Back in MN -- trip over

After a lot of fog through Iowa, causing us to stay at Clear Lake overnight, we made it home on March 10th. Lots of fog in MN and lots of snow left here too--mostly white yet with a foot or more. It is supposed to be rainy and wet through the weekend. We head to WI to open the cabin on Friday and tap maples on the weekend if the weather is OK. In NW WI there is supposed to be less snow.

Probably should have stayed south another few days and let the snow disappear! It was a nice trip and my goal of walking on my formerly broken leg is mostly accomplished.

Headed home Monday. Got to Branson and stayed overnight. About 550 miles to get to Pine Island today.

Margo spent part of the week earning some money collecting Spanish Moss from the alligator infested bayous and hanging it at Chicot Park to improve the scenery for tourists!

Staying with full hookups in Louisiana State Parks was $8 per night with our Senior Pass (Federal card). Very good deal!

Winding down

We are at Lake Clairborne State Park in Northern LA. Very nice last two days -- mids 60s and sunny. We probably will stay until Monday and then head back to MN. The temperatures at the maple sugarbush in WI are hitting 40s and 50s and getting me ready to get up there and tap in case the season is early this year. Margo would like to stay longer, but having made syrup for so many years, I know that the whole season can be done by the end of March some years.

Probably drive to Branson on Monday and then on home on Tuesday and to WI on Wednesday if all goes well.

We have been gone since Feb 19th so will be about 3 weeks when we get back.

Day 14: Margo's Anniversary and a Cajun Singer

Ron Keddy sings a Cajun song

March 4: Day 14 Margo's 38th Anniversary

To celebrate 38 years of being married, we went into town and had a Cajun special lunch at Cafe La Salle. It included shrimp gumbo and rice as the appetizer, crawfish, oysters, little shrimp, big shrimp, catfish, shrimp etouffe, rice, fries, onion rings and garlic bread. After the appetizer, we were both pretty full, but as it was our anniversary and the restaurant owner wanted us to have the best; we ate our way through everything! It was delicious. We managed to crawl out to our car and go back to the camper and take a nap.

Our new campers across the lane came in last night. Ron and Ceil Keddy from about 40 miles away. He is a Cajun--didn't speak English until he learned it in school. He invited us over in the later afternoon to sing a anniversary Cajun song. He sang a few more too. The video above is one that most of you have heard before.

Very sunny nice day. We are headed out tomorrow for a park along the northern border of LA for another week before heading home. Brother Everett tapped a couple of maples and said they dripped a little. Son Scott says the snow is melting in Pine Island!

Nice day here! Still full. The Cajuns are really nice people!

March 3,4 Gambling and Tabasco

Gulf of Mexico fishing boat

Tabasco bottling at Avery Island LA

Resurrection fern growing on a Live Oak Tree

March 2,3: Gambling and Music

We took two long day drives; one north to Alexandria and the other south to the coast on Tuesday and Wednesday. To the north we found nothing too much but woods. We did stop at one of the many local “casinos,” the name given to small extensions to gas stations where there are video gambling machines. We tried video poker, but the games were totally rigged in favor of the casino. You couldn’t win at poker without 3 of a kind (not even 2 pair), and then only get your money back. We used the 5 cent machines so spent only $6 to get an hour of entertainment and second hand smoke!

Wednesday we went south and stopped at the Cajun music hall of fame. All the musicians who had been chosen and pictures and biographies on the wall. Lots of old fiddles, accordions and a very nice woman tour guide told us about the history of Cajun music (the music from the white French settlers) versus Creole (Black) music and Zydeco, a more modern version of Creole.

We also went to Avery Island, a salt dome hill in the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Genuine Tabasco pepper sauce is made there in the Tabasco factory since 1868. They grow peppers on the island, mine salt there and have a huge factory to make the stuff. The whole area smelled pleasantly of Tabasco!

Lots of oil wells along the coast. Some of the running and others not. Most of the activity is in the Gulf with oil drilling platforms in the ocean.

