Louisana - Laissez Joy rouler!

Aloha all!

at the height of slavery, there were about 46,000 plantations in the South. I mention this mostly because some of you might feel like we are trying to see them all. But knowing this, I am sure you agree that visiting eleven plantation homes in the past ten days is very reasonable, right?

Laissez les bon temps rouler

Each one of those places is intriguing, beautiful and sad. Tragically, the plantations were all built or sustained by slave labor. Yes, some plantation owners might have treated their slaves better than others, but the whole concept of people owning other people is still strange and disgusting. I am relieved that pretty much all the tours we took did not whitewash that. That being said, it’s hard not to be intrigued by the stories of these places and by their beauty. 

Even though the homes share similar origins and architecture, every one of our experiences was unique, so we kept visiting more and more while traveling up the Mississippi from just west of New Orleans to Natchez, Mississippi:

• The Ardoyne Plantation was unique not only because it was our first. This 1894 plantation home has been lived in by the same family for six generations now and we got a private tour from one of the current occupants! They are a Harvest Host location, so we “had to” take a tour to earn our free campsite for the night. Contrary to our Hawaiian counterparts, there is still sugar cane being grown on their fields. The family is not involved in that, but I am sure they are plenty busy taking care of the big old beautiful house and by giving tours. That includes keeping their upstairs living room and hallways tidy enough to make it presentable for tours. I guess inheriting a home like this is a blessing…and a curse.
  
  

  

  Ardoyne Plantation 

  
  
• The unique aspect of the ED White State Historical Site is that while this 1790 house was also a plantation home, it is preserved for a different reason: ED White Sr. was governor of Louisana and his son became Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. 
• The tour at the Laura Plantation was our favorite. Joseph is a gifted tour guide, interpreting the complex history of this “Creole Plantation”. Given the chance, I seriously would have taken the same tour a second time. The house is the most colorful and it is beautifully restored. It also had a lot of original furnishings, but that’s not what the tour was about. The house was merely a backdrop and the furnishings merely props for our gifted story teller to bring the people who lived here alive. We were so intrigued that we bought Laura’s memoirs. We have not yet even started reading them and I’m afraid it’s not going to be as fascinating as being there and listening to Joseph.
  
  

  

  Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Tour
  at Laura's Plantation 

  
  
• The very aptly named Oak Alley Plantation might be the most picturesque. Every one of those Live Oak trees is spectacular by itself, the alley formed by 28 of them leading up to this home is just magical. We spent half a day there, touring the house and the gardens, eating a delicious lunch, attending an excellent talk in the slave quarters and walking up and down that Oak Alley several times.
  
  

  

  The oak alley at the Oak Alley Plantation

  
  
• Many of the plantation homes have beautiful gardens, but the delightful gardens of the Houma House definitely were our favorite. I wish my garden loving dad could have been with us. These gardens were beautiful and also full of playful sculptures and little surprises. We did not even mind when we found out that pretty much the whole garden design is not historic, but a modern addition of the current owner in the last two decades. We also did not mind that this “free” Harvest Host campsite ended up costing us more than even the fanciest campground, calculating the house tour, the adjacent Great River Road Museum, the cocktail in the garden and the dinner in the elegant Carriage House restaurant. 
  
  

  

  Houma House & Gardens

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The history of the Oakley Plantation is just as interesting as the others, but I’m sure the family who lived here exactly 200 years ago would be surprised to learn that their property is now named and known for the guy they hired for 3 1/2 months to tutor their daughter. They actually fired that tutor because he wanted to get paid even for the days when their daughter was sick. I’m sure he didn’t mind having more time to paint birds. John James Audubon did more of his famous bird drawings here than anywhere else. Unfortunately, Audubon did not get the full recognition for his now famous drawings. But even though it happened many decades after his death, I’m sure Audubon would get a kick out of having not just a Society named after him, but also the plantation where he was fired after not even four months. The place is now the “Audubon State Historic Site”.
• The unique aspect of the Myrtles Plantation is that it claims to be one of “America’s most haunted places”. We spent the night here because it’s another Harvest Host location, most of the other guests staying here seemed to be ‘ghost hunters’. They do specific ghost tours, but even our ‘regular’ tour included many stories of ghosts, spirits and unexplained phenomena. I’m usually very suspicious about any of those claims. However, I am not sure how the reflection of a grey haired man appeared on a photograph of a fellow guest, even though no such person was on our tour. We spent a very peaceful night at the Myrtles Plantation, despite all the supposed resident ghosts. The only thing we heard at night was an amazingly loud cacophony of sounds from birds, bullfrogs, ducks, crickets and who knows, maybe some ghosts. However, I did experience a mysterious transformation overnight: I woke up the next morning and loved grits.
  
