Roadtrip Day 15: Swamp Tour and Bayou Country

“I want to eat some local food,” was my friend Nick’s request when he visited us in New Orleans. And so we left New Orleans and headed West into Cajun Country toward Lafayette. Deep in the bayou, in the sleepy yet warm town of Breaux Bridge, we found the Bayou Cabins, which boasted heralded local specialties of Boudin and Cracklin.

What are boudin and crackin? Well, I’ll let you look at the picture and take a guess for yourself:

Mind you, I didn’t know what crackling was either when I put it in my mouth and chomped down. Crinkly (yes, crackly) section on one side and with a soft chewy section on the other. That’s an interesting flavor, I thought. Vaguely reminiscent of… of… I couldn’t quiet place it. Sort of earthy, meaty. Once Nick told me what it was, it made perfect sense. Fried pig skin and fat. The crinkly part was the skin and the soft chewy part was sheer fat. No wonder they reminded me of pork rinds! Only these were legitimate pork rinds straight off the hog and barely processed.
Boudin was more my speed. It is a spicy local sausage made of heart and liver and rice. The other thing you’re seeing in the photo which we ate was a tangy head cheese. Earl liked the headcheese more than I did.
The food was fantastic. We also picked up a couple praline pecans which were soft and sweet and just amazing. Pure sugar rush, and completely different than the hard, stale praline pecans you can buy in the rest of the USA. We decided to book a cabin at Bayou Cabins for the night. Our cabin was very cute and overlooked the river, I could see how relaxing it would be to spend a week of more down there.
While I was checking in, the extremely nice woman who was helping me went through the standard questions of where we were travelling from and what was our final destination. When I was finished, Earl used their bathroom and I went outside to the car to meet Linus and Nick. “Marlene, where’s Manhattan?” Earl overheard her ask her colleague. “Why, I think that’s over by New York City,” the other woman drawled. Different pace of life down there, for sure. I am tempted to venture they are better off not knowing where Manhattan is! ?
Earlier that day I had made a few phone calls to see where we could have a swamp tour in Atchafalaya swamp. “You’ve got to call Norbert LeBlanc,” the director of the Atchafalaya Experience told me, “he’s the only one around here who I can recommend.”
Well, I called Mr. Leblanc and knew I hit paydirt when I could barely understand his mumbled Cajun drawl. I asked if we could bring dogs on the tour and he joked how we could use some extra alligator bait. “I think I booked us a swamp tour for 3:00,” I told Earl and Nick. We hopped in the car and headed over to Lake Martin.
Pulling into Lake Martin we found a leathery-skinned man with a long white ZZ-Top beard sitting by a small boat waving at us. “How did he know it was us and not just some people here to go fishing or something?” I wondered. I guess the Connecticut plates and SUV gave us away.
First things first, Norbert gave us all green alligator Mardi Gras beads to wear during the tour. A little hokey, but charming. Then when he modeled his “Cajun hard hat” of a turtle shell with a chin strap, I was worried we were in for another 3 hours of honky tonk tourist song and dance. My fears were unwarranted because once we took off in the boat it was two hours of amazing sightseeing and one of the very coolest things we’ve done on the trip yet.
Linus models his swamp tour alligator necklace:

Norbert informed us how, because we were later in the day, we might not see any alligators because normally they hunt in the early evening. This means they would be swimming around underwater during this time instead of sunbathing on logs for us to spy. Well, the very first thing we saw in the swamp was a very large gator relaxing on a log! He was so cool- it almost looked plastic or fake except we saw him moving his head and shaking his tail. I’d say he was about 8 feet long:

Over the whole tour we actually spotted a LOT of gators. I’d say about 11 overall. None of them were as close or as big as the first one, in fact we saw quite a few juveniles, about 4-5 feet long.

Smaller gator:

These guys were fast, too! You almost had to get your “gator eyes” on- Norbert would point one out on a log jumping in, and if you didn’t spot him right away he’d be gone in the blink of an eye. After the 5th or 6th gator, I got better at spotting them. I was definitely the worst of the bunch when it came to spotting the gators. Nick and Norbert were the best. Nick would spot one, point it out, and I would still be searching “where? Where?” I guess this means I would be the most likely of the bunch to get attacked by a gator if I was swimming or something ? Well, other than Linus!

