Day 23 - Touring Houma, Louisiana

Submitted by:  Ray and Lorre Dorris #7

Day 23 in Houma started out beautiful with a slight chill in the air with a few scattered clouds with the occasional breaks with bright periods of bone warming sunshine...

The evening before ended with a breathtaking sunset, today also ended with another beautiful Louisiana sunset but with a little punch from Mother Nature...

We all gathered in the parking lot for our ride share to Bob's Bayou Black Marina for our Cajun Man's Swamp Cruise. 

Joe checking out those gator teeth...

Nice to see men in a line for a change....

Our tour guide, the owner, "Black" Guidry, who can be seen and heard on several
TV stations, is a former Green Beret and State Trooper

We were awed by the sighting of a pair of bald eagles, numerous alligators ranging from small ones sunning on logs to what is probably one of the largest alligators still in the wild.

We were serenaded with tunes from his accordion and guitar while singing local Cajun and familiar country tunes, making for another enjoyable morning of touring through the swamps of Louisiana. 

We were treated with a demonstration on how you use a limb line with a baited hook and clothespin to hunt for alligator in the wild.

Our next stop was at Greenwood Gator Farm, here we learned all about the harvesting of gator eggs, raising, processing of gators for their hide and meat for our consumption. 

Ray chatting with the owners, the Greenwood's.

Cute when they're small. This one is almost a year old with a full set of teeth.

Salt is used in the curing process.

The sex of the alligator is determined by the temperature during incubation, incubation temperatures of 86 or lower produce a clutch of females; those at 93 or higher produce entirely males.

It was a very educational tour as well as an entertaining and hands on experience.

They do allow outsiders to live on the gator farm...

Me and Big Mike hanging out....

Chris giving one of the little fellows some love....

Of course I couldn't leave without my own gator...

After seeing all these alligators, we were off to Big Al's Restaurant for some tasty morsels of cooked alligator. 

I had my favorite, charbroiled oysters, Ray had the gator sandwich.

Our evening ended with a big surprise from our fearless leaders, who have taken such wonderful care of us on our meandering crawl across Cajun Country.

They treated us to all the fixings of a true Cajun boil prepared by Rouse's Supermarket but that's when Mother Nature decided to break up our little dinner party, well, she didn't stop us from filling our bellies with crawfish, shrimp, red potatoes, corn on the cob and chicken for a few.....

Mad dash to get everything put up...

Tomorrow we move on to New Orleans for the last stop on our trip....can't wait.

Day 22 - Travel Day to Houma, Louisiana

Submitted by:  Fred and Mary Dahm #6

Laissez les Bon Tempo Rouler.  The good times continued to roll as we met for 9 a.m. briefing and Carolyn passed Foxy to Joe.

Lush forests, wild flowers and bayous alternated with farmland and beautiful homes.  We enjoyed the awesome view of the Mississippi River as we crossed Gramercy Bridge.

The City of Houma is a designated bird sanctuary.  Our lagniappe was a short walk on the Mandalay Nature Trail in the federal Wildlife Refuge.

Joe awarded Foxy to Marion during Social Hour and another day of adventure was concluded.

Yesterday we returned to the new State Capitol grounds and located a number of historical plaques and monuments honoring George and Martha Washington.  Later, we also crossed the great river on the Plaquemine ferry for $1.00!

Day 21 - Free Day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Submitted by:  Donna and Joe Risley #16

We were sorry to learn that Gene and Marilyn decided to leave the caravan due to Marilyn’s health problems.  They will be missed.  We wish them safe travels home and a speedy recovery.

Today was a day of leisure and rest.

We are on the banks of the old Mississippi River.

Most of our group took the day off and just taking it easy.

The most strenuous thing I could find was using the remote control.

Late afternoon we got together for a campfire and roasted marshmallows and made S’mores.

We had a little rain but we all had fun and went home with a full tummy.

Day 20 - Tour of Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Submitted by:  Pat and Mike Astley #3

The group bus tried to start with a tour of the Louisiana State University but could only succeed with a drive by as there were lines of busses headed that way for a special event.

We moved on to a tour of the Magnolia Mound Plantation.

This was followed by a driving tour of Baton Rouge, including the old and new Governor’s Mansions.

Old Governor’s Mansion

We took a break at the Hollywood Casino, where they had a wonderful buffet lunch with great views of the Mississippi from your table.

We took a tour of the old State Capitol building, a castle-like structure that had a beautiful stain glass ceiling above the curving staircase. We got to meet “the ghost of the castle” who gave us a multi-media presented history of the building, including the fire that almost destroyed it all.

After a walk around, and seeing some of the vendor booths outside, part of another celebration, we then went to the New State Capitol Building, a modern 30 story building and garden grounds pushed through by Huey Long. The tour of the building included the spot that Huey was shot, leading to his death and a view from the 27^th floor balcony of the capitol grounds and the city beyond.

Our final stop was the Louisiana State Museum, showing the history and culture of the state. I particularly enjoyed the Mardi Gras section.

Appropriately, our final event was a mock Jazz funeral with the mournful music start and the joyful Dixieland music ending.