Dispatch from Louisiana
As I begin this article I am stuck in traffic in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on October 9 at about 8:30 am. What was I thinking trying to drive through this city on a busy Monday in morning rush hour? …
Lake Fausse Point State Park - highly recommend
As I write on this evening of October 9, I am sitting at a campsite at a state park located in the middle of the Bayou region of Louisiana in Cajun country. I have my own dock on a river, and Sadie is happily settled after a day on the road…
As I write this evening of October 10, I am determined to get something posted! Days are filled with driving and sightseeing, and evenings are filled with walking Sadie, exploring the campsite and park, and reviewing maps, schedules and reservations coming up. Frustratingly little time left to write! But tonight is the night to catch you all up. (I’ll try to keep my summaries short, but if you’ve been following me for very long you know how hard that is for me… so I make no promises).
This is the deer farm where I’m staying on my last night in Louisiana.
You heard me. I said deer farm. And also some chickens. And also a dog charged with guarding said livestock. Needless to say, Sadie did not get much running around time but instead had to stay tethered and look longingly at all the deer just a few feet away from her. Under the circumstances, she handled the disappointment pretty well.
Highlights from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
The campground I stayed in outside of Mobile turned out to be a Civil War battlefield state historic site, one of the best preserved of all the Civil War battlefields. I did not know this when I booked the reservation, but it seemed very fitting once I got there and discovered where I was. My late husband Jay was a big Civil War buff and he knew most everything there was to know about the different aspects of that horrific war. He would have loved visiting this site if we had ever had the chance. I thought it very appropriate that I sprinkle some ashes on the site where the 5th Ohio Battery were positioned for the battle (since we are both Ohioans and staunch Buckeye fans). Then Sadie and I walked almost six miles through the various trails that marked where different parts of the battle took place and where the Union and Confederate lines were positioned. It was a beautiful and peaceful place to be.
I’ve fallen in love with the live oak tree. I never knew how big they get, how old they get and how utterly magnificent they are to look at with their big branches that droop almost to the ground, and the shaggy Spanish moss hanging from almost every branch. I had to snag me some of the moss as an Alabama memento.
I was able to get my pop-up bug hut up all by myself. Yay me!! Sadly it did not get much use because it was just too damn (sorry!) hot to be in it for very long. The fine mesh that is so effective for mosquitos also happens to be very effective at keeping out any breezes, and thus feels like an oven when the temps get too high.
I used the shower on the back of my van successfully for the first time. Yay!! I have a special shower curtain privacy system that I rigged up and it worked beautifully! (Shout out to my sister Carol for helping me figure how how to do it when she and I were camping back in May)
There are so many kind people everywhere! I don’t say this with surprise but with acknowledgement and appreciation. Here are some examples:
Angela declined to let me photograph her, but she was “all in” when I told her why I wanted to take the picture of her house, which happened to be where my great uncle Walter and his family had lived some of their happiest years together. In fact, even though I had interrupted her leisurely morning sitting on her porch she insisted on jumping up and putting away various items sitting around that she thought would interfere with my picture. So unnecessary (her house was beautiful just as it was) but oh so sweet. I gave her a bookmark as a small token of my appreciation of her grace and kindness.
Later that same day I went to the Pine Crest Cemetery to find Walter and Gert’s graves (in two different sections). Upon entering the cemetery my heart sank as I realized I could be there all day just trying to find the right sections, much less the graves within them. Enter Jimmy, who was in a golf cart and let me interrupt whatever he was doing to show me where the sections were and then point me to the funeral home to get help finding the graves. At the funeral home I met Kent, who is a funeral home counselor (I had no idea such a job existed), and he helped me locate the exact grave sites. Thanks, Kent and Jimmy! (they both got bookmarks as well)
Adriene (hope I spelled that right!) was so sweet when I burst into her shop and startled her with my brusqueness when I asked something about her store. I backed up and started over, and then we had a nice chat as I perused her beautiful jewelry that she makes. We hit it off and I regretted not having more time to a) get acquainted and learn more about her, and b) attend the festival that was coming to town this weekend. Oh well, another reason to come back. I gave her a bookmark as compensation for my impolite entry. I blame it on being too caffeinated.