  

  

  The Myrtles Plantation 

  
  
• The Rosedown Plantation has probably the second best oak alley and the second best garden. We also got another private tour, which was excellent even though it was obviously rehearsed and recited word for word. But Rosedown still had a very unique aspect: Even though the site is run by the state, they hired a cat as their official greeter. Bob’s very friendly, but he fits that prejudice of the lazy state employee quite well.
• The Melrose Plantation is run by our beloved National Park Service. So you’d think that it would be interpreted the best, right? The place looks pretty impressive, but we were only allowed to tour the grounds. The buildings were all closed, supposedly due to CDC guidelines, even though that’s not really what the CDC says anymore. Anyway, instead of the anticipated talk with a ranger, we had a long talk with a couple from Texas, which was equally interesting.
• The Auburn Home has a very special feature. Apparently, there are only four freestanding, wooden spiral staircases in America. This was our second one after one in a church in Santa Fe. We will never make it to all 46,000 plantations, but maybe we can make it to the remaining two of these staircases:
  
  

  

  Freestanding, wooden spiral staircase
  at the Auburn Home

  
  
• The “Rosalie” in Natchez was the eleventh, but probably not last and definitely not least of our home tours. This owners of this 1822 mansion paid a pice for having the most impressive house in the most prominent location on the bluff over the Mississippi in Natchez. When the Union troops moved into Natchez after their victory in Vicksburg, they moved right into this house. The gentleman of the house was out fighting for the Confederacy, but the Union general apparently was very gracious. The ladies living in the house got to stay in the house during the occupation and were guaranteed that their house and furnishings were handles with care. That was good for them and for us, so we got to tour another beautiful, well preserved home with an interesting story.

It would be easy to fill your days just with tours of these historic homes, but we do enjoy a little more variety, so here are a few other things we did since the last blog post:

• We toured an Oil Rig! “Mr. Charlie” was the very first movable oil rig. Before its invention in the 50’s, oil platforms were built and dismantled every time they had to move to a new site. Mr. Charlie drilled in over 200 locations. The innovative design caught on quickly and by the 80’s the design had improved so much that Mr. Charlie became obsolete, he is now a museum and a training center…and probably the only oil rig I will ever be on.
  
  

  

  'Mr. Charlie' - The world's first movable oil rig

  
  
• The National Hansen’s Disease Museum in Carville, Louisana was of particular interest to us in comparison to Kalaupapa on Molokai. Between the two it’s a very easy decision: If you are visiting as a tourist today, go to Kalaupapa. The setting surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the steep lush cliffs of Molokai’s north shore is spectacular and the tour we did there was one of the most interesting things I have ever done in Hawaii. The facility in Carville is now a National Guard post and it’s in a flat, nondescript area behind the Mississippi levees. The actual museum was still closed due to covid, but at least they had a good audio driving tour. However, if you ever time travel back 100 years and are unlucky to catch leprosy, I urge you to do anything you can to come to Carville rather than Kalaupapa. Especially in the beginning, patients in Hawaii were basically dropped off at Kalaupapa (sometimes even in the treacherous waters around the peninsula) to die. Compared to that, conditions in Carville were very humane. I am sure it was still devastating being sent here. Patients were still basically imprisoned and the social stigma was extreme. But some of the descriptions of the facilities at Carville read like that of a spa or retreat: They had a golf course, a fishing pond, mail service and most of all: Access to actual doctors for medical treatment. The Carville Leprosarium was also instrumental in finding a cure for the disease in the 1940’s. 
• We also played our first round of stick golf outside of Hawaii. The Copper Mill Country Club was a nice, laid back place to do that. They let me play from the lady’s tees, they gave Sandra unlimited mulligans and they let us stay overnight on their parking lot, all for a very reasonable rate, even by Waiehu standards. 
  
  

  

  Copper Mill Golf Course

  
  
• Traveling along part of the Great River Road, we also made a habit of going for a walk on the levees along the Mississippi almost every day. 
• In Natchez, we also visited an exhibition of historic photographs, the mounds of the Natchez Indians and the very interesting Natchez Museum of African American History. At one time, Natchez had the dubious claim of having the second largest slave market in America.
  
  

  

  At the Natchez Museum of African American History

Now we are finally on the Natchez Trace, which is a 444 mile scenic Parkway from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville Tennessee. At the visitor center they told us we could spend a whole week doing the whole Natchez Trace. I don’t think they know how slow we travel. I am taking bets whether we will make it to Nashville in two weeks. 