In addition to alligators, we saw a bevy of other wildlife. We spied egrets, Cormorants and snake-birds, blue and white herons and lots and lots of turtles. I’d say my favorite was the great blue herons. They would stand so still in the water as we approached, and then all of a sudden swoop their giant steel gray wings and loft themselves so heavily out of their water. They had some BIG feet on them!

The cypress trees, which had gnarly roots growing out of the swamp water to tower above us were also a treat. I’d say we could have done the tour and seen NO wildlife at all, and the trees alone were majestic and haunting enough to make it a pleasure. Norbert told us the history of the trees, how they were seeded before the swamp was underwater, and they adapted to being flooded. He told us how most of the cypress are 300 to 400 years old and how they are frequently struck by lightning and killed.

Norbert pulled our rickety boat into a quiet grove of cypress trees and the water was completely still.

We stopped the boat and all sat quiet, a bit mesmerized by the hush and almost eerie presence of the trees. Here we were treated to some moonshine that Norbert formulates himself in his house-boat. He told us how it’s a mixture of corn, cane sugar and peaches, aged in oak barrells. We each had a small glass and WHOO that had kick. I gulped mine down and watched as Earl let Linus lick the inside of his cup. Our dog, little whiskey fiend!
We were also treated to a peak at some of Norbert’s magazine articles in National Geographic (he is the go-to source for information on Cajun swamp living) and also his personal collection of photobooks showcasing some of his adventures. I gasped at a 12-foot alligator he had caught and killed, as well as several large, very scary looking alligator gar. Alligator gar are freaky looking fish. There were also tons of giant catfish, some bigger than me, and a bunch of crawdad catches. He told us how he used to hunt gator frequently, although now with the farms the prices on the skin has dropped below a point where it’s no longer profitable. Now he hunts duck for fun and harvests crawdads.
We saw a lot of evidence of duck hunting in the swamp. Here is a duck-hunting cage in a tree:

I love learning about trees, so I would say the cypress were my favorite part of the tour.
And here was the oldest tree in the entire swamp:

Norbert informed us how it was about 1300 years old. He explained how it escaped being cut down for timber most likely because it had too many knots in the wood. Apparently a profitable side-hobby Norbert has is searching for cut trees underwater, and bringing them to be sold. They used to cut trees and let them sit for a few years in the water to cure the wood.
While we were in the side of the swamp with the oldest cypress, as I peered up into the branches of another tree I spotted a spotted wood owl. He was so cute and fluffy!!

Apparently it is pretty rare to see an owl because they’re mostly out at night, so this was a treat indeed. I can’t say enough good things about the swamp tour. If you are ever in New Orleans, take the drive two hours west to the Lafayette area and call up Mr. Leblanc to schedule one. He was so kind, informative and knowledgeable. Every moment of the tour, even when he threatened to feed Linus to the gators was a delight! He also recommended a place for dinner and “plates of crawdads” where he sells the crawdads he catches- Prejeans, over in Breaux Bridge.

Prejeans it was, and we pulled in at 6:45 just in time to hear the Cajun band strike up at 7:00. Earl and Nick opted for the 3-time award winning chicken and sausage gumbo; I had the crawfish bisque. Crawfish bisque was flavorful, but the chicken and sausage gumbo- out of this world!! Earl had to eat his while throwing elbows like a guy in Folsom Prison just to keep me out of his.

We all split some crawfish enchiladas, which sounded odd but were recommended by chowhounds, and they were awesome. We also had alligator tail as an appetizer and this was FAN-tastic. SO much more tender, and larger, than the alligator I had in Cape Girarldeaux before… this blew that away. I guess an alligator tail in alligator country is the real thing. For all I knew, I was eating a gator captured and killed by Mr. Leblanc himself!
We all had crawfish etouffee for an entrée which came with a crawfish pie. Fantastic as well, but none of us could do this giant meal justice. We, three avid-eating humans, were all stuffed to the gills and amazingly could not finish. Famished as we had been, Prejeans humbled us all and sadly we were all too full to sample the bread pudding with Jack Daniel’s sour mash sauce.

