New Orleans, the Gulf, and the Manatees!!!

Inspired by our cooking class in New Orleans, Dirk created almond pralines in the RV.  A little too crumbly so we had to eat them promptly!!!

First stop out of New Orleans was the Chalmette Battlefield, site of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 against Britain.

Apparently this battle was extremely important in keeping Britain from taking over the entire Louisiana Purchase and Mississippi shipping channels from the US, but of course, to me, the battle is most important for the cool song it generated!

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Had to do some major strategizing on our itinerary, as we did not have much idea what we were doing in Phase II.  Turns out other people like to go to Florida in the winter, so rolling into a State Park or cool camp site at 6pm without reservations is not OK, ie, one will not get a site.

Skirted the beaches of Mississippi and Louisiana before getting into Florida.  Really nice beaches and periodic sunshine, but too cold or windy to hang out.

Did take advantage of the seafood places along the coast, for some fresh shrimp and some Cajun boiled peanuts!  As always, our picnics are in the nice warm and wind-free RV.

One of our favorite Louisiana campgrounds, Gulf State Park, had a great Nature Center where we got to hold this very affectionate opossum that was raised from an infant.

Well, sort of ugly-cute, but soft, warm, and loving.  Hard to pry its claws and its tail off of us to put back into cage!

Rode bikes to this beach in Florida.  Found these very weird birds....not seagulls.  A closer look shows enormous bills with an orange band around them by head. They are skimmers according to a sagacious Brit we met on the beach.

Some fun drama at the Nature Center was the encouraged pursuit of the female box turtle by the male box turtle. Staff want to raise some baby turtles at the center.  The female was not too enthused at the idea, however!

She cleverly retreated to under a display case, where there was not quite enough room for the male turtle to do his thing.

Finally in Florida where apparently a lot of turtles HAVE done their thing!  This crystal clear river is one of many that flows out of the limestone substrate of Florida, producing 72 degree springs that create beautiful, life filled rivers.  We canoed this from our campground, surrounded by anhinga "snake-birds" and soft and hard shelled turtles.  Too cold to go swimming, but the water was warm!

Top billing on Dixie's bucket list was fulfilled this day in Crystal River,  Florida.  We got on a boat at sunrise and headed for one of the warm springs where the Gulf manatees congregate in the winter to stay warm.  The very cold weather we have been "enjoying" has some apparent benefit----record numbers of manatee!

With wet suits on and snorkels and masks in position, we swam from the boat to a headspring to greet the sleeping manatees.

They like humans and once we arrived, many of them swam around with us and rumbled with each other.  Remember that cameras are wide angle.  I was touching these manatees and part of the rumble.

We both participated in a lot of back rubbing and scratching action.  Laws require touching with one open hand only, to show that you are not grabbing or doing anything bad to the protected animals, but that was fine for scratching their algae covered backs.  Most of them had propeller scars on their backs. Biggest cause of death for manatees is boat encounters.

Is this baby cute or what?  Whiskers on chin, nostrils that close underwater and open when they surface, tiny eyes.  Often looked at them face to face from 0-12".  They do give kisses!

Two days later we canoed from our campground on the Chassahowitzka River, another river with warm springs that attracts manatees.  At least 10 were congregated right at the boat launch and hanging out in one's canoe was rewarded by visits.  These 1000 lb, 12 foot long animals were all around our canoe!  This baby definitely solicited scratches from us and other canoers!

On a less happy note, apparently now that we are further south, the alligators are actually awake.  This one guarded the trail to the observation tower at Payne Prairie State Park.  If all the signs say to stay a minimum of 12 feet from any alligator on land, and the trail is only 6 feet wide, and this gator is sitting on the edge of it, what does one do????  We waited until some poor ignorant chump coming the other direction walked by unharmed. Then we pushed a med student that we had met in front of us before proceeding.

A few days later, we were not so lucky!

The park we entered tonight is having a Florida Frost Festival, complete with snow sledding for kids.  It did not seem to deter the alligators, however.

This is what awaits us tomorrow!

East Texas and Louisiana

Phase 2 of Havlak US Tour began with a bang!  Uncertain what our New Year's Eve plans were, we ended up on a dock in Uncertain, Texas, population 94, with one of the best firework displays we have ever had and soooo up close and personal!

Population has apparently declined since sign was made.

Local firemen/pyromaniacs launched barge in Caddo Lake and for half an hour set off these displays while we hung out with the locals on this little fishing dock.

Next day rented some state park canoes for our first venture into the swamps. Don't worry, the mosquitos and the alligators are asleep at this time of year!

Got a new doo while in Texas!

Bald cypress trees lose their needles in the winter, but don't need em cause they have plenty of Spanish Moss decor!

A little local color on this boathouse overlooking the lake!

Holidays ain't over yet!  Turns out, being Catholic and all, that Christmas season ends at 12th night.  The town of Natchetoches (pronounced Nak a tesh) had an awesome river/lake walk with some unique light displays.  This is the town's 300th year. Of is it the states???......well, this is the oldest town in the state, sight  of an early French fort.

Near Natchitoches is the Cane River road, site of past cotton plantations. I thought Texas was flat.  This is flatter than flat.  That is why Louisiana is half water.....none of it ever flows anywhere.

Had to visit some plantations....although they are $10-24 a pop.  Here is the big house at one Acadian cotton plantation.