March 4^th: Our 38^th Anniversary! We plan to try Crawfish for lunch!

Day 11: Raining and Reading

Monday Day 11:

photo of 1995 Buick Roadmaster and popup trailer taken in southern MO day 2, no snow!

It rained and rained all day and into the night. We took a long drive north to Alexandria and around mostly through pine and hardwood swamp/forests. Came back to the camper in the afternoon, turned on the heater and we read while the rain pounded on the canvas roof. Very relaxing!

We see lots of robins here, especially after the rains. The rice and crawfish fields have lots of white egrets and ducks. Many of the same birds you see in the spring in WI/MN are here now. The cardinals are singing each morning and are thick too.

The campers who moved in for the weekend all left and we are again on our own in the park. I think we will move on tomorrow too--find another place to explore. Maybe down to the ocean--about 60 miles south.

Class of 1965

St. Croix Falls

Saints

It’s time for our 45th class reunion! Activities are being

planned to coincide with Wannigan Days.

Date, Location & Time: Saturday,

July 17^th, 2010, at the Dresser Pizzeria (Hwy 35), social hour beginning at 5:00 pm, dinner to follow.

Cost per person: $20.00 buffet dinner ( non alcoholic beverages and dessert included). Beer and wine

can be purchased separately.

A casual get-together is also planned for Friday, July 17^th, at Indian Creek Orchard Winery & Grill (next to Tangens) at 6:00 pm. Alumni can order off the menu or just have a drink and then attend Wannigan
Days activities.

Tee times will be available for golf at St. Croix Valley Golf Course on Saturday morning, July 16^th, starting at l0:00 am for those interested.

Please complete the following (even if you cannot attend) and return it to us by April 17^th, 2010 . Enclose check payable to: Class of ‘65 Reunion Committee, Gordy Peterson, 2004 110th Ave, Dresser, Wi 54009.

Also, let us know if you can come Friday night (yes___no___) and Saturday or golf (yes___no___). Write on back if extra space is needed. We really want to hear from you!

Name, Address, E-mail address, Phone Number:

Spouse, Children, Grandchildren:

Most Unforgettable Moment at SCF HS:

Tell Us About Yourself:

Invite anyone you see from other classes to come and reminisce with us. They can join us for any part of the reunion and if they would like to come on Saturday night, just have them send reservation and $20.00 per person to Gordy.

Any questions, call: Gary Harlander, 651-437-6363, njga1018@embargomail.com

Gordy Peterson, 715-755-2644, gordy-pat@centurytel.net

Jerry Pieper, 715-294-3836, jerem@ctnturytel.net

Donna Witasek, 715-557-0693, tdbwit@att.net

Day 10: Canadians and a Zydeco Band

Sunday –Day 10

Last night a couple parked across the road from us and set up their tent. The evening was nice with an almost full moon in the clear sky and temperatures still in the 50s after hitting 60 during the day.

After the neighbors were settled in, I strolled over and introduced myself. They were Martin and Donna from Nova Scotia, Canada. They invited us to sit down and visit.

“We are slowly coming back from having spent some of the winter in Mexico.” Of course, I had to know more so I ask them about it.

“We parked our van in McAllen Texas, and then took busses to travel around in Mexico. We had a travel guide, but stayed away from the normal tourist sites and the big cities. We like the smaller towns. We didn’t plan ahead to get a room—there were always rooms available at the hotels in town. Nice ones for low cost. “

“Weren’t you nervous about robbers?”

“No, it’s like in a big city—travel in the daytime and on the normal buses and you get along fine. The Mexican people are very nice and eager to help out. You don’t need to know Spanish to get along, although it is nice to be able to speak some. We pick a destination and take the bus and find a room and stay for as long as we like. There are a lot of Canadians, Americans and especially Europeans traveling around Mexico in he winter.”

We visited a little more before I asked, “so, how is the Canadian medical system for you?”