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Joy is on the road again!

Aloha all,

this is how much we love road trips: In the less than two weeks since we started this trip, we found out someone stole our catalytic converter while Joy was in storage, Sandra had to see a chiropractor with an injured back, we went through a tornado warning and yesterday we were dealing with plumbing issues in Hawaii, a leak in Joy and trouble with an Airbnb arrival in our unit back home all at the same time….and we STILL love being back on the road!

Joy under Live Oak Trees

Because of the stolen catalytic converter it took a while to get going this time, but after four days of dealing with the insurance, the repair shop and walking in circles around the campground, we were excited to finally hit the open road. 

We already had three great "Harvest Host” experiences so far. In case you don’t know what Harvest Hosts are, I am happy to explain, even though it might sound a bit like an infomercial: It is a club that connects RVers with businesses that let you stay overnight for free. All you have to do is utilizing their services: So at the Pour Brother Brewery, we had to drink some beer, at Vermillionville we had to tour a historic village and at Lake Martin we had to take a swamp tour. That’s all not that terrible, considering those are the types of things we like to do anyway. However, many golf courses are also part of Harvest Host, so once Sandra’s back is fully healed, we might occasionally have to play a round of golf to earn our free night!

Paying our dues at the Pour Brothers Brewery 

In Beaumont, TX we visited two historic homes. Even though many of these homes are newer than the house my grandparents lived in, we find these tours fascinating and love hearing how people lived a century or so ago. The staff and volunteers at these places seemed genuinely happy to share the history of the homes. The new post-vaccination travel boom does not seem to hit these lesser known historical places. We were the only guests at both places and got private tours both times. At one of the homes, the tour was supposed to be self guided, but the security guard was as eager to share his knowledge as we were eager to hear it. 

McFaddin Ward House in Beaumont, TX

The two houses were quite different: The Chambers House was upper middle class while the McFaddin-Ward House was upper upper class. A hundred years ago, it was pretty impressive that the Chambers had running water, telephone, electricity and other modern amenities. But most of us have that today…hey, we have all of that in Joy! The Chambers were clearly trying to keep up not just with the Joneses, but also with the McFaddins. However, they didn’t quite get there, the McFaddins also had a gymnasium and a two car AND eight horse carriage house. Both of the homes were donated by the descendants to honor their families. They have never been lived in except by family of the original occupants and are now run by non profit organizations. At first, the Historical Society running the Chambers House did not want to take on the project to restore the house when it was offered to them in 2005. They were afraid that remodeling and preserving the home would ruin them. The last surviving descendant was an old lady who had lived there all her life and had not done any mayor repairs or remodels in decades. In fact, a lot of the house was the same it was 100 years ago. That’s great from a historians perspective, but terrible if you have to pay for the restoration. But then they found out that the little old lady also left them 12 million dollars in the bank as an endowment to take care of things. I had a feeling that our five dollars for the tour alone would not cover the costs. The McFaddin family is a little more discreet. Nobody seems to know how much they left as an endowment to preserve their house and their legacy. Let’s just say: they don’t bother to charge anything for the tours and when I offered to make a donation, they basically said: We don’t accept any donations, we already have all the money we will ever need. 

We also visited the “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias Museum in Beaumont. In case you are as ignorant as we were until last week: She is arguably the best female athlete of the last century. She excelled at golf, basketball, track and pretty much anything else. Out of all her records and accomplishments, this one probably sums it up the best: To this day, she is the only athlete, male or female who won Olympic gold medals in running, jumping and throwing events!

Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange, TX

In Orange, the easternmost town in Texas, we found someone who was able to keep up with the McFaddins. The Starck House was still closed (not sure whether it was because of storm damage from the hurricanes last year or because of Covid), but we saw it from the outside and it looked very impressive. And the Starck foundation was left with enough funds to also open a Botanical Garden and an impressive Art Museum, both of which we were allowed to visit for free. But we want to come back when we can also see the home of these generous people and maybe catch a show at the very impressive looking theater they built right downtown. It looks bigger and fancier even than the MACC on Maui, for a town of just 18,000 souls! Orange also has the best bread pudding, if you ever get to the end of Texas in the east, make sure to stop in Orange, if not for the free gardens or museum, then for the bread pudding at the Old Orange Cafe.

Louisiana Welcome Center

We had made it only two miles into Louisiana before we saw our first alligators. It looks like they employ them at the welcome center, I’m just not sure whether it’s as an attraction or as a deterrent. The alligators have been following us ever since. So far we were lucky that we saw the little cute ones pretty close up and the scary big ones only wehen we were far enough away, safely inside Joy….or on a boat. 

