We had an awesome evening last night with our hosts Phyllis and Reuben – we stayed up until almost midnight just talking to them. Both of them are possibly 5th generation locals, and listening to them was like listening to an audio history book – it was just amazing. We covered everything from Louisiana politics, to the presence of the oil refineries and chemical plants in Louisiana, to Katrina, to hunting and fishing in Louisiana, to local history. Like with Judith in Norco, I wished we had had a tape recorder going for most of it. Not only was the conversation amazing, we also had a “real” dinner – shrimp etouffee, salad, sweet potatoes, stewed chicken and rice, and sliced strawberries with cream. How can you beat that?
Since Phyllis had great wireless Internet access, we stayed up until 2 a.m. getting our blogs posted and photos uploaded, so 8 a.m. came awfully early. We slept like logs, and if we hadn’t set the alarm, we’d still be asleep, I think. We dragged ourselves slowly out and around, and Phyllis came back just as we were getting ready to heat up our oatmeal. She offered us “breakfast”, which had just been cooked for their lunch, and we had another incredible meal – white beans and ham, potato salad, elk in gravy (the elk was caught in Louisiana by Phyllis’s son), new peas with ham, and rice – all of it made from scratch that morning. What a way to start our day! We finally got on the bikes around 11:15.
The day was already hot, and we had had two nights in a row of not much sleep, so we wisely decided to have a very short and fun day. We made it 4 miles down the road to Oak Alley, a famous local plantation. We were able to camp on the grounds, and the fee included access to the grounds and the tour of the “Big House”. The whole day was just magical. The grounds were beautiful and peaceful, the staff was extremely friendly and kind, the food was great, and we loved every minute of it. Not only did we have our first-ever mint juleps, we had shrimp gumbo and alligator nuggets for lunch! Talk about widening our food horizons- elk and alligator in one day! It was great fun being back in our tent, too.
One thing happened that is becoming so usual for us, and so appreciated…a vendor for Zapps Foods was making his deliveries to the restaurant/store, and he stopped to talk to Chelsea. After a great 15-minute conversation, he gave us two cold bottles of water, two bags of caramel popcorn, and a whole box of Slim Jims. We didn’t get his name, but thank you to him anyway!
We’ll pack up tonight and plan on heading out early. There are no showers or laundry, and no way to wash our dishes for breakfast, so we’ll have breakfast here and be gone by 9 a.m. We’re headed out now to watch the sunset and read on the park benches in front of the Big House. We’re the only ones on the grounds as they closed at 5!!!
Be sure to check out our photo gallery for the pictures of Oak Alley.
Signing off from Oak Alley, Louisiana