June 18-19, 2010

June 18-19, 2010

Texas is a pain in the #$%&! You gotta love Texans but their state, ugh! After two and a half days of driving we are still in the state. Anybody who thinks we are running out of land hasn’t been to Texas. They have enough for everybody and then some. We drove so much here we wore out one of our tires and had to make a pit stop for repairs in Longview, TX.

Because of the delay we decided to stop for the evening in Natchitoches, LA. (Kudos to anybody who knows the correct way to pronounce the name of this town!) It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Natchitoches has a beautiful little downtown. The main street runs along the picturesque Cane River and is lined with antebellum buildings adorned with “French Quarter-esque” wrought iron porches. For color, everywhere you look are gorgeous flowering trees.


We started at one end with a tour of the reconstructed Fort St. Jean Baptiste. In the early 1700’s this area was the frontier between French Louisiana and the northeastern edge of New Spain (the future Mexico). Our personal tour guide gave us the lowdown on the difference between the Creoles and Cajuns. Cajuns were the French exiles from Canada (Acadia), while the Creoles were the offspring of the original French settlers who inter-married with black slaves and the local Indians. To really discern the subtle differences ourselves we window shopped till we came upon a restaurant featuring Cajun and Creole dishes. Mmmm! Vive la difference!