Very, very fancy!
This is a light fixture that is on the ceiling of the capital in the main entryway. There were about 6 of these chandeliers in the main hall. Behind the elevators there is a hallway where the governor’s office used to be. It is now an office used by the Senate leader. It was in this hallway that Huey P. Long was assassinated.
This painting is on display in the hallway. It is intended to depict the assassination. Some theorize that the guy in white didn’t actually manage to shoot the governor, but that it was his overzealous body guards instead.
The circle on the floor of this hallway is where the assassination occurred. On the wall next to this spot there is a memorial to Huey P. Long. He is actually buried on the front lawn of the capital underneath a statue of his likeness riding a horse. The folks in this state must be real Huey fans.
We rode to the 27th floor where there is a public observation deck. From there we had a great view of all of Baton Rouge and a good length of the Mississippi River. I was impressed by Baton Rouge. It seems like a very nice city. Next to the state capital there is an old arsenal where weapons have been stored for the federal government since before the Civil War. It is one of only 2 relics that still stand from the fort that was originally located where the state capital is today. We took a tour of the arsenal. Here is a picture of some powder kegs that were stored there.
After the state capital tour, we were hungry and went to eat at a great Cajun restaurant. We all had shrimp etouffee and sweet potato pumpkin pie. What a great lunch!!! Our next stop was at the LSU Rural Life museum. This museum has tons and tons of artifacts from the 1800’s era in Louisiana. It also has several old pioneer houses that have been restored as well as old slave houses that were once located on plantations in the area.
The museum had a very educational and interesting display on slavery. Here are some shackles that were used on slaves. There were several other artifacts including bills of sale and an excruciating looking neck shackle. This was a very sobering display. Hard to imagine that this all occurred not so long ago.
Here is a wagon that was used to haul sugar cane.
An old wagon wheel next to one of the slave’s quarters.
This is the inside of the overseer’s house. It was much nicer than the slave quarters, but not even half as nice as the “Big House”.
Many of the old style Cajun homes used to have a Pigionaire. It was a place where the pigions could come and roost and be safe from their predators. The pigeons could easily be caught and used for food and their poop was used for fertilizer. This is the inside of a pigionaire. The Cajun homes also had another peculiarity which was a stairway on the front porch that led to a small loft room above the house. This room was called the Garsonaire. Once the boys in the family turned 13, they were required to move out of the main house and into the Garsonaire. There was an outside stairway so the boys could come and go as they like without disturbing the family. They still ate meals with the family in the main room, but all else they did separately. Perfect idea for dealing with lovely teenagers. Rob is glad his folks didn’t think of it when he was a younger fellow.
Dad and I are standing next to an old kiln that was used for making molasses and sugar out of sugarcane. There were three bowls placed in holes above the fire in the brick kiln. The first bowl was the biggest. It was where the raw sugarcane was dumped and boiled at low heat. All the throw away stuff would float to the top and was skimmed off. Then the mixture was dumped in the 2nd bowl where the heat was greater. Again the junk would float to the top and would be skimmed off. The 3rd and final bowl was where the greatest heat was applied and the sugar can finally became molasses and sugar crystals. Amazing!
There was also an old graveyard at the rural life museum. We’re not sure if people are actually buried there or if this was all for show. Spooky! When we returned to Jim’s Campground from Baton Rouge they were having a Thanksgiving dinner in the bar. It was all home cooked southern style food and it was free. We gladly joined everyone in the bar and were happy to have our first fried turkey with cracklins and sweet potato pumpkin pie! It was a great Thanksgiving dinner. But, of course, not as good as Grandma’s. The next day was Thanksgiving and we all went to New Orleans. This was the first visit to New Orleans for all of us and we were very excited. Unfortunately, it poured buckets and buckets of rain all day long. So it really wasn’t an ideal day to walk around the French Quarter, but we made the best of it.
Dad and I are in the French Quarter all decked out in our colorful rain slickers. Poor Rob. He’s such a good photographer, he never gets in any pictures!
Here is Jackson Square, which is in the middle of the French Quarter. Looks pretty ominous in black and white, doesn’t it?
This is a pretty fountain that was in Jackson Square.
