What a storm Tuesday night! I woke up around midnight to a pretty intense thunderstorm. Lots of lightening followed immediately by thunder, so clearly it was right on top of us for a good half hour. Joe slept through the whole thing.
Out of the parking lot by 7:30c and went just down the road to the grocery store. Finally, a real grocery store that had everything we needed. And by everything, I mean a boat load of snacks and random stuff that the Piggly Wiggly in nowheres-ville doesn't carry. Such a nice town, Natchez. Everyone we met was super friendly. and we even say a rouge shopping cart corral itself at the store. I could live here.
Crossed the Mississippi for the first time and into Louisiana. I forgot my navigational duties, and missed the first turn we were supposed to make. Had to backtrack a bit to get back to the road following the River south. This was a neat section to drive. When we planned this trip I thought it would be cool to follow the Mississippi and get to see water the whole time. Turns out, there are levees between the road and the river so you don't really get to see much from the highway. Still, river/levee on the left, and then the right are farm fields and more farm fields, but houses and small towns too. Lots of live oak trees to remind you this is the south, not Iowa. We also saw a bald eagle, in it's nest, about 150 feet from the road.
Our next stop was a gas station called Billy's for Boudin Balls. Boudin = sausage. Boudin Balls come in different flavors - we got Crawfish and Jalapeno Cheddar. The first was crawfish mixed with rice & battered and fried, and the second was cheese wrapped in spicy sausage, and then, of course, battered and fried. Very tasty, and something we don't have in Ohio.
Headed through Lafayette, and since we just ate all the fried food we wanted to do some hiking. Turns out, not so easy to find in this area. Lots of the government owned areas are swamps, and do not make for good hiking. We found Acadiana Park, a small park with a handful of trails and boardwalks. We had the place mostly to ourselves, except for a group of a dozen kids on a field trip. We were on the lookout for snakes, but the only thing alive were some birds.
Our home for the night was in Palmetto Island State Park. Very nice campground, not sure there was a bad site in the place. Got set up (which takes about 5 minutes) and went for a walk around the park. There is a small lake, maybe 1/2 mile from the campground, and we walked the perimeter. We both heard a splash and looked to see what it was. I didn't see it, but Joe said he saw either a bear or a pig at the edge of the water. It must have heard us because it took off through the underbrush, very loudly. We decided it was a pig based on all the piggy prints in the mud around the lake.
Back to the campsite, we cooked some crawfish sausage that we had picked up earlier in the day. Should have asked them how to cook it at the store, because the filling all exploded out of the casing while we made it. So, we had crawfish sausage mush and rice for dinner.
The campground has really nice showers/bathrooms. Also had free laundry. I started our stuff while I grabbed a shower, and Joe went back to switch the dryer a bit later, finding that the spin cycle must have been broken and our stuff was still soaking wet. Another camper said her clothes had been in the dryer forever too, and hers were still going. Finishing up in the morning.
Wednesday should be pretty nice weather. Heard that there is lots of low temps and ice in Mississippi, but we are pretty far south. Supposed to be 55 today.
190 miles
173.63 spent
54.50 Natchez Market
12 auto parts store (fuel treatment)
57.54 Fuel
21.74 Billys Balls & sausage
27.85 Palmetto State Park
Out of the parking lot by 7:30c and went just down the road to the grocery store. Finally, a real grocery store that had everything we needed. And by everything, I mean a boat load of snacks and random stuff that the Piggly Wiggly in nowheres-ville doesn't carry. Such a nice town, Natchez. Everyone we met was super friendly. and we even say a rouge shopping cart corral itself at the store. I could live here.
Crossed the Mississippi for the first time and into Louisiana. I forgot my navigational duties, and missed the first turn we were supposed to make. Had to backtrack a bit to get back to the road following the River south. This was a neat section to drive. When we planned this trip I thought it would be cool to follow the Mississippi and get to see water the whole time. Turns out, there are levees between the road and the river so you don't really get to see much from the highway. Still, river/levee on the left, and then the right are farm fields and more farm fields, but houses and small towns too. Lots of live oak trees to remind you this is the south, not Iowa. We also saw a bald eagle, in it's nest, about 150 feet from the road.
Our next stop was a gas station called Billy's for Boudin Balls. Boudin = sausage. Boudin Balls come in different flavors - we got Crawfish and Jalapeno Cheddar. The first was crawfish mixed with rice & battered and fried, and the second was cheese wrapped in spicy sausage, and then, of course, battered and fried. Very tasty, and something we don't have in Ohio.
Headed through Lafayette, and since we just ate all the fried food we wanted to do some hiking. Turns out, not so easy to find in this area. Lots of the government owned areas are swamps, and do not make for good hiking. We found Acadiana Park, a small park with a handful of trails and boardwalks. We had the place mostly to ourselves, except for a group of a dozen kids on a field trip. We were on the lookout for snakes, but the only thing alive were some birds.
Our home for the night was in Palmetto Island State Park. Very nice campground, not sure there was a bad site in the place. Got set up (which takes about 5 minutes) and went for a walk around the park. There is a small lake, maybe 1/2 mile from the campground, and we walked the perimeter. We both heard a splash and looked to see what it was. I didn't see it, but Joe said he saw either a bear or a pig at the edge of the water. It must have heard us because it took off through the underbrush, very loudly. We decided it was a pig based on all the piggy prints in the mud around the lake.
Back to the campsite, we cooked some crawfish sausage that we had picked up earlier in the day. Should have asked them how to cook it at the store, because the filling all exploded out of the casing while we made it. So, we had crawfish sausage mush and rice for dinner.
The campground has really nice showers/bathrooms. Also had free laundry. I started our stuff while I grabbed a shower, and Joe went back to switch the dryer a bit later, finding that the spin cycle must have been broken and our stuff was still soaking wet. Another camper said her clothes had been in the dryer forever too, and hers were still going. Finishing up in the morning.
Wednesday should be pretty nice weather. Heard that there is lots of low temps and ice in Mississippi, but we are pretty far south. Supposed to be 55 today.
190 miles
173.63 spent
54.50 Natchez Market
12 auto parts store (fuel treatment)
57.54 Fuel
21.74 Billys Balls & sausage
27.85 Palmetto State Park
55!! Warm weather! You are missing out on the cold temps🥶
ReplyDeleteBirds sound great, I know you love bird watching 😂 eagle nest is cool and swamps sound neat!
ReplyDelete