Also visited the Acadian Cultural Center and this adjacent Vermillian Village with a number of Acadian/Cajun homes and buildings on site.  Wow, did the Acadians ever get screwed by England!  But what a cultural mix resulted. in Louisiaina....as long as you said you would be French and Catholic, you were in good standing, whether European Jew or long time Spaniard or Cajun or Native American or escaped slave.  The historical mix reminds me of Belize now.

Laura Plantation run by women and our woman tourguide.  this one made big bucks on sugar cane and is surrounded by oil refineries, the big bucks for Louisiana now!  They make a mean cane syrup!

Back into the wilds, we camped by Lafayette at an awesome state park, bubbling over with armadillos.  Here Dirk watches one rustling in the duff.

Here is one of the best of our many armadillo pictures.  We spotted over 20 at different times, snuffling for bugs amongst the abundant leaves. Most of the pics don't include the heads, which are buried in leaves.  The little critters seemed oblivious to light and talking but would occasionally start at our presence and bound away like bunnies!

Find the armadillo!  Find the cypress knees!

OK---I have never conceptualized a pelican tree, but there are 7 pelicans roosting in this tree.  Must be a strong limbed tree.

And now a change of gears as we toured the Katrina wipe out zones of New Orleans, on a tour.  These are very expensive all green homes built by Brad Pitt.  He is setting an interesting example for recreating a neighborhood.

Habitat for Humanity homes in assorted colors.  Had some glitches in materials and only built about 1/3 the amount planned.

On tour learned that the waterways of Louisiana in general, and specifically New Orleans, are as complex as these cypress roots beside the bayou.

The Mississippi river is higher than everything else and the lake is lower and canals take water through all the neighborhoods although I am not sure why or where and there are pumping stations that pump water into the lake or out of it or maybe just swirl it around.  Note how much higher this canal is than the homes on the right.  The lake levees busted, the canal pumps did not work, pump workers split town, etc etc etc when katrina hit.

Less mind boggling was the sixth annual celebration of Joan of Arc's birthday and twelth night and the start of Mardi Gras with a walking parade through the French Quarter.  Too bad it was 25 degrees out.  Joan of Arc was 602 years old yesterday!

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Today after our cooking class we headed for the World War II Museum, located here because with the maze of water ways here, New Orleans had a boat maker who designed the landing craft for D Day and won the war for the Allies.  So he was honored with a very high class museum.  Here I am hiding in a 1 person German bomb shelter.

Thank god I did not have to make planes. The wings would have fallen off.

Dirk and I went on a submarine simulation mission.  We took out a bunch of Jap ships and then got sunk by our own torpedo.  Dirk's dad was on a sub which fortunately did not sink itself.  Tomorrow is the celebration of 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans and we will be there to sing "The Song."

Lafayette to New Orleans

Eating our way down through Louisiana!  Had the "fried everything" dish at Prejean's Cajun  restaurant in Lafayette!  Here we are with the fried frog leg.  Tasted like fried crunchy meat......sort of like the fried alligator.  Next time we will be brave and get it grilled so we can actually taste it!

Prejean's restaurant was filled with local color, complete with Spanish Moss, a big stuffed alligator named Bob, and a Zydeco Cajun band.

What the heck is a Mayhaw???  Well it is officially tasty!

After our bold experiment with swamp food, we headed to Crawfish Town USA.  After four pounds of crawdads we had stinging lips(from the spicy boil), tired fingers, and half full tummies.  No dip, no sides, just a pile of bodies.  Much less meaty and tasty than either the shrimp or crab we are used to.

So off to a better place, a very outback bar on stilts over the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp with local music and dancing and some gingerbread-like syrup cake.  Some crack dealer bought rounds for the whole bar (about 12 people) so we had some good booze, too.

Despite the original Olympia Beer light in the joint, I don't think they carried our home-town brew anymore.

After a few plantation stops, we headed for New Orleans.  It was a bit on the chilly side, so sidewalk cruising was not nearly as comfy as eating.  So after a mid-morning snack on beignets at Cafe du Monde (see below) we shared a giant Muffaletta sandwich---ham, cheese, and olive tampenade on a sesame seed bun.  Waitress shared a free sliver of King Cake with us so that we did not have to wait for the free stuff at the parade that night in honor of the start of Mardi Gras.

OK, the donuts were pretty good and neither of us inhaled the powdered sugar, but the hot cocoa was superb......and hot!  The air temp was floating in the 30's and this is an outdoor venue!

In honor of our friend, Charlie, we had to give some of this plantation syrup a try after visiting the sugar cane plantation itself.  So far, good in oatmeal and on cornbread home made in the RV with fresh Navajo blue cornmeal, in keeping with the ethnic mix that is Louisiana!

At Jessica and Andy's suggestion, we went to an African restaurant in the French Quarter and enjoyed making little balls of FuFu to eat our spicy sauce with.  Tasted like old dehydrated potatoes, but it was fun to play with and the sauces were good!

Negotiated with Dirk that I would go to the World War II Museum with him if he did a New Orleans cooking class with me, and it all worked out nicely, especially since the class was a demo and included biscuits and syrup, gumbo, jambalaya, pralines, and bananas foster, plus some local beer and good iced tea.

The chef was a character, a historian, and good teacher with a good mirror for viewing his creations.

Roux at 6 stages of browning.  When it looks like curdled chocolate, it is done.  Don't do any Cajun cooking authentically unless you like lots of pork fat.  Or butter..........

Fresh pecan pralines for our palate cleansers.  Now Dirk can make his own!  They can even be made on a propane stovetop!!!  Tomorrow we leave New Orleans and it is time to trim the eating out budget, so we may return to the mundane until we can wrastle up some seafood in Florida!