Dad and I are enjoying the wet day in New Orleans! We walked around the French Quarter to see all the things we had heard about. We wanted to have lunch on Bourbon Street, but were disappointed to find that everything on Bourbon street was either a gay bar or a residence. Not quite what we expected. In fact, all three of us were rather disappointed in New Orleans. The French Quarter Architecture is so unique and pretty, but a lot of the places have become dilapidated. For some reason their owners have not really kept them up. Quite a few places were in need of paint and repairs. The other disappointing thing was the number of vagabonds on the street. There were clearly several prostitutes and quite a few groups of people standing around dealing drugs. New Orleans is much dirtier than we expected. We did find a nice place for lunch and we tried a Mint Julep! It was darn tasty. That’s one we’ll have to have again sometime. After lunch we walked over to the Mississippi River to take a look. Rob got a great picture of us as we were standing there.
On the way back from New Orleans it was raining so hard that we decided to stop and see a movie in hopes that the rain would let up by the time the movie was over. We saw Master and Commander which was very good. Fortunately, the rain had stopped by the time the movie was over and it was a much easier drive than before. Unfortunately, Dad had to leave the next day to drive back to Ely. We got a good picture of the three of us at Jim’s campground just before he left.
We were very lonely with Dad gone, so we hurried and headed out of New Roads as quickly as we could. We crossed the Mississippi River for the last time on the ferry boat to St. Francisville.
Here we are on the ferry. After this ride we were officially in the Eastern US and Rob is now the goofiest man East of the Mississippi. (note: Observe for a moment if you will that Della attempts to use humor every now and then. Read on for more examples.) In St. Francisville, we took another tour of the historic homes. We wanted to take a picture of our favorite one.
This house used to be an open air market. The doors are shaped like that because they used to be openings for carriages to drive all the way through. Now they are doors and windows. This place can be rented out for special events. It looks like it would be great for a wedding reception. There are several old plantation homes that are open for touring in and around St. Francisville. We were lucky enough to tour two of them while we were there. The first one we went to was Rosedown Plantation. It’s original owner and builder was a sugarcane and cotton farmer who owned 450 slaves. At the time, he was one of the richest men in the US. He built this plantation after marrying his wife. She became interested in horticulture and gardening after their honeymoon in Europe and the beautiful gardens at Rosedown are the legacy of her lifetime work. The plantation passed down through several generations of their family and even managed to stay with the family through the Civil War and the Great Depression. Eventually, it was sold to a wealthy oil heiress who took on the restoration of the plantation. It was her goal to restore everything as it was in the antebellum era. She did an absolutely amazing job. She also restored the gardens. This is the plantation to visit if you want to see antebellum furnishings and decoration. I’m sure it’s also absolutely amazing to see in the springtime when all the flowers are blooming. It must be stunning.
Here is a picture of Rosedown Plantation from the front of the house. As you can see the driveway is lined with very old, large Oak Trees. It reminded me of Twelve Oaks in Gone With the Wind. I kept expecting to see Scarlet flitting around in a big red dress.
This old Oak Tree has been fortified with brick!
This is the parlor room in the Rosedown mansion. All of the rooms were beautifully decorated and furnished. One of the rooms had a tapestry that was supposedly made by Martha Washington and given to the owners of the plantation by Martha’s granddaughter who happened to be their daughter in-law.
These are the Rosedown gardens as seen from the 2nd story of the plantation house. After we toured Rosedown we went to Oakley Plantation, which is where James Audubon began his work on bird sketches while tutoring the plantation owner’s children. The Oakley Plantation house isn’t nearly as fancy or big as Rosedown, although it is very nice. The interesting thing about Oakley is that some of the original slave quarters have been preserved on the plantation. Rosedown didn’t have any original slave quarters remaining. Also, Oakley has a garden in which some vegetables are growing that are different than anything that grows today. They have been preserved since the 1800’s unchanged and are unlike the vegetables that descended from them and are used and eaten today. For instance, did you know that tomatoes from the 1800s had teeth? Spooky!
It was a very cold night and the next morning we woke up with frost all over everything, including our bike seats. We had a very cold ride to Easleyville, Louisiana. Along the way, we saw this beautiful field of frost covered grass. I think this picture makes it look like a tree in the middle of a lake instead of the middle of a field of grass. What do you think?
In Easleyville, we stopped at the RV Park listed on our bike map. No one was there and no one ever showed up. So we had a pleasant night of camping for free! In the RV park there were a couple of swings and other toys for kids. Among them was thing that looked like a Honeybucket that had been turned into a NASA Space Capsule.
From Easleyville we cycled into Franklinton, Louisiana. This was our last night in Louisiana. It was a Sunday, so we were unable to find out anything about camping at the City Hall or Tourist Info center because they were closed. We found a great place to camp under a bridge next to a river.