My hosts for this night (October 10) are a couple who are retired educators but have been farming deer for 40 years. Oscar and Deborah live outside of Shreveport and are members of Harvest Hosts. They are gracious and kind, and made me feel right at home on their property. I gave them each a bookmark that I don’t think was nearly as valuable as the lemon bars (and electrical hookup) they gifted me.
I have no idea what anyone is doing with the bookmarks I’m giving away on this trip, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter at all. It gives me joy to make this small gesture of appreciation when I am the recipient of someone else’s act of kindness.
When driving along the coastline through Biloxi and Gulfport on Sunday, it was apparently “cruise day” for all classic vehicle owners, many of whom had come from quite a distance to cruise the strip. I felt a little out of place in my clunky-looking 2022 campervan surrounded by all sorts of classic and classy-looking cars and trucks that were at least 50 or 75 years older than my humble Dodge Promaster. I even saw the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (1 of only 6 that exist)!
Besides the huge casinos, which took up a lot of the real estate on both sides of the road, and the accompanying parking lots, big restaurants and other attractions, there were also long stretches of beach along the gulf coast between Mobile and New Orleans. The beautiful, fine, white sand was a sight to behold, and if they had allowed dogs on the beach I would have gone on a walk. I did stop and dip my toes in the Gulf waters and also picked up a container of the beautiful sand to take home (I don’t know if that’s technically allowed, so please don’t tell the authorities).
After leaving Alabama I drove through New Orleans and across the Huey P Long Bridge, which is exactly what the 1938 travelers did. As I went across this massive expanse that crosses the Mississippi River I opened my window and released some of Jay’s ashes in memory of the good time we had in New Orleans one Christmas holiday not so many years ago. I’m not sure what the other cars that were driving near me thought when they saw a whitish powder come flying out of my driver side window, but I tried to pick a moment when no one was too close and there was a reasonable chance that some of the ashes might actually make it to the water far below me and not on the cars behind me. Oh well, what’s done is done and it seemed the right thing to do in the moment.
Following the 1938 trail I found myself driving the back roads through the swampy lands of southern Louisiana Cajun country. I made good on a promise to Conrad and found the Tabasco factory and got a tour. I mean really, how can you not do that when it is only 20 miles off your scheduled path? Totally worth it. Although the special mash that you can only get onsite that Conrad specifically requested and so I had to get it has made my entire van smell like Tabasco (and it’s a small van, there is no place to go for relief). Wrapping it in three paper/plastic layers has not quelled this distinctive odor and I fear I will be living with this for the next 7 weeks. By the time I get back I may never want to use Tobasco again (and I have always been a big fan of its deliciousness!).
I’m not sure why I never knew this, but southern Louisiana is awash (literally) in sugar cane. Sugar cane fields as far as the eye can see in all directions. It makes sense given how swampy the region is and how hot it gets (I don’t know anything about sugar cane other than it is grown in the Caribbean on sugar plantations that have a sordid history with slavery, but I assume its nourishment needs include sun and water, of which there are abundant amounts in southern Louisiana). I surreptitiously plucked a stalk from one of the fields to take as my memento from Louisiana (pretty sure it won’t be missed among the millions that I passed). The stalk was over 6 feet high so I had to use my axe to chop it into pieces that would fit in a small plastic container. A nice memory of a beautiful landscape!
Couldn’t resist this picture. I was in the middle of nowhere deep in the middle of farms and sugar cane fields when I happened upon this short sliver of a road connecting two other, bigger roads.
It’s harvest season and I passed many trucks loaded down with stalks, and many fields where the canes were being cut.