“Excellent!” We never have to pay for anything and we have always gotten treatment right away including for our parents when they got old. It does cost us from our Province sales tax. Each Province is required to provide health care for the people and has the choice of how to do it, but must cover a set of items. In Nova Scotia there is a 14% sales tax, 7% goes for our health care costs. We don’t pay for anything and are really pleased with the care we get, and our friends and relatives. When my mother fell and broke her arm, she was in the hospital for 6 weeks and scheduled to come home. When I told them that I couldn’t get things ready for another week, they kept her until I was ready. “

“There are some private pay options if you have money. You can pay to see a doctor on his private time and get some things that might be questionable to get done right away, so rich people don’t get too bothered—they can buy instant optional treatments. Any thing that is pressing, like my friend’s colon cancer is treated immediately—she had her diagnois on Wednesday her surgery on Monday and was back home by the end of the week—looks like she is cured, and she was 84 years old.”

Martin said “our son is in Boston working as a highway engineer (Martin was born in the USA and moved to Canada in the 1970s). He tells me about the problems getting health care in the US when he got layed off for a few months. He thought he would have to come back to Canada if he had any health problems or he would go broke.”

We made breakfast ourselves. Toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, but not grits. Excellent!

Decided to make a tourist day of it by going south to Lafayette and visiting the Cajun center and the nearby historic village.

At the Cajun center viewed two 15 minute movies. The first was on he Cajuns (Acadian) history from their move from France to Nova Scotia (Acadia) and the ongoing battles between British and French, their relocation south etc. The second was about the history of part of the bayou where floods made a local town disappear. Pretty good.

Then we went for a long walk between buildings on the reconstructed village next door. Lots of old buildings to look through and a live Zydeco band playing with people dancing. We are trying to distinguish between Zydeco, Creole and Cajun music and their histories. It appears that if the band is black and has a washboard instrument, it is Zydeco or Creole. If it is white and loaded with fiddles and accordians it is probably Cajun. Both have accordians as their main instrument. The music was very loud and lots of dancing--sort of waltzes and maybe 2-steps?

It got up to 70 degrees and felt almost uncomfortable! A few mosquitoes started finding their way in the camper.

Crawfish'n

We watched a farmer pickup his crawfish traps today. He says the cold weather has made the season slow with small mudbugs (crawdads, crayfish) this year. He had rice on the field last year, then switched to crawfish for a year and next year will rotate back to rice again. In a good day he gets five sacks full, today only 1 sack with small ones.

Day 9: Sunny Saturday

The rains lasted most of the night and early morning was 44 and cloudy. We drove west to Pine Prairie to the Pine Cove restaurant for an early breakfast. It is a cement block building shared with a video store. The inside had 20 tables and chairs and at the end a buffet type counter. No one was eating there. We went to the counter and I ordered scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, a biscuit and coffee. No biscuits today, so toast. Margo had a two egg ham and cheese omlet. One cook and one counter lady.

We poured our own coffee and sat down to wait. The walls were painted light green and were covered with wood shelves—the one to three shelf versions you might find at the Good will, all painted dark green and holding colorful mugs with food pictures on them and metal food tins and some miscellaneous jugs and jars. Overall, looked neat and clean.

The breakfast came on a plastic platter with silverware. The food was good; nothing special. Grits were good. Packets of jelly and butter. Sort of a mix of fast food and slow food. Price for both of us and coffee was about $9.00. OK.

We drove on toward Eunice to do some shopping. Along the way were many flooded fields with crawfish trap tops sticking up; often filled with ducks, egrets and cranes. At one, the harvesting boat was out in the water collecting shrimp. We stopped and turned on the video mode of the camera and visited with the crew.

We drove into town and bought a little food, some coat hangers, laundry supplies and a set of cheap speakers for the laptop (forgot to bring any along) and a $6 toaster. Then we took a long slow drive out through the countryside looking at the farming fields, homes and scenery. There are many nice houses; many shabby houses; clean roads and very dirty roads; smooth ones and pot-holed ones.

Did our monthly online banking and paid the bills. Several more campers moved into the park during the day and so a few bikers, hikers, fishermen etc were around the area.

