With a full tank of fuel, a full stomach, and a good night’s sleep, we rolled out of Baytown (East Houston), heading east on I-10. One thing that becomes apparent, even though we know it already, Texas goes forever. It was well into the morning when we crossed the border into Louisiana.
We stopped at the information center to walk around and pick up any information we could find. Data Deb is always picking up pamphlets and brochures from these places and squirreling them away in folders. They come out on subsequent trips. This location had a couple helpful workers whom we plied with questions. When asked about a recommended place to get some good Cajun food, the suggestion was Prejean’s in Lafayette, about an hour and a half down the road. That amount of time would put us at noon, which was perfect. We made tracks for Prejean’s.
This restaurant was an entirely new experience. It was all decorated for Mardi Gras, complete with a band composed of a fiddle, accordion, and a triangle. We were asked if we wanted to be close to the band or farther away. We ended up quite close and it was entertaining, for a while. Then it was the same chords over and over again, and the triangle making the same dinging sound and it got a little repetitive. We couldn’t understand any of the lyrics. I won’t be buying the CD.
We both ordered the chicken and sausage gumbo soup. That was delicious. It had a significant kick to it, and we left with mouths and throats burning.
Then we went in search of beignets. We were directed to the Poupart Bakery (yeah, that’s really the name). Great bakery and we came away with a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread but they don’t do beignets. We found some at the restaurant a couple doors down. These were a pastry piled with powdered sugar that are supposed to go good with dark roast coffee. It was good without the coffee and we learned they are more available at coffee shops than bakeries.
Somehow, we always end up at the local grocery store. Deb bought some Cajun spices and a few other things to make our own gumbo.
As we were leaving we discovered the freezer wasn’t freezing any more. Most of the stuff was quite thawed and the fridge was getting rather warm. I poked around in the back for a bit, even swapping the control board for the spare I had hidden under the bottom drawer in the galley, and managed to get it working again. I’m not sure what happened although I have some theories. I’ll have to check this out when we get home.
All in all, the fridge has worked pretty well since I set it on fire five years ago. It probably has an excuse to be a bit cantankerous. I just wish it wouldn’t do it when we have expensive meat in the freezer.
Now it will take at least a day to cool everything again and our ice cream is probably a goner. We went back into the store and bought a bag of ice for the fridge and a cake of dry ice for the freezer. Hope this helps.
Leaving here, we continued down I-10, turning north at Baton Rouge to get on the Natchez Trace, a 440-mile scenic route that ends in Nashville. We will be traveling on this for a while and then leaving to stop in New Albany, Mississippi, to help out with the clean-up effort for Winter Storm Fern. After seeing an email from Samaritan’s Purse about volunteers needed for this effort, we signed up as we were coming through that general area on the way home.
It was dark as we left Natchez and drove the first 60 miles of the Natchez Trace. Our aim was the first of three campgrounds along this route. This is a great route to drive, it goes through some beautiful country and you don’t have to deal with a lot of traffic. With a speed limit of 50mph, you aren’t going to get there fast. If you need to get there fast, take the Interstate.
It’s a great route to drive, just not at night. It’s super dark at night and the recent Winter Storm left lots of broken tree branches along the way. They have all been pushed off the road, but there is a lot of cleanup needed along this route. Even more concerning are the deer. There were lots of deer, especially in the open meadows, and we had to hit the brakes several times for deer crossing the road. We were grateful to finally pull into the campground and shut down for the night.
One thing about this campground is that there is no internet. Not by any means. Cell phone signal is non-existent. The heavy tree cover renders Starlink inoperative. So we are offline for the night. This is when you realize how dependent we are on the internet. How far do we have to go to get to New Albany? Don’t know, the maps won’t update. Can’t send or receive emails. The sibling call we were supposed to participate in went on without us. We can’t watch the show we were in the middle of.
I guess we’ll just have to make do without it ...
423 miles covered today.
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