That evening Nick departed for his early flight back to Denver and Earl and I sat on the porch with Linus of our Bayou Cabin as we watched the muddy river lazily float by. Cajun country was to be the jumping off point for beginning of our trip into the western side of the states. As we held hands by the river I felt full, happy and a bit wistful to be leaving the south full of warm and welcoming people, authentic and unique places and of course amazing food.

Here is one point where having a pooch while travelling made us be extra-diligent about how we planned the days. One thing we haven’t done all trip is left Linus in a hotel unattended. We won’t do it because we don’t want him to be scared and bark, and honestly I won’t even leave him in the car for very long, either. Especially in the South, where it gets hot quickly!

So we were going to see New Orleans, but we were limited to dog-friendly places.

Just getting in and out of the Lafayette with Linus was a process. The super friendly staff loved to pet him, give him biscuits and tell us about their dogs. It was a pleasure, but a bit amusing that it always took us 15 minutes or more to get in or out of the place!

The first thing we did on Saturday was what everyone else in New Orleans was attempting to do: Go to the Café du Monde for beignets and coffee. They had outdoor seating, so Linus sat outside the fence by our table while we jostled with hundreds of other people for waitress attention and elbow room. I know the Café du Monde is “the place” for breakfast in NO, but honestly I didn’t really care for it. My coffee was watered down and the beignets just tasted like any old fried dough you’d get at a state fair. Not earth-shattering, and IMO not worth dealing with the crowds over. I get grumpy in crowds, particularly when I am hung over on a hot day. Earl liked his, says they were delicious, and enjoyed it. His coffee was notably better than mine… which I promptly stole from him as we strolled around the neighboring park after breakfast.

The view from Café du Monde:

Linus at the feet of a Jazz player over breakfast. We gave him a big tip because he was really good and also he was nice to Linus and didn’t step on him!

From here on out, we had a lovely, relaxing, slow-paced afternoon. It was GREAT. We perused the artists work in Jackson Square and found some incredible stuff. I could have spent hundreds of dollars, and as it was managed to blow my budget. The stuff was just so cool. Much different than the street vendors in NYC who mainly sell the same old touristy stuff… this was all unique and the talent levels were high. Reasonable prices as well, and all of the artists were dog-friendly. They always called us over to pet Linus and tell us about their dogs. We talked to one woman for about 40 minutes, who told us about the rescue work she did after Katrina for all of the dogs. She also told us the sad situation about packs of pitbulls roaming around her neighborhood that are all starving. They were recently attacking her dogs, and so she sprayed them full bore with the hose, but instead of running away, they were so thirsty they just stayed and tried to drink the water. So sad.

I also did some Christmas shopping for my nieces and family here. There were just really cute doll stores and of course lots of Tabasco Sauce stuff for my father. Awesome! The only thing holding me back from *really* shopping was not wanting to go majorly overbudget and also we literally don’t have any room in the Jeep. That thing is packed to the gills.

We explored the French Quarter this time sober and taking it slow. I liked it more once we were off Decatur and out of the crowded, “main drag” fray. It definitely reminded us of the West Village in NYC.

You know what is a cool part of New Orleans culture? Spontaneous parades! This one, thrown by the “Irish Citizens of Downtown” came out of nowhere, for no reason, on a Saturday afternoon. We were bombarded with candy and beads.

Even Linus got some beads:

We stopped at a Cuban Café with outdoor seating on our way back to the hotel. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed some wine, sangria, and spicy andouiville gumbo.

There was also a band playing in Lafayette Park near our hotel, and this woman walking around in full “El Dia del Muertes” gestalt. I asked if I could take her photo, and I think she was determined to remain in character, because she posed but didn’t respond and gave us her best “spooky” stare-down.

The rest of the day we caught up with friends back home and also waited for my friend Nick, who I ski with, to arrive. He was flying in for the weekend but had flight trouble so didn’t arrive until 5:30 or so.

