I had planned on going to Rebel State Historic Site next, but it wasn’t open yet so I drove back to Natchitoches to see Fort St. Jean Baptiste. I watched a video about the site first. The video was made in house by volunteers, and the park ranger was very proud of it. The video was actually pretty good. It told how the fort started out as a fort for the French. It is from here that they fought against the Spanish whose fort, Los Adaes, was close by.
I then drove to Rebel State Historic Site only to find out that you have to make a reservation 2 weeks in advance in order to see the site. I guess Louisiana is having a funding issue so they aren’t keeping their historical sites open every day to the public, which is sad because visitors don’t get the chance to enjoy them unless they know where they will be when. Since this site was closed, I drove to Mansfield State Historic Site. Luckily, this site was open so I was able to walk around. This was the site of a key battle in the Civil War. After the Union took Shreveport, they continued down south to take all of Louisiana and then go into Texas. However, the Confederate forces met them at this site, and despite being outnumbered the Confederate won the battle. This halted the union forces from taking Louisiana and extended the Civil War.
My original plan was to drive on to Shreveport to see the Waterworks Museum and the Railroad Museum tomorrow, but I was ahead of schedule. I was supposed to see Mansfield first thing tomorrow and then drive on to Shreveport, but I was able to fit Mansfield into today. The museums didn’t open until noon tomorrow, so my choices were to drive to Dallas or get a hotel in Shreveport and then hang around until noon, see the museums, and then drive to Dallas. I didn’t want to wait around, and I figured that Shreveport isn’t that far away from Dallas. I will probably have a chance to see it again. So I decided to go ahead and drive home. It was a long drive, but I made it safely home just as it was getting dark.
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Since my tours were cancelled yesterday, I finished the day ahead of schedule. So I had to redo my schedule last night. The Arcadian Cultural Center didn’t open until 9am, so instead of continuing north with different stops on the way, I went first to Sterling Grove National Historic District. However, I don’t know if I had the right place. I saw a lot of houses, but there really wasn’t anywhere for me to park to take pictures. The houses were all in the traditional Arcadian style, so I think I was in the right place. I drove around for a while, and then headed north to Le Vieux Village de Poste des Opelousas.
The village was small, so it didn’t take long to go through. Which was good, because it was a 30 minute drive back to Lafayette to see the Arcadian Cultural Center. The Center was the whole reason I decided to come to Louisiana, because I wanted to get the stamp for my book of National Parks and Monuments. I got to the Center early, so I go gas and then waited in the parking lot for about 10 minutes. What I didn’t count on the government shutdown that has been going on for the last month. One of the places that was shut down was the National Park Service. So the Cultural Center never opened and I waited around for nothing. Close to the Cultural Center is Vermillionville. Vermillionville is similar to the other village I went to this morning, but it is a living history village. So some of the houses had people in them that would tell you about the house or the time. I usually try to avoid these places because I feel awkward just walking into places, taking a few pictures, and then leave.
I had finished what I wanted to see in Lafayette, so I drove about 1.25 hours to Alexandria, passing Opelousas on the way. I was in Opelousas this morning to see the village. When I got to Alexandria I drove straight to the Kent Planation for a tour.
I got to the plantation in time for the last tour of the day. While I was paying for the tour, paid for some candy bars because I was starving since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. But it paid off, since I made it here in time for the last tour of the day. It was surprisingly crowded at the plantation. There were at least 30 people on my tour.
I got up early and went to breakfast at the hotel, and then left to explore Lafayette. Since I didn’t have the food tour to go to, I had extra time to see things. The first place I drove to was Sterling Grove National Historic District. I thought there would be something to see, but the district was a bunch of old homes. Which I guess makes sense, but there wasn’t really a place to park and take pictures. So I drove around in circles and then left to go to my next place. While I was driving around, I got a phone call from the place I booked my Swamp Tour through, letting me know the tour had been canceled due to tornado warnings and the rain. I understand why they canceled it, but it still sucked because I was really looking forward to that tour. Since both of the tours I had planned on doing were cancelled, I had a lot of free time in my schedule.
I didn’t know anything about the Acadians, I just saw the site as a place to visit on my trip so I learned a lot in the museum and by watching the movie. The Acadians were colonists from France that settled in Canada around Quebec and Nova Scotia. The British colonists suspected they helped the French in the French and Indian War and forced them to leave their homes. Many of them settled in St. Martinville, which was then a Spanish colony. But before it was a Spanish colony, the land was settled by the France and it still maintained French culture when the Acadians arrived. The Acadians were granted land to settle and farm in the area, and they sent letters to their relatives to come to “New Acadia.” The word “Acadians” was shorted to “Cadians” and then “Cajuns” but the English settlers, and a new culture was born. It was in St. Martinville that the Cajuns mixed with the Creole, who were the descendants of the French settlers that first came to the area. The movie then talked about the site. The land was originally a cattle ranch, but was converted into a sugar plantation when Charles DuClozel Olivier inherited. He was the one that built the house on the grounds. After his death, his widow moved into their house in the city and sold the land and the house. The house fell into disrepair until it was eventually bought by the state of Louisiana and became the first Louisiana State Park.
The Olivier family had a house in the city, and this house was only used during the planting season when the family came to oversee their slaves, so it wasn’t as big as their other house. On both sides of the house was a balcony where the owners would have been able to look over the buildings and their land. You could also see the trees with the Spanish Moss on them. They are called that because the moss looks like the beards Spaniards would grow.
After looking around the house, we went to look at the other buildings on the property. One of the buildings was the kitchen. This allowed food to be made and the walked over to the main house, but protected the main house from fire and all the smoke that was in the kitchen. There was also the guest room, for when the family had a guest visiting. My guide told me how it was considered rude to ask someone to leave, so lots of time people overstayed their welcome. The story was that when a guest came to visit, the lady of the house would give them a pineapple to enjoy. And if they had stayed too long, the lady would instruction the slaves to put 2 pineapples on the guest’s bed, one for here and one for the road. This told the guest that they had overstayed and it was time to leave without actually telling them this.
When the tour ended, it was pouring outside. Luckily, the tour guide had grabbed some umbrellas so we were covered on the way back to the visitor center. However, I didn’t have one for the walk to my car. I made a run for it, but I still got drenched.
I don’t have to be back at work until January 2nd, so I decided to take a roadtrip. Since I was in San Antonio for Christmas, I decided to take the long way back to Dallas and drive through Louisiana. It also helped that Joe had relatives visiting because it gave me an excuse to leave early instead of linger. So yesterday and today I finalized the places I wanted to visit and booked the tours. Then I got ready and packed up my care for the long drive to Lafayette.
It took over 6 hours to drive to Lafayette, which is more than my usual drive home. It also didn’t help that it started pouring on my drive, so I had to concentrate on the road. But I did eventually make it to Louisiana. Before I went to my hotel for the night, I stopped at a nice restaurant and had some fish with Cajun seasoning. It was really good! Then I went to the hotel. When I got to the hotel, I checked my email and found out that the Cajun Food Tour I had booked was cancelled because I was the only one that signed up for it. So I had to redo my itinerary because I no longer had a tour tomorrow at 10am. |
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |