Eunice, LA

2019-04-07 – Airstream Cajun Country Caravan – Travel to Carencro, LA

This is the last travel day for the Caravan – our next stop is the final one – only 4 nights left…

We walked the park again a few times, then hitched up and left Eunice about 11:30 am… Of course, we soon were delayed by a train… And I love trains!

It was 50 miles to Carenco, on the outskirts of Lafayette. We stopped for a quick lunch at GoBears!

Unfortunately, their tiny lunch room was closed – no idea why… So we walked next door to McDonalds. They have all automated touch screens for ordering. During the lunch rush there was one cashier, wandering around with nothing to do… Progress???

We arrived at the Bayou Wilderness RV Resort. Nice place with full hook-ups, including cable, plus clear skies for satellite TV. The sites are a little rustic, though…

We hooked up, set up, checked out the store and other amenities, and walked around a bit. There is an actual swamp out back… lots of Bald Cypress trees growing out of the water. Those funny little pointy stumps are roots growing up out of the ground. They are called, “Knees”.

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At about 4:00 pm it started to rain, with thunder and lightning, of course. It was still pouring down when it was time to meet the other Airstreamers in the meeting room here in the RV park for pizza and ice cream…

By the time we were ready to walk back to the villa after dinner it was still raining, but not nearly so hard.

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

The McAnoy baseball team…

Ian, almost 5:

Roisin, age 6:

April 10, 2019 0

2019-04-06 – Airstream Cajun Country Caravan – Eunice, LA

The most fun I have had in a long time at a music venue happened today!
We set out early for the tiny town of Mamou, LA. We went into Fred’s Lounge, a 70+ year old institution. Why were we going into a bar at 9:00 am on a Saturday morning? Because Fred’s has a Cajun band that cannot be beat, and they broadcast a live radio show from here each Saturday morning!

The place was packed, with beer drinking Cajuns and 50 or so Airstreamers. (I know – sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference…) It is a tiny space, with barely room for a bar and the band and a few booths and tables. Mostly it was standing room only…

At 9:05 the radio announcer came on and introduced the show. The band started playing and there was not a stationary person in the place… Most Cajun bands are relatively quiet, with little or no percussion. Not here! It was LOUD, with booming bass and pounding drums. It was fabulous!

The announcer waiting for his cue to start the show…

I finally realized that it was better to stand BEHIND the speakers than in front of them…

Note the shelf, about 7′ above the floor, to set your beer down whilst you are dancing…

It was fabulous! We stayed as long as we could, but we had another item on the day’s agenda… We sadly left Fred’s and Mamou and headed back towards Eunice…

Our next stop was Savoy Music Store. It is a regular music store, except that on Saturdays anyone who wants to jam and play or listen to Cajun music can drop in…

Frankly, it was a real snooze. After Fred’s it was a big let-down. Just ordinary Cajun music…

We returned to the Villa…

We hung around a bit, then at 2:00 we visited the Verizon store to try to get my Jet-pack hot spot fixed. Failure.

We went into downtown Eunice, visited the Railroad museum, had an ice cream cone, and visited another Acadian Cultural Center.

This is a statue of Eunice…!

The best part of the cultural center was the cooking demonstration. They made Red Beans and Rice. We all got to taste samples…!

The town of Eunice is past its prime…

Back at the Villa we walked around the park. It is quite nice:

At about 5:00 I called Verizon Tech Support. They ran diagnostics and decided my device needed a new sin card. So back to the Verizon store we went… They put in the card, and it worked fine in the store, but the signal began to fade about 1/2 mile away. Back at the campground there was no signal at all. I will call again tomorrow…

At 9:00 we went to the barn dance! The campground has a barn they use as a music venue. The band playing was One Trick Pony. They were nice and loud, with a good beat, but everything they played sounded the same…

Most of the Airstreamers were there, but we left relatively early and retired to the Villa…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 9, 2019 0

2019-04-05 – Airstream Cajun Country Caravan – Travel to Eunice, LA

Easy travel day again. At least at the start.

We drove over 50 miles today to camp at the Lakeview Park and Beach, just north of Eunice, LA. It is a beautiful place, and, since it is Friday, the park is quickly filling up with weekenders from the local area. There is a nice fishing lake, plus a swimming lake and beach, but it won’t open until next week…

Along the route we passed by typical Louisiana roadside scenes:

Upon arriving, I noticed that my iPhone was not charging – the cable would not plug in. After several panicked minutes wondering where in rural SW Louisiana I could find an Apple store, then several more panicked minutes realizing that what I really need is an A&TT store, then remembering that I have insurance on this phone (because I do not believe in those ugly phone cases…), then a few more phone calls and we were back in the truck and off for a one hour drive to Lafayette to an Apple authorized repair shop. If this proved to be unsucessful, I could get a replacement shipped to me – all I need to figure out is – Where will I be when the new phone arrives?

Lafayette was busy, but we found the store easily. Five minutes and nine dollars later my phone was fully functional! All it took was a tiny set of tweezers and knowing what to look for…

So, since we were already parked in a giant Target parking lot, we did a little grocery shopping, and headed back to Eunice.

Along the way we did see one of the better ideas to come out of Lafayette:

Yes, the drive-thru Daiquiri stand. Due to recent laws banning open containers of alcohol in cars they now put a lid on the plastic daiquiri cup, and a straw to poke through the little hole in the lid…

So we returned to the campground. We had missed both the final GAM and a drivers’ meeting. We took an evening stroll around the lake…