Nick arrived and we hung around the hotel relaxing and catching up. Then we went out to dinner outside of town to Mosca’s,  a chowhound Creole/Italian joint over the Long Bridge to eat dinner in Avondale. Talk about flavorful. You could smell the garlic and spices from the parking lot. I think this is the kind of cooking which inspired Emeril to say “Bam!” all of the time. We had spaghetti and meatballs, rosemary chicken a la grandee, and baked oysters. It was a perfect trifecta of family style ordering, especially because I loved the spaghetti, Nick was partial to the oysters, and Earl loved the chicken!

That evening I’d love to tell you we went out and partied again, hitting all of AR’s recommended spots, but in all honesty the three of us were exhausted and just sat around the hotel, drank some beers telling stories and then passed out around midnight. We PLANNED to go out, just couldn’t muster up the energy to get out of the hotel!

Remember how I mentioned that I had something very special planned for Halloween? I knew we would be in New Orleans and decided to do it up in style.

I was a dragon, Linus a unicorn, Earl a knight (St. George), and our cat, Lucy was a wizard. (Lucy is currently in Brooklyn as she doesn’t do well on roadtrips. You can see her wizard outfit here:

We got lost coming into New Orleans and almost drove clear out of the city. We were lost for about an hour and there was lots of traffic- on a Friday afternoon of Halloween weekend, cars were full of people coming into the city. We finally found our hotel, The Lafayette, which I had booked well in advance. It was one of the only firmly “planned” stays on this roadtrip. I figured- wisely, it turned out- that the city would be crazy over Halloween and it would be good to book lodging before it all filled up. The Lafayette was wonderful- located across the street from Lafayette Park and a brief walk to the French Quarter, we just garaged the Jeep and spent the entire two days on foot exploring the city. The staff was extremely welcoming and a pleasure. They FAWNED over Linus and even had biscuits at the front desk! It was clear they were all dog-lovers.

I had unwittingly booked us the Penthouse Suite on when I booked our room on hotels.com, so when I checked in I was surprised to learn we had the best digs in the place. “Wow,” my jaw dropped when we were shown our two-room suite on the top floor. Over the past week on this trip went from a roach motel in Memphis to a tin roof shack to a historic mansion and now a penthouse suite! Talk about an upward trend! J

Taking a brief pause to snuggle in the fluffy terrycloth robes and bounce around on the gorgeous bed, we donned our costumes and got ready to hit the town. My friend from NYC, Arnoldo who has lived in New Orleans the past three years had recommended some places on Frenchman Street to see live music and enjoy the night.

Here were our costumes:

Linus as Unicorn:

He also had matching green “hooves” but they sort of came off when he walked. And since we were to be walking all over the city, we decided to leave them off:

Earl as St. George the knight:

Me in my dragon costume:

The energy of the city on Halloween night was palpable. The streets were filled with party-goers who had gone ALL OUT on costumes. I thought we looked good in our homemade getups, well everyone else looked straight off a movie set. Professionally done, and I am not talking about costumes you can get off the shelves in a mall or at Rickys.

Here were just a few of the stunning getups we saw:

Some more incredibly elaborate outfits. The lovely girl was a peacock. She even had a mechanical peacock tail that opened and closed.

Ni! Ni!!

I have 148 photos from Halloween alone, so I am going to try and restrain myself to just a few!
We caught one of several parades going down Decatur Street. The crowd was enthusiastic and fun-loving but nowhere near the disgusting mob I’ve heard it becomes for Mardi Gras. I almost think Halloween in NO could be more fun than mardi-gras, because it is more locals and people who are there for the carnival/whimsical/dressing up aspect of it, than just… let’s get wasted and hook up spring break vibe I’d imagine there is over Mardi Gras. Just a thought.

We stayed towards the back of the crowd during the parade, by some firefighters, because we didn’t want Linus to get stepped on by anyone jumping to catch beads. Still, I managed to get a shot of some cool floats during the parades:

These “zombies” had one of the most awesome choreographed “thriller” inspired dances I’ve seen. I was not able to capture them at a good moment I more was rather in awe of them strut around and dancing than worrying about getting a good shot!

“Beads!! Beads!!” Even from where we were, in the back, people from the floats hucked beads that reached us.

The energy and music from all of the floats was catchy.

You couldn’t help but dancing to the music as they went by.

Linus was also a hit. People came from everywhere to pet him.

