A Whirlwind Trip and a Lazy Paddle
19 August 2014 | New Orleans and Texarkana
Jill
Again I have been remiss in keeping up the blog. This whole writing a sailing blog while being a CLOD (Cruiser Living on Dirt) has been difficult. But, I am determined to keep going because I am determined to get back to sailing and to continue the blog as it was intended. Meanwhile, although the entries will be irregular, and sometimes late, I’ll keep writing.
My good friend Erin came down for a visit. Since I had complained so much about middle of nowhere Texarkana, she talked me into meeting her in New Orleans. She got in on Wednesday; Jamie, Adler and I left Wednesday evening. (Bud thought visiting New Orleans in August was not a good idea, and opted to stay home with the dogs.) We drove about halfway down and stopped for the night. We got to the hotel about 1 PM on Thursday. Erin was off touring Houmas House, a plantation house and gardens about 50 miles from the city. I took Adler to the Audubon Insectarium. We hauled Adler’s jogging stroller with us and it was great to get him around the city. He rode the stroller the mile or so to the Insectarium and back. The exhibits were interesting and fun. They had a butterfly room that Adler loved.
Erin made it back to the hotel and we lugged the stroller up on the streetcar and rode up to the French Quarter. Erin suggested we get a bite to eat at Jimmy Buffet’s where they had a happy hour and 2 pulled pork sliders for $5. The only problem was, that deal was in the bar and Adler couldn’t go in there. In the end, an accommodating waitress brought our sliders out to the restaurant side where we wolfed them down and then sprinted off to join the Ghost Tour we had reservations for. This was a walking tour where you pay the guide what you feel the tour was worth after it’s over. The tour lasted about an hour and a half. I thought Adler was not going to like it as in the beginning he kept asking to go back to the hotel, but after a while Jamie said he was asking her to push him up closer to the guide. Afterwards, he was seeing ghosts everywhere and telling me all the stories we’d heard. The only part he definitely didn’t like was meeting one of the people that dress in costumes and pose for pictures for tips. This guy had stilts built in so he was a very tall, thin demon looking figure; all in black with neon LED strips along his costume. It was a great costume, but it terrified Adler. Jamie was trying to get a picture, but Adler was crying to get him away from there.
The next morning we again lugged the stroller on the streetcar and transferred to take a line all the way up to the city park. We all walked through the sculpture garden, then Erin and I toured the Botanical Garden while Jamie and Adler went to Story Book Land, which was a rather old area with slides and climbing places built to look like nursery rhymes. It was completely shaded with huge old live oaks. Adler liked it. Then Jamie and Adler headed back to the hotel to swim in the pool and Erin and I went off to see the French Quarter. We started at the oldest cemetery. We stayed there as long as we could stand the heat, then walked down into the French Quarter and found a little café for a cool drink. I had an Italian Soda (carbonated water, cherry syrup, and cream with ice) cool and delicious. Rested and fortified we headed out again. I would say we strode out, but I’m suffering from planar faceaitus and I pretty much limped on. Walking steadily is OK, but every time I stop, it hurts a lot to start walking again. Since all we were doing was walking, stopping, standing, and walking again I had a definite limp by mid-afternoon. We wandered around looking at stores and trying to find a reproduction of a plantation style flycatcher. Erin had seen one at Houmas House. It was glass and had a way for the flies to crawl inside where they would find the sugar water laced with arsenic and die. Someone told Erin that Coke worked just as well. Unfortunately, although we followed many leads and checked in many stores we never found one. We ended up at the French Market, a glorified flea market close to the river.
Jamie and Adler met us for dinner at the Gumbo Shop. We were all pretty tired, but decided to walk down Bourbon Street on our way back to the hotel. Jamie hadn’t brought the stroller this time, so Adler was on foot. We all thought things would be fairly tame at 8 o’clock on an August evening. Lesson learned, things are never tame on Bourbon Street and you bring a five year old at your own risk. The place is definitely “R” rated. Adler missed the number of obviously inebriated young women in the doorways of the bars. But he didn’t miss the young woman in a costume that consisted of skintight red short-short shorts, red pasties and a red headdress. Her tip bucket was filling fast. Adler was nursed as a baby and he insists on calling breasts nurses. He said, “Mommy, her nurses are out” as he looked with very round eyes. Later we came to a place where people were tossing beads from a balcony. Fortunately, Adler was busy picking up beads and didn’t see the young tourist bare her breasts for a flurry of thrown beads. At that point we were doing our best to hurry down the street back towards the hotel before he got even more of an education. As we walked towards the convention district and our hotel Erin chatted with Adler to keep his mind off his tired feet. She let him know that the things the young woman in red was wearing were called pasties. “Oh great”, said Jamie, “he’s going to go back to St. James Day School and tell his class that he learned what pasties are on his summer vacation.”
