Friday, March 31-Sunday, April 2

Today was a drive from Natchez, Texas, to Abbeville, Louisiana.  We passed through some beautiful bayou country and saw a lot of birds.

This is a rice paddy. If you look closely, you’ll see some pots bobbing in the water. Those are crawfish being raised in the rice.  They eat the leftovers from the harvest.

Egrets flock to these paddys; they are feeding on something; I’m not sure what.  All in all, a pretty sweet piece of permaculture.

Palmetto State Park, in south western Louisiana, is a very popular park located on the San Marcos River.  It has great facilities (i.e. hot showers and a laundry), so we decided to spend two nights here and take a day to re-group before heading to Texas. The park was full (again, we were the only tent), and most everyone had a huge RV and a giant truck.  Most of the RVs were strung with brilliantly bright LED lights left on all night, and a popular pass time seemed to be cruising through the park in one’s truck, sometimes dragging chains(?).  We met a lot of nice people, though, and managed to enjoy ourselves and eat some good food.

We collected some local seafood on the way and cooked it up on our trusty camp stove.  I made a stir fry with crawfish, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, and some bok choy. When I reported this to the woman camped across from us, she looked at me like I was crazy and later brought us some boiled crawfish, which is obviously the way you’re supposed to eat them.  Andy and I liked it both ways.  The fried catfish was pretty good, too.  We got a chance to use our hammock (thanks, Bill Northington!), and it was very relaxing swinging in the palmettos.  Next stop, Texas!!