Can you see the two trolls living under the bridge? Tip, tap, tip, tap, who’s that walking on my bridge? If you didn’t think we were homeless vagabonds before, now what do you think? The next day was the first day of December and our first day in Mississippi. We were sad to leave Louisiana. We really enjoyed the state and everything that we saw and did. It’s a very fun place to visit. This was not a good day for us, as our bike map had several incorrect directions for this part of the route. We got very lost in Bogalusa, Louisiana and also on our way into Poplarville, Mississippi. Also, our first impression of Mississippi was not too great. In Louisiana we were on a nice, smooth road with wide shoulders. As soon as we hit the Mississippi border, the shoulders completely disappeared and the road was terrible! We felt our I.Q.s drop by twelve points in the first five minutes.
Here we are at the “Welcome to Mississippi” sign. We are already missing Louisiana. We had very poor luck trying to find a place to stay in Poplarville. We rode all over town to the City Hall, Chamber of Commerce, etc. asking about camping. Come to find out they don’t even have motels in Poplarville, let alone camping. There was one bed and breakfast. I called them and they didn’t have any vacancies. Luckily, as I was calling them, a man and his daughter drove up and he offered to let us stay in their backyard. Thank goodness for small miracles. This really was a lifesaver. I’m convinced that someone is looking out for us. So we ended up pitching our tent in the backyard of Steve and Tonya. They were very nice to us and we enjoyed meeting them. They have a nice big backyard, so it was perfect. We visited with Steve a bit. He seemed kind of strange. I mentioned to Della, ‘Boy, this guy sure isn’t a rocket scientist.’ We later found out that he works at a NASA test base south of town. I guess he is a rocket scientist. For the rest of our time in Mississippi, we didn’t really see much of note. We were riding on mostly low traffic back roads, which was nice because we could ride side by side and visit. Most of the towns we went through were very small and there wasn’t a lot to stop and see. Our second night in Mississippi we stayed at a nice RV park in Perkinston. The last night in Mississippi we stayed at an overly expensive RV park in Vancleave. It was on the way to Vancleave that we started to encounter some very rude drivers. It hadn’t happened at all before this, but now we are starting to have people yell at us and give us dirty looks. It was also at the overly expensive RV park that we encountered a real spectacle of a lady. Her voice was sounded like that guy who used to sing for AC/DC before he overdosed on heroine. She yelled out stuff like, “Hand me that there screwdriver boy and I’ll show youz how it’s done!” Followed by the sound of her smashing a pee filled beer bottle on the ground. She also yelled out at one point, “Help! Someone call one one nine!” Apparently she dropped out of preschool before they taught those number thangs! However, we did see some nice things in Mississippi. Here are a few of them.
A beautiful Mississippi sunset.
These pretty horses came out to say hello as we were stopped by the side of the road having a snack
Here is a pulp mill in Mississippi
Here is an example of the type of forests we rode through in Mississippi From Vancleave, we went off route and rode down to the Gulf Coast to Ocean Springs where there is a Wal Mart. We both were badly in need of new tires. All four of our tires were pretty bald. From Ocean Springs, Mississippi, we rode along the Gulf Coast to Pascagoula where we crossed a bridge and had our first sighting of the Gulf of Mexico.
This crane is under the bridge we crossed over the Gulf of Mexico Soon after Pascagoula we entered Alabama.
Here we are at the “Welcome to Alabama” sign. Directly across the street from this sign was a bar that was advertising a “Thong Night”. Foosh!! Rob wished that we could stay for the big event. We rode into Grand Bay and stayed at a nice RV park that we pretty much had to ourselves. The next day we rode through Bayou La Batre where Forest Gump kept his shrimp boat. It is a very pretty little town on the Gulf.
There were many shrimp boats in the bayous around Bayou la Batre. Perhaps one of these belongs to Forest?
Some flowers are still blooming in December!
The fall colors are still vibrant down here in Alabama.
We crossed a big, long causeway that went over the Gulf of Mexico to get to Dauphin, Island. On our way across we got a good view of dozens of clam fishermen raking the ocean floor for clams
Dauphin Island is a very beautiful place. We found a great RV park on the ocean where we set up our tent and spent the afternoon sunning ourselves on the white sand beaches.
Rob catches me taking in a view of the Gulf of Mexico.
Rob and I take a nap on the beach and dream about hamburgers and ice cream!!!
A good walking area for humans and birds alike. On the other side of the sand dunes there was a big marshy area with a walking trail. In that area we discovered some beautiful fall colors
Fall colors floating on the pond
Fall colors in black and white
Close up of the beauty of nature We decided to take a day off and stay at Dauphin Island. We noticed on our way in that they would be having a Christmas street party and parade the next day. We needed to rest and certainly enjoy a good party, so we decided to stay. The next day we went to Fort Gaines to look around. Fort Gaines was actually used in the Civil War and was lost to the Union Army after 1 week of continuous battle from the land and the sea. At the Fort they were having a re-enactment and we got to see them fire a real cannon.
You can see the smoke from the cannon fire in the picture above. This fort was used in concert with Fort Morgan to guard Mobile Bay from attack. After spending some time at the fort, we went to the street party to look at the arts and crafts and eat some food. Somehow the organizers of the street party managed to make it snow. I think it was because the party was organized by all the local churches and they had the inside connection to God. To prove I’m not making it up, just see the handsome snowman below.
The Dauphin Island Christmas Parade was different from what we’re used to. In all the parades we’ve been to, there is a small chance that candy will be thrown from some of the floats. In this parade, candy, moon pies and beads were thrown from every float! We even saw someone throw a brand new Black and Decker laser sited swing arm saw into the crowd! We collected a large number of Christmas beads and had our fair share of candy. The moon pies were the best. If you haven’t ever had one, you should really give it a try.
Della catching some beads during the parade.
Rob always knows how to make art out of the simplest things The next day we left Dauphin Island via a ferry boat. We took the ferry across Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan, Alabama. We got up early and made it to the first ferry because we thought it would be crowded. Strangely enough, we were the only ones who took the ferry!
As you can see, the ferry was completely empty, except for us. Oh, and the guy driving the thing. Maybe everyone got a heads up about our personal body odor and decided to take a later ferry.
I am enjoying the view of the Gulf of Mexico as we ride the ferry.
There were dozens of oil rigs in Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. These are natural gas wells. Can you see the flame on top? Nah. Neither could we, but it’s there. After we got off the ferry at Fort Morgan we had a nice, flat, fast ride along the beach. We saw many beautiful beach homes and condos. There wasn’t much traffic and it was a quiet, calm day. It was a very pleasant ride. Eventually, the beach road led us into Florida.
Here we are at our final border crossing! It’s hard to believe we rode all the way from Arizona to Florida. That night we decided to camp on the beach. We weren’t sure if camping was allowed, but there wasn’t a sign indicating that it wasn’t. Nevertheless, we didn’t pitch our tent. We just slept in our sleeping bags on the sand. Unfortunately, it was a very cold night for both of us. We did enjoy the afternoon sitting on the beach.
I took a walk and collected some seashells. There were so many different kinds of seashells in the beautiful white sand.
My nose was frozen, so I put my earmuff over it. Looks pretty silly eh? I’m certainly not winning any fashion contests these days. While we were enjoying the sunset these two couples and their kids came out on the beach to take some pictures. After they had shot a few pictures one of the men ran to his vehicle and came back with this apparatus. It turns out that it was a parasail. He had a parachute and a huge fan that he strapped to his back. He had his friend turn the blade on the fan, which started the motor. Then he lifted up both sides of his parachute and started running along the beach. Eventually, he was up, up in the air and flying away. We certainly didn’t expect to see that!
Here he is at take off
Now he is up and flying off into the sunset.
We can still see him off in the distance. We woke up the next day to a very, very cold morning. But we did get to see a beautiful sunrise
The next day we rode through Pensacola and ended up in Milton looking for a place to stay. We intended to camp outside of Milton in the woods by the side of the road. Luckily for us, Jerry found us. He pulled off the side of the road in town and motioned us over to stop and talk to him. He invited us to camp in his yard. We actually ended up pitching our tent in his garage because of the threat of rain. He also fed us some gumbo and shared some good wine with us. We had a very nice visit with Jerry. We hope to see him again!
This is Jerry in his living room in Milton, Florida. The next day we rode to Holt and stayed at an RV park there in town. It rained cats and dogs soon after sunset and we had to move all of our stuff into the rec room because we were camped in a low spot and a puddle had built up under our tent. We spent the night in the warm dry rec room on the floor. It was a very good spot. Thank goodness the RV park had a rec room or we would have been sleeping in the restroom again! Here we are in the rec room with all our wet stuff!
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