Carey's Playground

January 8, 2008:

At long last, I've started my lengthy Christmas vacation post.

I had my route on the way to Florida, and a few stops planned, but it was meant to be a relaxed, go-with-the-flow trip.  Here is a map of the route we took.

My parents were also traveling to Florida and spent the night in Houston with us after a short trip from Austin. They got up pretty early and left about an hour and a half before we did on the first day, planning to get to Florida in two days. We finally got out the door, sleepily, around 7am with a three day trip ahead of us.

Our first stop was a stop that I had been many times before, Beaumont, to see the third largest fire hydrant in the world.  After a quick stop at the Louisiana visitor's center for a map, we went towards the first Louisiana stop in Eunice, to see a free live cajun band. I was worried about getting there on time, since it only went to 11am. I had to stop in Elton when I saw a war memorial.  It's not every day you see a tank on the side of the road!  When we got to Eunice, it was already 10:40 and we were low on gas, and the street address of the cajun music place didn't resemble anything like what we were seeing, so we just decided to skip it and head to Opelousas.

Opelousas was a fun city. The chamber office was closed, so I looked up where the Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center was and we wandered a bit until we found it.  The museum was fun; they had three exhibits: a historical one of the city, a decorative egg exhibit, and a doll collection.  The entire city has a lot of history, claiming to be the third oldest settlement in Louisiana.  At the museum, it showed an interview with a man who gave a haircut to a stranger, who turned out to be Clyde from Bonnie and Clyde.  I would recommend seeing this museum if you're in the area, especially since it's free!

Across the street was an odds and ends store that Pam wanted to stop at, so we did, and bought a hanging fruit basket, which we can't seem to find anywhere else. Then the lady who worked there told us how to get to a park so we could eat our picnic lunch. It was a pretty standard park, but the hummus pitas we made were excellent!

On the way out, we saw the Opelusas visitor's center and we stopped. They had free postcards, so I just had to get one :)  And the post office just happened to be on the way, so I had Pam send it to me. We took a long stretch and drove out towards New Road, and just as we were about to get there, we saw a visitor's center for Point Coupeé between the Mississippi River and a sod farm, so we stopped. The house itself was insulated with mud and it completely barricaded the sound from the nearby highway. The visitor's center was a house from the 1700s, and it doesn't get many visitors. We were the first people there in 5 days, and you could tell the guide was lonely. We let her show us around and bought a postcard, and mailed it from New Roads. We crossed the little ferry to St. Francisville and stopped at a store called Grandmother's Buttons, which is a interesting country store that used to be an old bank building.  Pam checked out the clothing, and I got a Christmas present for my grandparents, as well as another postcard.

After the store, it was getting a little late, so I decided just to head straight to Bogalusa.  At night, all the small towns look the same, just with different Christmas decorations on main street (even though they were all the same "style").  We checked into the hotel in Bogalusa and asked if there was a good local place to eat.  The lady recommended Bino's and we went to check it out.  Unfortunately, it was closed, probably due to the holiday weekend.  So we ate at Pizza hut :(

Just as we were finishing dinner, and I was getting excited about seeing the Christmas in the Park display (the whole reason I chose this location as the first night stop).  Then, it started raining... hard.  The parking lot turned into a lake, and we decided it would be safer if we just went back to the hotel, so we did.

The next morning there came a cold front and it was 30s when we woke up.  Mississippi had absolutely nothing worth stopping for.  The only thing I can remember is stopping at a gas station and getting a corn dog (which was excellent).  When we got to the outskirts of Mobile, we saw a sign for a flea market, so we went to check it out.  I had never seen so many puppies for sale in one place before.  Another thing about the flea market felt... different.  It was the first time I had ever been to a flea market and didn't see a single Hispanic person.  Being from Texas, that's a really weird feeling.

We ate at a familiar lunch stop: Panera Bread company, then went towards downtown Mobile.  Mobile was a really nice looking city, with a lot of large historic homes.  Our next stop in Mobile was the visitor's center, which was a recreation of an old fort.  They had some really interesting Mardi Gras photos from over 100 years ago until the present.  There were also a lot of photos depicting segregation, but also a lot of photos showing events that were desegregated, even during a time of segregation.  It was really interesting.

We stayed in Mobile a little longer than expected, so, for the most part, we drove straight through the rest of the afternoon, making a quick detour to grab Geneva County, Alabama.  In Dothan, we ate at KFC for dinner, then I got hopelessly lost.  I missed my exit for US-84 and then followed the wrong directions from the woman at KFC.  I finally followed my gut and turned around the opposite way the lady told me and found the right way.

I missed one county detour to Miller County, Georgia (sorry Dan, but it was late and my wife was sick) and we spent the night in Bainbridge, GA.  The following morning my wife's cold was in full swing, so we drove nearly straight through, stopping in Cairo, GA (birthplace of Jackie Robinson) to see an antique car museum that was closed, and in Lake City, FL for gas.

I'll try to post more about the vacation in Florida itself when I get a chance.

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