Cruisin' with the Cajuns

Our summer adventure started with a drive to Louisiana and a stay at Brenda and John’s house in Napoleonville before the Cajun Rally. We parked in their son Jeff’s driveway (conveniently next door to John and Brenda). They pulled out all the stops for our visit. We drove down to Cocodre on the bayou to pick up coolers of huge, fresh shrimp. They invited some of their friends over for dinner and we had mudslides and daiquiris and huge platters of shrimp.

The next day, we all headed out to the rally in Patterson. Brenda and I made it in time for the Red Hats Club luncheon at the casino. After lunch, we took our $10 gift certificate and played the “Wheel of Fortune” slots until we spent it all. The rally was great, as always. I made it to Mass on Saturday afternoon. John gave it a good try- we walked out of the coach and low and behold, there were a few of the non-church-going guys drinking a few beers. It didn't take much to convince John that brewskies were more attractive than an hour listening to the local priest.

All of the coaches left on Sunday and we were the only one left in this huge civic center/campground. Since we never get to explore the area when we're at the rallies, we decided to take a drive around the area. We found this great little bar called "Chilly Willy's". The bartenders' name was Hatchet (a woman!) and they had a great swamp pop song on the juke box. It was called "That Butt Thing"....."Don't like fishin, Don't like swimmin, I just like chasing those big butt women....".

We had a few days before we were due at Charlie’s place so we went to a campsite recommended by Brenda. It was brand new and perfect- concrete pads and no trees. We were invited to a cook-out on Memorial Day at Brenda and John’s and got some suggestions for places to see. We spent some time exploring the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We drove through places like Mandeville and Madisonville, on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, to Abita Spring and Covington. We had lunch in Madisonville at Friends Restaurant.

We visited Ponchatula and then had dinner with Brenda and John and Audrey and Bobby. Audrey has her art exhibited at a local Baton Rouge French café, so we had an interesting evening with a real local artist.