I'm Wilting and It's Only April!

Louisiana is Humid.  Even though it’s only 80, the air is thick and I’m definitely wilting.  New Mexico was 95 one day and bearable because it was DRY. 

I am a humidity wimp. 

The park we are staying at, however, is very nice and picturesque.

Take for instance their  *pond*.  Now *pond* is asterisked because, well, this isn’t a pond.  It’s a swamp.

 
We decided to go out to eat our first night here.  I was all for finding a restaurant to try out the local fare, but I knew when I didn’t recognize ¾ of what was on the menu, that the kids would be miserable.  We settled for Shoney’s, a Denny’s type restaurant chain.  The food was blah, but each table had a shaker of Cajun seasoning (available at WalMart for $1.98—I bought three). 

The restaurant was empty and a single gentleman was seated next to us.  He asks us if the little white car with Oregon plates is ours and, lo and beheld, he is a native Oregonian.  Not only is he a native Oregonian, but he is familiar with the very small county and town that we live in.  He moved to LA fifteen years ago.  We spent an enjoyable meal with him.  It was interesting listening to him talk about his experiences as an educated black man moving to the south (as an aside, he was in the Navy involved in nuclear power, as was Keith).  He spoke about changing the way he talked and how difficult he found it to fit in here.  He also gave us some pointers about where to shop and eat and so, today, that is what we did.

We first went to a local flea market.  What an experience.  As we were walking to the booth, a young Mom pushing a toddler in a stroller got stuck on the rocks.  As we walked by she exclaimed, with a very heavy southern accent, “I’m BOGGED, I’m BOGGED!”  So, that’s what we’ve been saying all evening.  I’m bogged.  I love it.

One thing really stood out while we were at the flea market-----Everyone smokes, everywhere.  There were no smoking signs posted, but they were ignored by patrons and vendors alike. 

Then it was off to Super Walmart (our 4^th WalMart of the trip) to buy some supplies and see if I could get my glasses fixed (I stepped on them last night and nope, not fixable, sigh).  I did pick up some awesome Cajun BBQ sauce.

Our last stop was a local grocery store that served plate lunches.  I had a spicy pork chop with some dressing (some sort of cooked rice) with potato salad and corn and it was delicious.  We also tried cracklin (Cajun fried pork skin and fat-yum) and bought ourselves a sausage boudin.   We saw some rabbit kabobs and stuffed quail in the butcher section, along with stuffed Cajun pork chops and other different, interesting items.  We didn’t buy any, due to our limited refrigerator and freezer space.  Well, not totally due to our limited space.  I’m ok not trying rabbit.  

Some time in the pool rounded out our stay in LA.  The plan for Sunday is to head for Gulfport, MS and, hopefully, my first meet up of the trip!