He was like a movie star. We couldn’t walk 4 feet without “PUPPY!!!!!!!!!” and people mobbing us to pet him.

He had lots of pictures taken and almost seemed like he would “pose” for everyone. It was hilarious and endearing. Everyone was very sweet and I only got nervous once when he was surrounded by a pack of like 12 kids at once who were all grabbing at his face and ears to pet him.

This woman was from Philly.

She told me “Let me show you the best part of my costume!” before she posed like this:

Did you know you can drink in the streets of New Orleans? While we walked around we carried cans of beer, it was great!

I thought we were savy for bringing our “unicorn” with us, well this guy was walking around with a live African Parrot on his shoulder! We tried to ask him about the bird, but he wouldn’t come out of “character” to actually talk to us.. haha… maybe he really was a real pirate.

From around here on out the night sort of was a blur. We had lots of fun getting lost in the French Quarter and hopping in and out of bars. People’s costumes were stunning and elaborate. I do remember finding our way back to the hotel, crawling into my fuzzy terrycloth robe without even taking off my makeup or glitter, and passing out. Earl told me later he took an exhausted Linus out for one last walk around the block and Linus didn’t even want to walk just around the block! Ha.

As I mentioned earlier, we were feeling a bit worn out when we pulled into Vicksburg to stop for gas. Lo and behold, right across the street was the National Civil War Museum and 1,800 acre Battle of Vicksburg Grounds.

The grounds looked beautiful and on a whim we decided to poke around. It was around 5:00pm, and the park closed at 5:00, so we weren’t able to do the 18-mile self guided tour of the battlefields, but we were able to overlook some of the forts and see artillery layouts and replicas of the battle. I’m not much of a Civil War buff and neither is Earl, but we both agreed that it was fascinating.

Vicksburg’s nickname is “The Gibraltar of the South” because it withstood heavy Union artillery attacks from 35,000 men and a siege by Grant for 47 days when they were completely surrounded. Grant tried many methods to capture the city- digging trenches, gunpowder explosions, even building a canal to re-route the Mississippi River- yet the city on the hill would not fall. Only after 47 days of attack did the Confederates finally surrender, not because Vicksburg was breeched, but because supply lines were cut and the citizens were starving.

Here is an example of the Confederate Walls which ran for 6.5 miles around the city and were impregnable to Grant’s oncoming attack from below:

And some of the Cannons:

After we poked around the Battlegrounds we drove through historic downtown Vicksburg. It was hilly, on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, and BEAUTIFUL! Placards were placed on wrought iron fences outside of lovely homes, detailing their origins and architectural details. We noticed several of the mansions also served as Bed and Breakfasts. Feeling hot, sweaty and exhausted from a frustrating day, we decided on a lark to call a few of mansions. “Do you allow pets?” I asked with trepidation as I spoke to the proprietress of The Corners, an 1872 mansion. “Well, that depends, what kind of pet are you talking about?” she responded in a slow southern drawl. “He’s a very well-behaved 25lb welsh corgi” I replied as hope shot through my heart. It wasn’t so much I was desperate to sleep in a mansion, but after Red Roofing it and also feeling disgusting, some luxury and also a nice breakfast in the morning would be a nice change of pace. “Well, ah suppose that’s alright,” she stated, “Ah have a Jack Russell mahself and I love dogs. Does he sleep in a kennel?” “YES!!!!” And let me tell you, if Linus didn’t have a kennel right then to sleep in, we would have been booking it to Petco just to get one on the spot.

The Corners it was. And what a gorgeous place to spend an evening. “We have the best views in Vicksburg,” we were informed with pride. From the porch, high on the bluffs of Klein Street, you can feast your eyes on both the Mississippi and the Yazoo Rivers as they churn by. She showed us to our room which was incredible and gave a few recommendations to dine. “Now, Rusty’s is great local seafood, and lots of it” was the description as she pointed it out on a local map. Sold.

