Yesterday my aunt and uncle picked me up and we went to Louisiana. We wanted a road trip for a couple of reasons: 1. They are moving soon and I will probably only see them a few times a year. 2. Ron's birthday was coming up and I didn't want to brood. 3. I wanted to see Ron's hometown. 4. My relatives wanted to go to New Orleans. So we combined it all in one trip.
They got me yesterday morning and off we went. I went to the Baytown Buc-ees boy they pay their people well! They had a big sign outside the store I could live really well on that...too bad it is way off the bus line. I had fun, we stopped at a little gas station on the other side of the state line, I bought some drinks and a nice falsa blanket in orange (looks great on my loveseat, and washable, not expensive either). We took back roads and stopped at a little roadside stand.
I had very fond memories of cracklin's, which are fried out pork fat. They are seasoned and then fried, and when well done are a thing of glory. I looked at the bag of cracklin's for a while and decided I would always regret it if I didn't buy them. They were homemade, which is generally either very good, or very bad. These were very bad. But I did get a nice jar of local honey as well. We went to Ron's hometown.
The adjacent town was a pretty good mix of very nice historical homes, small eateries, local business, and a small visitor center. We stopped there. The woman was not impressed when I told her I was a [last name]. Not impressed one bit. I guess Ron's family do not have a good reputation. We headed out to the hometown, it was a pretty complete dump. They had a small, locally owned, grocery store, we stopped in. My aunt said they had good meat prices, but I was interested in spices, I got a couple jars of Creole seasoning. Every person in the store was black, staff and customers. Later on we realized it was a "black" town. Many small towns had the "black" town next to the "white" town and this seems to be the case. It was heavily agricultural with some industry, a few fast food places, but other than that pretty much a bump in the road. I did notice the grocery store had discounted the stevia packets to $1 a box. Not a lot of healthy eaters, I guess!
We stopped at a Walmart outside of New Orleans. It was fun to look around, they had Mardi Gras stuff. I got a garland for Ron's urn, my aunt says I am not being excessive with it. I got some decaf chicory coffee which I love, some more Creole seasoning, and yet another jar of local honey. I love good local honey, especially the dark wildflower kind, and I had 2 jars now. I can put it in my coffee. Yum, yum.
We headed to New Orleans from there, my aunt had booked a hotel in the French Quarter. We shared a room with two queens, it was small but large enough for the 3 of us. We went out to dinner at Masero's, I think. They had been there before, we walked from the hotel. It was a little walk but not bad, and I had brought my walking shoes. It would have been too much in any other kind of shoe. The streets were narrow and rough, it would have been hard to push Ron in the wheelchair. It was fun looking around, though.
We had a good dinner. I had Calamari. They brought me so much a ring fell off my plate and into my purse, which I found very funny! We had crawfish cakes (divine) in a "rich etouffee gravy". It was a very good meal. The owner came out (someone high up, either owner or manager) and made sure we had a good meal. After that we went over to the river, looked at that, walked around a little and went to Cafe Du Monde. I asked if they had any soy milk. They were very nice about it but laughed. So I got a decaf black chicory coffee which I already said I love. My uncle got Cafe au Lait. I got bengiets.
1 comment:
What a fun trip! Glad you got to spend that time with your family. When I go on vacation, we always try to shop at the Walmart, Dollar General or Dollar Tree in that area just because they all have such different items.
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