Alligator at the Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

The western Louisiana gulf coast was hit by back-to-back hurricanes last year. Most homes and businesses are fully open again, but there is still some damage and debris around. We talked to the friendly folks at the Creole Nature Trail Adventure Center for over an hour, about the storms, the alligators and also the nature trail, which is a scenic drive through the marshland and along the gulf coast, which just reopened after the storms. For most visitors, the main problem is that all the restroom facilities have been wiped out. That’s not a problem if you bring your own bathroom with you. However, our issue was that the temporary dock for the one ferry crossing along the way had a very steep ramp and can not accommodate RVs, forcing us to turn around half way into the drive. But we still got to see plenty of alligators. 

Vermillionville in Lafayette, LA is another one of these historic villages we like to visit. They might all look similar, but there is always something new to see or learn. Or in this case to taste and to hear. We had a surprisingly delicious lunch here. My favorite part was Kevin, the Cajun interpreter, musician, historian, story and joke teller. I could have just sat on that porch and listen to him all day, that would have been worth the price of admission, especially since it included a spot next to a pretty pond for us to stay at. Have I sold you on that Harvest Host membership yet?

Kevin, the Cajun entertainer at Vermillionville

In Lafayette, we also played our first round of disc golf of this trip. Actually, not a full round, because we wanted to take it easy on Sandra’s recovering back and because several of the baskets were flooded. Had one of my approach shots landed 15 feet to the left, it would have hit an alligator! 

Disc Golf Course in Lafayette, LA

Even though we had seen alligators every day, we still loved our swamp tour around Lake Martin. It’s a birder’s paradise and still very pretty and very interesting for non-birders like us. 

On Monday, the weather turned from good to bad and then quickly to ugly. At first, we took that as a sign to slow down, so all we had planned for the day was lunch and laundry. For lunch, we got really lucky, because we just happen to be next to Beaux Bridge, the "Crawfish Capitol of the World". What a feast: 3 pounds of fresh crawfish for under $20 and you don’t even have to worry about overeating because I swear we burned as many calories cracking them open as we took in eating them. What a fun, delicious, messy lunch!

“Crazy ‘bout Crawfish” in Beaux Bridge, LA

At the campground in the evening, we felt lucky at first because tornado warnings were issued for all the places we had been to or had planned to go to, but not for where we were. But the next update put us right in the middle of a tornado warning, so we abandoned Joy and took shelter in the brick bathhouse. To our surprise, only one other camper deemed it necessary to seek shelter there. One other camper just came in to take a shower. It was a very severe thunderstorm, but luckily, the tornado never materialized. We and Joy got away without any damage. Actually, Joy had a leak, but it only manifested itself because of the storm, it was not caused by the storm. And thanks to our friendly, tech savvy remote trouble shooter, we think we were able to find and fix the leak. Thank you, Bern!

Jungle Gardens at Avery Island 

We had been to the Tabasco Factory Tour on Avery Island on our first road trip in 2008, but for some reason, we missed the “Jungle Gardens” back then. That was reason enough to go back. What a beautiful place. We did this big garden partially as a drive through tour and walked the other half. This being southern Louisiana, of course they have alligators and spectacular live oak trees, but our favorite was “Bird City”. The grandson from the original founder and inventor of the iconic Tabasco Hot Pepper sauce built the perfect nesting site for all kinds of birds in his garden. For us, it still makes for a spectacular place to enjoy a wild bird spectacle. As serious birders (I’m talking about you, Alex!) know, this site is also responsible for saving the Snowy Egret from extinction. 

“Bird City” in the Jungle Gardens

Every single bottle of Tabasco comes from this one plant on Avery Island. As much as we love this place, it’s a shame that we don’t really like the actual Tabasco sauce all that much. But in the factory museum, we learnt that there are now actually 7 flavors of Tabasco available and we got some samples, maybe there is one that we like as much as the place where it’s made.

Tabasco’s “Family of Flavors”

Even more than on previous trips, we are taking it super slow and never rush, but I can’t believe we did all this in less than two weeks. Life is so full on the road: Even while dealing with repairs, leaks, injuries and tornadoes, there was still so much time for exploration.

Today, we went on an oil rig, but I’m afraid if I start writing about that experience, the blog will get so long that I will loose you on my first update from this trip. But who knows, we might see something else this week to write another blog post soon.

Aloha from Louisana,

Chris & Sandra