Made a run into town to mail cards to Mom Hanson and Dad Wilkens. Stopped at the Sonic Drive-in for a fish sandwich for supper. Not too bad for fast food. Looks like an oldtime car drive-in, and you eat in the car. Temps got up to 60 today with the sun and felt very good.

Did some walking without the cane, but by later in the day, everything starts to ache. Back home for the evening to read and look on the internet. We had stopped at Floyd’s music store in Ville Platte and bought a CD with Cajun music from the 60s to listen to tonight. Pretty nice day!

Day 8 Good Breakfast and RAIN

Day 8: Raining

The forecast was for rain all day and it was right. It rained through the day and the night too, sometimes hard.

We drove seven miles to Ville Platte to try Café de la Salle for breakfast. The sign along the road said open M-F 8 am- 2pm lunch. We guessed that if they opened at 8, they would have something for breakfast.

We pulled in at 8:30. No cars in the parking lot. A dark brown neat and unassuming building. We stepped into the café and looked around. Cash register, buffet under glass table, and tables and chairs for about 60; mostly 4 per table with a few seating 6.

The walls were decorated with pictures, old signs and some antiques on a shelf. In one corner was a large Rotary banner behind a podium pushed against the wall and a few Rotary signs. A sixteen by eight foot wall painting of a Cajun paddling through a cypress swamp covered part of one wall. It was colorful and primitive.

Three plump middle aged ladies were sitting at one of the tables having breakfast. “Do you serve breakfast here?” I asked. “Yeah, just made a pan of biscuits and have a fresh pot of coffee on.” We sat at a wall table for four. Each table had a small wood boat (a bateaux) with salt, pepper, sauce, knapkins etc in the center. Each had a number and the French word for the number (we were at 4, quattre I think).

One of the ladies got up and brought us menus and a breakfast menu. Pretty standard choices. We picked scrambled eggs, bisquit, grits, and Margo bacon and me ham. “We come in and open up and first have a big breakfast,” said the waitress, “that’s why we are so fat. Where y’all from.” She spoke with the southern/Cajun accent. “Minnesota. Came down to see how to get a winning football team,” a line that has worked pretty good with everyone around being avid New Orleans Saints fans.

“We needed that win at the Superbowl after all the bad things with the hurricane. And such a good Christian man, Drew Breese, to take us to the win!” as she took our order.

The tables had a glass plate on top of a dark table cloth. Under the glass were menus and religious mottos. She soon brought us our coffee in blue green mugs that said “First Baptist Church of Ville Platte” on them. The coffee was good, although the creamer was powdered.

Soon our meal arrived. A large white dinner plate with real silverware. On it was a huge, 4x4 irregularly shaped biscuit and our eggs and meat. Margo had two round crisp bacon pieces. I had a round slice of ham (thin sandwich style). A bowl of fresh grits and two small dishes, one with butter and one with grape jelly. The whole meal had the pleasant flavor of butter. The grits were good. The biscuit excellent; bottom crispy and butter soaked. The eggs scrambled in butter. I have been looking for a real southern breakfast with a fried ham slice with a bone in the center, so was disappointed, but the slice did taste good. It was the best breakfast we have had so far—and very filling. It cost $11.50 for the two of us with coffee. We recommend it! The only problem is it is not open on the weekends and only has breakfast and lunch. We plan to try lunch where the specialty is all kinds of local seafood including shrimp and crawdads running $5 to $11.

We went for a long drive in the rain out through the country and saw many white birds, egrets possibly, and hundreds of ducks in the bayous. In the early afternoon we returned to the camper in the heavy rain and read, did some email and napped. The campsites are still mostly empty with only one neighbor pulling in for the weekend.

One thing that puzzles us are the empty businesses in the towns around the area. Some downtowns seem to be half closed/boarded up. Even gas stations and businesses around the towns are closed in large numbers. The buildings seem to be kept up, so it appears the closings are in the last few years. We wonder if it is all from the recent recession or of longer standing.