Day 158. January 11, 2014. To Cajun Country!

It poured during the night.....the thunder and rain sound so nice when one is safely escounced in a tight Airstream!  

As we were getting ready to leave this campground outside of New Orleans, a couple from Belgium that we had met in a campground in Georgia in November pulled in.  Such a small world.  They are using the campground as base and are making day trips into New Orleans.

We drove southwest, and stopped at a restaurant called Zydeco for lunch.  Most people were eating their seafood buffet, which was loaded with crawfish, lobsters, clams, shrimp, soft shell crabs, and gumbo.  Instead, we had BBQ shrimp.  It was so good.  I would like to learn to make it.  It seemed like boiled shrimp in a hot sauce/butter/ worchestire/garlic  sauce.  You sop up the extra sauce with bread.  We ordered 2 draft beers (Abita from Louisiana) and these huge glasses arrived.  We were shocked when we got the bill....$2.50!

We were heading for a state park I had found that is centrally located in Cajun country so we can stay in one place for several days and make day trips.  We stopped for gas in a small town (tank was below empty) and asked directions.  A guy with tattoos on every imaginable spot on his body and a full  set of gold-plated teeth told us about a short cut.  I was filled with dread.  He was vague about the condition of the road....thought part of it might be gravel.  It was not an official road, but a one-laned route on the levee with potholes and mud on either side.  After driving for an alarming amount of time (the tattoo guy said it wasn't far), we flagged down a truck going the other way.  I think the driver was straight from the cast of Duck Dynasty.  He said we were going in the right direction.  Finally we arrived.  Nice state park.  We are the only car from out-of-state.  We chose a "premium" (more expensive) site on the river for $10/night.  It is really swampy.  

For dinner, I made chicken cacciatore, trying to use the spaghetti sauce I had made a few days ago.  I added the leftover sauce from lunch to kick it up.  George grilled the chicken thighs on the campfire as we watched armadillos root around nearby.  

We are looking forward to exploring this area.