Breaux Bridge, LA

2019-03-29 – Airstream Cajun Country Caravan – Traveling to New Iberia, LA

Travel days are generally slow and relaxing, especially when we are only traveling 41 miles…

We left Breaux Bridge (actually closer to Butte La Rose…) and proceeded on the route. We are traveling in a clockwise manner around southwestern Louisiana…

GPS devices on the computer, on our phones, and in the truck all told us to turn right when exiting the RV park. Our leaders, and our caravan driving instructions, said turn left. Apparently to the right is a pontoon bridge with overhead clearance of 9′-6″ (most Airstreams are just under 10′-0″…); also there is a levee to be crossed – steep up, then a steep down, leaving a rig bottoming out at the top. Bad idea!

So we turned left. We stopped to fuel the truck and to restock the refrigerator. Then we stopped for a flagger at road construction. Then we stopped to wait for a coal train… This is why a 41 mile trip took almost 3 hours… But the countryside was beautiful. This is a prosperous part of the state, with many McMansions and starter castles lining the highway…

This RV park is part of the Sugarena, sort of a fairgrounds type of place. The parking spots all have concrete pads and full hook-ups, including cable. And no trees to get in the way of my satellite TV…

Shortly after we arrived most of the folks set out to do some shopping… very few trucks to be seen…

As a side note, when we were at the State Capitol yesterday we saw these water-filled areas next to the Mississippi River:

What you don’t see here is that for most of the year these areas are parking lots. There are floodgates in the levees that are usually opened in April to help relieve the spring flooding down stream. This year these floodgates have been open, and these parking lots and other overflow areas have been fully flooded, since February. And the spring surge hasn’t started yet…

So after a relaxing afternoon we gathered at 4:00 for a GAM – Get Acquainted Meeting. We will have four or five of these in the next few days. We met with five other couples and we, well, got acquainted. Tomorrow is our turn to host another five couples…

After the GAM/Happy Hour broke up some caravanners got together to play a little music…

We turned in early, as is out custom. And speaking of customs, here are a few pictures of some of our grandchildren

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And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 2, 2019 0

2019-03-26 – Airstream Cajun Country Caravan – Breaux Bridges, LA

The Cajun Country Caravan officially begins today!

We are in Butte La Rose, LA, but the address of the RV Park is Breaux Bridge, so that is what we will call it…

Cajuns were French folk who had settled in eastern Canada, around Nova Scotia, as we learned on our Nor’ by Nor’East Caravan in 2017. The were called Acadians, but the English kicked them out of Nova Scotia two or three times, so finally they got the hint and they resettled here in Louisiana, and “Acadian” was corrupted to become “Cajun”…

Our leaders are parked near the entrance to the park. They have a very unique Airstream, called The Skydeck:

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Airstream produced only 12 of these motorhomes from 2003 to 2006. It is a fairly typical interior layout, except that instead of a dinette they have an internal stair that accesses a hatch to the roof. The roof contains a “skydeck”, with built-in seating , umbrellas, ice chests – everything you need to hang out and party on your “deck”

There were no activities planned for the day, other than watching the Airstreams roll in. It turns out there are five other couples that we have met on our previous two caravans. It was great to see old friends.

We did walk about one mile down the road (actually we walked on the levee, because Louisiana streets have no accommodation for pedestrians…) to the Atchafalaya Visitors Center

The houses across the levee were interesting… It was hard to tell if the levee was protecting us from water on their side or protecting them from water on our side. Water is everywhere!

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Houses were traditionally built up, leaving open space below to allow water to pass through and to allow cooling breezes to go by… and to keep termites away from the wood structures…

We arrived at the Visitors Center, where we learned a bit about the geography and history of the area…

We walked back along the levee; at 3:00 pm we had our initial meeting. Information books were handed out, lots of information was discussed, and a generally convivial atmosphere prevailed. Following the meeting was a gumbo dinner, provided by the staff of the RV park. This was followed by some door prizes, dessert, and brief introductions all around.

And we added our 31st state sticker to our map…

Tomorrow we board the bus for Baton Rouge!

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

March 30, 2019 0

2019-03-25 – Airstream Caravans Travel – Day 13 – Plantersville, TX to Breaux Bridge, LA

We pulled out of the vineyard at about 8:30 am. We stopped at the local Kroger for a few groceries and our Starbucks. We passed through Conroe, and continued east along Texas Hwy 105. The road meandered through the countryside all the way to Beaumont, TX, where we joined up again with the 10.

The highway offered typical roadside scenes, but there were some very nice stretches…

After passing through Beaumont we finally reached the Louisiana border…

There were water views everywhere…

As we traveled east on the 10 the roads got worse and worse. This stretch is notorious for being the worst interstate in the nation. There would be a newly repaired road for 2 miles, then junk road for 1/4 mile, then 3 miles of good, then 5 miles of bad, 2 miles of good, 1/4 mile of bad. Why they can’t fix it all at one time is a mystery… Finally we reached a causeway over a bayou that went for 18 miles. It wasn’t horrible.

We reached the Frenchman’s Wilderness RV Park, the meet-up location of the caravan. We are officially here!

We met several of the caravaners who were also arriving a day early. The caravan officially begins tomorrow.

We walked the park, enjoyed seeing the accumulating Airstreams.

This is a really nice park – lots of space, lots of grass, too many trees (at least as far as my satellite TV is concerned…). The weather was warm (high 70s) and a little humid, although I don’t think anyone besides us desert dwellers noticed…