Lowlights
I’ve discovered that too much heat adversely affects my ability to think and write. Because I don’t have built-in air conditioning in the camper I have to rely on fans, which aren’t always up to the task. At the campsite outside Mobile it was 100% humidity in 90 degree heat. Sadie and I took our long walk through the park in the early morning, beginning at 7am. When we got back from our stroll around noon all we could do for the rest of the day was “lump out” (a term coined by Jay and me to indicate a state of doing absolutely nothing for long periods of time). I’m happy to report that both the temperatures and the humidity have improved since that day.
I’m aware that there is so much to see and do in these states that I’m speeding through, and so little time! When I stop at the tour offices they load me down with all kinds of booklets, brochures and maps. Yes, I’m doing some stuff, but I’m forced to pick and choose because I can’t do everything I want to do. I figure this is actually a good problem to have because I will definitely have to plan a more leisurely trip through this part of the world. Maybe a winter tour when I’ve had enough of snow and ice?
Final Reflections as I Prepare to Leave the Deep South
Kent drove all over the sprawling cemetery in search of the graves of Walter, Gert and Buddy.
I never would have found them without him.
As a northerner, a Midwesterner, and an all-around outsider, I definitely had some preconceived notions about the Deep South and mixed feelings about traveling through it. I hate to admit that about myself, but there it is. The southern states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are in the bottom tier if not the absolute bottom on many social indicators such as infant mortality, economic mobility, income disparities, education, health, to name just a few. As a student and teacher of history, I am keenly aware of the racial strife that took place in those states and the impact that those conflicts had on the rest of the country, and which we are still dealing with today when we look at racial disparities in wealth, housing, education, health, criminal justice and any number of other categories. The struggles surrounding importing and enslaving people, fighting for the continued right to do so, terrorizing African Americans during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow periods, and resisting efforts to integrate and vote during the Civil Rights Movement have all left scars from the extreme violence and death that accompanied each one of those periods. But that’s not all there is.
Deborah and Oscar are wonderful hosts to overnight guest like me. Thank you!
And the lemon bars were a special bonus. Double thank you!
It’s so easy to lump what we know or think we know into categories that we then use to define a place and everyone in it. We all have these tendencies. While I’m definitely not immune, I regularly try to remind myself to be open to the “more” that is often left out of our one dimensional thinking. Traveling to a place and experiencing it first hand, for those of us fortunate to be able to do that, is an important way of personalizing experiences based on relationship and unconditional regard for the people you meet on such journeys and the places you visit. That, in turn, can’t help but shape your perception of that place.
Adriene makes beautiful jewelry. Highly recommend you visit her shop Adorn if you find yourself in Lafayette, LA
I enjoy getting acquainted with the people in the various places I visit. Oh, and I love sampling regional food as well. Today was boudin day in Cajun country!
What I found in Alabama as I looked around me while visiting Montgomery and Mobile and also throughout Louisiana, were people who are working hard to reconcile their past and not try to sugarcoat or ignore it. At the historic sites and museums, there is an intentional inclusion of the Black experience right along with the more “traditional” (i.e. incomplete) histories that many of us older folk grew up with. Despite the polarized viewpoints about what should be taught in schools, and that is indeed an important conversation, the fact remains that the information and the full story is already out there and available. The Legacy Museum and Center for Peace and Justice exist. Places like the Whitney Plantation, which presents plantation life from the perspective of the enslaved people, exist. There are many more examples. These are decisions made by the people who live in these states that they will not shy away from the historical record, but embrace it, learn from it, acknowledge it, and hopefully continue to move forward together.
The struggles continue, but I believe, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
I was unable to give the time and attention that these states deserve. I will return.
Next Steps
Next article I will bring back the voices from the 1938 travelers. They went through the same section of the country I just did. What did they think about what they saw as they sped through? My grandfather’s scrapbook has some clues, so stay tuned!
