Quiet Oaks RV Park
18159 Tv Tower Rd
Kinder, LA 70648
GPS: 30.379568, -92.913810
Travel Day 3 – Pascagoula, MS to Lake Charles, LA
Today was our day to cross Louisiana. We left the Gator Ranch early and spent nine and a half hours on the worst section of Interstate highway I have ever encountered. Miles and miles of bone jarring washboard road. This is US INTERSTATE! (I-10). You know – the red and blue highway road markers, the best in the country! Don't pack the good china in your RV if you plan to travel this route. High point of the day was crossing the Mississippi River. There is always some symbolism in that – leaving the east, entering the west.
Part of that logged time was spent seeking and finding a place for dinner before we reached our destination. Scout and Yelp were not much help. They identified promising local restaurants which we found to be closed (Duh! It's Sunday). We pressed on past our destination into Lake Charles where we found Steamboat Bill's
Michelle ordered Shrimp étouffée
I ordered a Shrimp Po–Boy
We split, both having some of each. It was all good.
Our campsite for tonight is Quiet Oaks RV Park. This is a Passport America and Good Sam park, not a Harvest Host site. I called ahead several times during the day and was not able to get anyone to answer the phone, so I was skeptical but we pressed on. The park is a small, old RV Park in rural Louisiana. We all remember the old classic 'Knotty Pine' motel?
We pulled into an empty site and called it a day.
So was it Creole or Cajun?
Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States which blends French, West African, Amerindian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian influences, as well as general Southern cuisine. The Cajuns largely assimilated and adopted Creole cuisine for their own. Although the Creole cuisine is closely identified with New Orleans culture today, much of it evolved in the country plantation estates so beloved of the pre-Civil War Creoles. (Despite its aristocratic French roots, Creole cuisine does not include Garde Manger or other extremely lavish styles of the Classical Paris cuisine.)
There are two types of Creole cuisine: Urban Creole and Rural Creole. Urban Creoles cuisine is observed and prepared for mainly tourist of New Orleans. Rural Creole cuisine is usually hidden in the bayous and swamps of the Old Creole Parishes/Acadiana or Creole Country. Since the 1980s, Rural Creole cuisine has largely been mistakenly labeled as Cajun cuisine. Wikipedia
Cajun cuisine (French: Cuisine cadienne). This style of cooking is named for the French-speaking Acadian people deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine; locally available ingredients predominate and preparation is simple. An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, special made sausages, or some seafood dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available. Shrimp and pork sausage are staple meats used in a variety of dishes.
The aromatic vegetables bell pepper (poivron), onion and celery are called the holy trinity by Cajun chefs, and with the addition of garlic holy trinity and the pope in Cajun and Creole cuisines. Roughly diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mirepoix in traditional French cuisine which blends roughly diced onion, celery and carrot. Characteristic aromatics for the Creole version may also include parsley, bay leaf, green onions, dried cayenne pepper and dried black pepper. Wikipedia
Beats the Shrimp out of me.
Gulf Coast Gator Ranch
10300 Hwy 90
Moss Point, MS 39562
GPS: 30.435717, -88.437733
Travel Day 2 – Monticello, FL to Pascagoula, MS
We bid farewell to Bobbie Golden and were on the road by 0745. We covered the 310 miles to our second night's stop in 7:45.
Gulf Coast Gator Ranch is also a Harvest Host member. They stay alive by selling airboat rides into the swamp along with a store selling alligator theme trinkets. You all know exactly what I'm talking about.
I checked in at the store where only one of the fellows working there even had a clue about Harvest Hosts. He advised that we could park anywhere in the parking lot. We set up along the outer edge of the lot.
I spent some time in the store trying to be a 'good ole boy' chatting with the fellows working there. They were polite but their lack of interest was pretty obvious. It was Saturday evening about quitting time and they had no desire to chat with some strange old man who just set up an RV in their parking lot. At 5:01PM, the door was locked and they were all laying down a dust storm getting out of the parking lot.
5:02PM, Saturday evening
We had the place to ourselves for the rest of the evening and night. Total peace and quiet with a full moon; broken only by the whistle and rumble of freight trains passing very close to the property.
Golden Acres Ranch
704 Barnes Rd.
Monticello FL 32344
GPS: 30.606185, -83.860218
Yesterday we finished just about all of our preparation chores, so I was counting on an early start today. Not pre–dawn but not mid–morning either. We buttoned up the house (a new task for us) and were ready to pull out at 0830 but I could not get the GPS app on my phone to behave. After half an hour messing with it, I realized the phone was in airplane mode. I don't know how it got there but it was. With that straightened out we got rolling at 0900.
The weather was beautiful all day long and we covered the 283 miles to our first night's stop in six and a half hours. We pulled into Golden Acres Ranch just east of Tallahassee at 1530.
Travel Day 1 – Titusville, FL to Monticello, FL
On this trip I am using our Harvest Hosts membership for the first time and today was our first stop. Harvest Hosts is a collection of private farms, wineries, and attractions that allow RVers free overnight parking. The hope is that you will buy some of their product in return for the favor. I have seen the advertisements several times over the past couple years and we joined at the Tampa RV show in January. Click on the logo at the bottom of this page to connect and learn more. Our hosts today were Bobbie and Fred Golden the owners of Golden Acres Ranch.
Bobbie greeted us on arrival, showed us around the ranch, and told us a bit about their history with the ranch while she bottle fed a baby goat. We met Fred Golden and chatted with him for a spell too.
Our dry camp site was a small field near the store
We spent some time with Bobbie in her little store, which is open whenever you ring the big bell at the house.
and learned about Mayhaw Jelly. We had a taste and of course had to buy some.
Bobbie was very interested in our WorKamping experiences and the whole idea behind it, so I gave her the web addresses for Workamper News and Workers–On–Wheels. I think she will join those two sites and we will soon see her ads in those publications.
This evening we relaxed at our rig and socialized with the chickens.
If you're nearby, stop and try some Mayhaw jelly
The other day I published the route for our summer 2015 road trip. I was pretty satisfied with myself until my daughter Tricia put me on to THIS road trip.
If you love math like I do, you'll love this.
Randy Olson is a fourth-year Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Michigan State University and Tracy Staedter is a producer for Discovery News/Tech. Randy teamed up with Tracy to produce this road trip.
Here are the rules:
1. The trip must make at least one stop in all 48 states in the contiguous U.S.
2. The trip would only make stops at National Natural Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Parks, or National Monuments.
3. The trip must be taken by car and never leave the U.S.
With those objectives in mind, Tracy compiled a list of 50 major U.S. landmarks — one in each state excluding Alaska/Hawaii and including D.C., and two in California.
Here is the result:
The Road Trip
Meet Randy here
Meet Tracy here
Here are three stories about this mathematics project/road trip by Randy, Tracy, and Snopes. And boy did these stories get comments. Many of the comments were about the choice of sites. All those folks missed the point of the story – THE MATHEMATICS THAT PRODUCED THE MAP. You could pick any location. Enjoy the stories AND the comments.
And here is my paltry 2015 road trip.