Saturday morning we packed up and headed out for Natchitoches (forget how it’s spelled, it’s pronounced Nack-e-tish), LA. It’s the oldest town in Louisiana and was the setting for Steel Magnolias. It’s just about halfway back from New Orleans to Texarkana, so made a good break for the 7-hour trip. Upon arrival, Erin and I set out to tour the town and Adler and Jamie opted for another dip in a motel pool. The four block long downtown strip looks like a piece of the French Quarter architecturally, but that’s where the resemblance ends. This place is definitely the slow and sedate old south, not wild and crazy Big Easy. It had a lot of little shops, and since I was with Erin, we went in ALL of them. They didn’t have a flycatcher either. I bought a couple of little old-fashioned toys for Adler at the General Mercantile that’s been operated by the same family for over a hundred years. They still have an early 1900’s cash register in use and a working freight elevator built in the 1890’s. I also bought myself a purse. I needed one, the one I got was 50% off, so it was a sensible purchase, but I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I wasn’t with Erin. She can always get me to shop. We ate at a restaurant along the Cane River. When we got back to the hotel room Jamie took Adler to a MacDonald’s with a play area. He really needed a chance to play. Unfortunately, since the information was put on-line, they’ve remodeled and it no longer has a play area. Poor Adler was definitely running up a play deficit.
Sunday, before we left for home we toured two plantations. Well, Erin toured two plantations. Jamie stayed at the motel to try and get some work done. Adler, Erin and I toured the first plantation. We hadn’t expected to get a tour of the main house, as the literature said the free tour at this National Park site was offered only at 1 PM. But when we got there, they were giving one at 10, so after looking around the grounds we toured the house and learned some of the history of the Oakland Plantation that had been owned and run by the Prudhomme family for over two hundred years, until they sold the plantation to the National Parks Service in the 1990’s. Erin still wanted to take the tour at the Melrose Plantation. We drove there, but I could tell that Adler was toured out. We stayed in the car for a while, then went into the gift shop and ended up sipping drinks in rockers on the porch of the gift shop while Erin took her tour. Then we went back, picked up Jamie, and headed back to Texarkana.
Bud welcomed Erin with a southern meal of bar-be-que ribs and corn on the cob. It was good. Monday morning we took our time getting going (except Jamie, who was back leaving the house at 5 AM for the gym and work). We drove around and showed Erin the town. In the afternoon, Adler and Bud stayed home and Erin and I decided to go to Washington, AR. That’s a small town that is a state park with many restored buildings and tours. The tour guides are excellent, and we enjoyed yet another dose of local history. Tuesday we all got up early and Bud, Adler, Erin and I left the house at 7:15 AM to drive about an hour and a half down to Caddo Lake for Billy Carter’s Go-Devil Tours. A go-devil is an air cooled outboard boat engine with a very long shaft. The shaft is angled so the propeller sits just below the surface of the water, and the operator can tilt it up and down, so it can run with just half the prop in the water. This enables the small aluminum boat that it’s mounted on to go in very shallow water and water with a lot of vegetation. Perfect for going though swamps. That’s what a go-devil tour is, a tour of the swamp. Chas was our tour guide. He took the four of us out for a little over an hour, and showed and told us about all things swamp. It was the most enjoyable tour of Erin’s visit. We saw water lilies and American lotus and alligator weed, we saw acres of cypress dripping with Spanish moss, we saw great blue herons, egrets, a bald eagle and a brief view of a wood stork. We saw two beaver dens and one small alligator, which Chas chased with the boat. He told us afterwards that he was sorry he wasn’t able to catch it for us. He told us some of the history and ecology of Caddo Lake, and explained the role of floods in maintaining the natural condition of the lake and the problems they’re having with invasive species. He obviously knew and loved this lake and we all had a great time. Next time we have visitors Bud and I would like to take them on a night tour. Chas said they start at 9 PM and go as long as you like. He usually can find 15+ alligators, you see and hear great white owls and see a lot of other animals that only come out at night. So come on down, and we’ll give you a tour you won’t forget.
Unfortunately, Erin had to leave the next morning. After one last afternoon of local shopping, we came home and she packed. She and I left the house at 6:15 AM. I dropped her off at DFW airport at 9:35. I stopped for brunch on the way home and got back to Texarkana at about 2. I was tired.
On Thursday I took Adler and Alex to the water park. On Friday, Adler and I went to the water park. On Saturday Bud and I golfed. Usually after a break I do pretty well. I was not good. I was hot; I was tired, my foot hurt.
On Sunday I was ready for a break. Bud golfed and I took my kayak out. I had intended to drive down to Black Bayou Lake, but on the way down saw a sign for Mercer Bayou Public Access in the Sulphur River Wildlife Management Area. I went down the road, which ended at a little boat ramp into what appeared to be a shallow man-made channel. I launched the kayak and set out on my first solo paddle. It was lovely. The man-made channel led to the Mercer Bayou, which is no doubt an old channel of the Sulphur River. It looked very much like Caddo Lake. It had cypress, water lilies and lotus and alligator weed. I didn’t see the invasive species. I did see birds; egrets and herons and ibis and a good look at a wood stork. They are not common here, so I feel very lucky to have seen one briefly on Caddo and then to get a good look at one on Mercer Bayou. Since I was alone, I took my time and I finally took some pictures. The picture accompanying this entry Jamie took on her cell phone. I took exactly one photo in New Orleans, one at Oakland and none on the Caddo Lake tour. I’ll put what I have in the gallery.