I know it sounds like our food just keeps getting better and better, but Rustys was awesome and exactly what we were craving. We started with spicy fried pickles as an appetizer and Earl had the Cajun spiced shrimp and I had seafood pasta. A couple of Blue Moons each and the stress of our tumultuous day faded. Then we split a piece of the homemade Reeses Pie, on the recommendation of our waitress. HOT DAMN!!! That Reeses Pie was the best darn pie I’ve EVER HAD. I can’t even think of how to describe it, other than mouth-watering. If I had no restraint, I would have ordered the entire pie and taken it on the rest of the trip, doling it out on my fingers and scarfing it down during the car ride! Actually, now that I think about it, that doesn’t sound too bad J Maybe they can mail-order me one sometime. It was chocolatey and peanut buttery and sweet with this golden buttery crust and dare I say it, it almost tasted as though there was an essence of banana in there somewhere (I know that sounds odd). We did ask for the recipie and our waitress said suggested we take it up with Rusty himself during a weekday afternoon. Well Mr. Rusty can be expecting my call. J

So happy this slice filled my pie void from earlier in the day:

The following morning I woke up surprisingly early feeling fantastic and with a song in my heart. I took Linus for a brisk jog around some of the surrounding mansion grounds (Cedar Grove, Anchuca, Balfour House, and Duff Green to name a few), then enjoyed a long, hot shower. At 8:30am Earl and I joined the rest of the bed and breakfast guests in the formal dining room for a lovely breakfast. Over fresh fruit, eggs benedict and locally-made sausage we chit-chatted with the other guests. Then we all were treated to a tour of the mansion and grounds.

You can read a bit about the history of The Corners here. Please excuse the poor quality of photos, as I was asked not to use a flash inside of the home.  My favorite was the master bedroom, shown here:

Also it was interesting to learn the plaster castings for the fixtures for the chandeliers and molding in the parlor, shown below, was made of a mixture of horse hair, marble dust, and molasses. What an odd combo to make such lovely, ornate detailing!

Earl and Linus enjoy “the Best View in Vicksburg” from the porch of The Corners:

Linus meets the owner’s Jack Russel:

Departing Vicksburg, I felt like a new woman. Everything about our evening there was completely rejuvenating and exactly what we needed. I would love to return to Vicksburg and The Corners for a longer stay and more time to explore the battlefields, Civil War Museum and Courthouse Museum. The Courthouse Museum sounds particularly interesting with lots of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee paraphernalia.

We departed, heading south with plans to drive through historic Port Gibson, MS and also Natchez, MS on our way to New Orleans.

View of the Mississippi on the way out of Vicksburg:

Port Gibson, about 20 minutes south of Vicksburg, was also lovely, and again I would have liked to have more time here to explore. The main street, Church Street, was lined with gorgeous antebellum mansions dating to the early 1800s. Apparently Sherman declared Port Gibson “too beautiful to burn” as he marched through the south destroying cities. Thus, Port Gibson and it’s quiet tree-lined streets were spared.

A few Port Gibson antebellum homes:

This one is Oak Square:

We stopped in to see Jefferson Military College, which was stunning:

Natchez sounded very interesting when I read about it in my research. At one point due to cotton and industry trade on the Mississippi, it had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the United States. It also had a very bad section of town wrought with gambling, prostitution and liquor. Sounds like my kind of place!

Riverboats in Natchez:

Then it was to New Orleans for our 2008 Halloween Spectacular!

In our original plan,  we planned for Vicksburg to be a “drive through” city- we weren’t going to stop for anything other than gas.  Yet somehow the charm of the city- even from it’s far reaches on the outskirts, pulled us in to the Civil War battlefields and gorgeous architecture.  It was such a happy surprise! Particularly after we had endured the longest, oddest, hottest day of our trip.

We wearily arrived in Vicksburg around 5pm after traveling from Clarkesdale, Mississippi to Greenwoods and Greenville MS.  Greenwood and Greenville were rather confusing to us because they are basically along the same latitude and sound similar. We kept getting them mixed up.  “Wait, where are we going?” “Greenwood” “No, GreenVILLE!” etc.  Basically in Greenwood we wanted to hit up this chowhound joint which is supposed to have the best darn pies in the south (I heard something about sky high light and airy merangue and I was sold!).

The Crystal Grill in Greenwood, to be honest, was a disappointment.  The pies were good- not spectacular-  certainly not worth re-routing a trip for, and the service was so lackluster that it tarnished the experience.  We were subjected to this extremely bitchy, couldn’t-care-less waitress.  The whole time it seemed like she was more eager to be smoking ciggs out back than undergoing such an enormous hassle to serve us.  Where was our southern hospitality, woman?!!

On the way from Greenwood to Greenville we detoured in Itta Bena, MS and attempted to find the marker for BB King’s birthplace.  Unlike our lucky happenstance with the Muddy Water’s birthplace, this time, despite having google map directions in hand, we had no luck.  While we searched we found ourselves repeatedly stared down by these groups of older gentleman hanging out on their porches with a bunches kids sitting around, on a Thursday around 1:00 pm. You have to wonder why aren’t all these guys at work? And, more importantly, why aren’t all these kids in school?!?  I decided it wasn’t the best idea to stop and ask anyone directions.  Maybe we just saw the bad parts of town, but Itta Bena was a bit of a dump.  I could see why living there could give someone the blues. We left Itta Bena unsuccessful and a bit relieved to be getting out of there in one piece.

Pulling into Greenville we drove through miles and miles of endless strip mall hell.  “PAYCHECK ADVANCE LOANS!!!!” screamed out at us as apparently the current craze.  We counted 11 of these types of establishments over a 5 mile stretch on just one road.  Sometimes they were paired as a Loan/Liquor Store, Paycheck Loan/Car Title Loan, Paycheck Loan/Laundromat combo.  Very odd.  Why does this place need so many of these sketchy stores?! Things like “Paycheck Advance Loans” shouldn’t be allowed to exist, they seem to border on being exploitative.

We did do one cool thing in Greenville, other than fill our paycheck advance loan needs, of course.  We went and hiked around and toured the Winterville Mounds.  What are Winterville Mounds, you ask?  Well, I believe Earl summarized them best when we pulled into the parking lot.  “We have been driving around Mississippi for the past 3 hours to eat bad pie from a mean waitress, get lost in the ghetto, and finally come look at a large pile of dirt.”

I present you with said pile of dirt:

The mound museum was empty and we were greeted with free admission and a friendly *avid* historian who seemed thrilled for some company. She practically leapt out of her seat, greeted us at the door, and before we even had time to visit the restroom was escorting us on an extensive, whirlwind personal tour of the museum’s entire collection. It was very endearing how excited this woman was over archeology, yet her enthusiasm for Native American pottery failed to rub off on me.  I found the mound museum a trifle yawn-inducing. Apparently they have been digging in the mounds and finding so many artifacts they decided to TAKE THIS ENTIRE YEAR OFF from excavation simply because they were so overwhelmed with all of the finds.  Rather, they elected to use the entire year to identify all of the pottery.  Talk about fast-paced historical thrills!

And, kidding aside, the mounds were cool, in theory. In reality it was stifling hot and we basically walked around sweating profusely while gaping at big piles of dirt. Big old piles of dirt. *Historic* piles of dirt. One interesting fact was the Indians who built the mounds did not have access to horses (they were constructed before the Spaniards sailed up the Mississippi and introduced horses to the area), yet there were non-regional layers of dirt in all of the mounds. So these native people carried the dirt, bucketload by bucketload, on their persons for over 30 miles. And that was enough dirt to build over 15 mounds of 30 feet and higher each. Shesh. So these mounds were WORTH IT to somebody to go through all that trouble!

You can’t tell from this photo, but it was FREAKING HOT in this picture:

Climbing to the top of the mound

The view was pretty nice from the top

Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on the mounds. The woman who gave us the tour was EXTREMELY nice. She was clearly passionate, enthusiastic, and deeply knowledgeable about the mounds. She advocated we take a vacation on the “Mound Tour” which several states are putting together. Maybe we were just too tired and too grouchy from a long day to appreciate them. I am teasing Earl that I want to go on the Mound Tour for our honeymoon if we get married. He retorts with “the only mound tour I’ll ever be doing is a tour of your mounds.” Clearly, jejune adults such as ourselves fail to appreciate the beauty and culture of archeology!

Hello from New Orleans!

Please pardon a brief hush in posts while we recover from a crazy few days down here of Halloween and partying.

We’ll be back with you soon with lots and lots of lovely photos!
Ceej, Earl and Linus