On the Road with Dean, Judy, and Chica: 2011-03-06

Friday, March 11, 2011

Betty's RV Park, Abbeville, Lousiana

We spent 6 days at Betty’s RV Park and thoroughly enjoyed our time. Betty is a wonderful host and makes your stay very memorable. When we got to the park on Saturday March 5, Betty gave us a long list of activities in the area. The original list (for the people that came for a month) was 14 pages. Now we know why RVer’s keep returning year after year and stay for 4 to 6 weeks.

During the time we were there we went to two parades, a swamp tour, happy hours everyday, a chili dinner, and a crawfish boil. And we were only there 6 days! We met some old friends and made some new friends at Betty’s. I think we could be caught in Betty’s web if we didn’t already have an agenda and places to see. Thanks again Betty.

Happy hour in the indoor patio

Betty in front of her happy hour patio

The pictures below are of our last night at Betty's and the fantastic crawdad boil.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Swamp Tour, Breaux Bridges, LA

Today we went to Breaux Bridges (a town East of Lafayette) and did a swamp tour. The tour was on Lake Martin, a small lake with a lot of wild life.

Just in case we did not see an alligator today, the tour guide, Bryan, brought along a small one- year old gator that each of us got to hold.

The swamp is beautiful, with hanging moss and cypress trees.

We got lucky today and saw 4 alligators. They look like logs in the water. Most did not move, but when Bryan got too close to one it moved very fast into the water.

This little animal is like a beaver but it is called a nutria, or Lousianna swamp rat. It does a lot of damage to the trees.

This is Bryan, our guide, and the participants of the tour. We were going back across Lake Martin to the dock.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Kaplan, LA. Madri Gras parade

On Fat Tuesday, we spent Mardi Gras going to lunch and then a local parade at Kaplan, LA. with a few people from Betty’s RV Park. Lunch was at Suire’s Grocery and Restaurant.

Dean had the alligator po’boy (sandwich) and I had the shrimp and crawfish gumbo (soup) and a crawfish pistolette (a deep fried bun filled with cheese and crawfish).

After lunch we went to the parade at Kaplan about 10 miles West of Abbeville. The parade was about an hour in length.

There were wagons with people throwing beads, candy, and stuffed animals, political candidates throwing beads, and beauty queens throwing beads. And there was a marching band. It was neat small town parade.

The floats were decorated wagons pulled by trucks.

Lots and lots of beads, again!!!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Church Point, LA: Chicken run and Madri Gras Parade

We arrived at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, LA. on Saturday. Our last stop, Clute Elks Lodge, was uneventful except for a day trip to Galveston. We had lunch and walked the Strand in downtown. Now we are glad to be at Betty’s where there are many Boomers and Escapees. More about Betty’s in the next blog.

Yesterday, Sunday March 6, most of Betty’s residents went to Church Point. Betty is well connected in this area and we got to set up our chairs at Mr. John Sanford’s farm where all the action was. It was a cold and windy day so he put us between two barns to stay out of the wind. One of the Escapee’s brought out the grill and soon he was grilling up chops, sausage, ribs, and shrimp, quite a feast. Check out the Sanford pig roaster shown in the one of the pictures below.

This is the 50^th annual parade and chicken run at Church Point. The parade is out in the country and I think that half of Louisiana was there. When the parade got to the Sandford farm the revelers (mainly college age guys in costume and with beer in hand) arrived first and danced with the audience. A tractor pulled wagon with a live Cajun band (complete with generator for the amplifiers) accompanied the revelers. Then the Grand Marshall on horseback came into the center of the revelers with a chicken. He tossed the chicken on the ground and the revelers jumped on the chicken. I don’t think that the chickens were hurt today, but in the old times they caught the chickens for their gumbo that night. After the chicken race the parade passed in front of us. The floats were filled with people in dressed in costume, drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages, dancing, and throwing beads. Each float was well stocked with liquor, porta-john, and generator for the amplified music. If you were really lucky they threw you a cold beer or Jell-O shot. We really got into the beads and ended up with about a 30 lb sack. Now everyone back home knows what he or she is getting for souvenirs. The parade was about 2 hours long and lots of fun.