What a way to spend Father’s
Day!! Cal was on the road by 6:36
am. I slept in and finally caught up
with him around 8:45/9:00. We looked for
a place for breakfast. I am not sure
where these people eat out – Burger King or McDonald’s! Other than that, Mama must cook! There are simply not restaurants along the
way – So McDonald’s was the selection for breakfast in the town of Mathews at
9:15 this morning. By then Cal had
ridden more than he had ridden in total yesterday. It was beginning to get warm, but we decide I
should drive ahead and get a motel in Thibodaux, so that Cal can stop riding by
noon. I found a nice Hampton Inn but the
rooms were not ready from a full occupancy weekend.
They promised me one by 11:30. I
went back on the route to meet Cal. He
was so glad to stop as he was getting hot.
However he did ride 44 miles today.
Double of what he rode yesterday!
Today, even though we are still
along a main Bayou canal, we are seeing more and more farmable land. We are seeing lots and lots of sugar cane.
The sugar cane is in all stages of growth, and some fields are fallow. We understand sugar cane is a 14 month
crop. We also saw some soybeans, and
grass land for horses and cattle.
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| Draw Bridge over the Canal |
For anyone who has not visited Louisiana,
I took several photos of a cemetery I passed by. Cemeteries in Louisiana are
unique in that everything is above ground, and often of beautiful white
marble.
After a wonderful shower and nap Cal
was ready to get out and do some exploring in the area. While he was refreshing I did a load of
smelly, smelly laundry here at the hotel.
By 2:00 we left the hotel and drove north to the Mississippi River and
the town of Vacherie. Our destination
was the St Joseph Plantation. Years ago
on a vacation with our children we visited the beautiful Oak Alley Plantation. St Joseph Plantation is adjoining Oak
Alley. It is more primitive, but it is unique
in that it is owned by the same family since the 1870’s. The family heirs are very active, to the point
they are tour guides. It was interesting
how they could tell stories about G’ma, Great Grandma, and Great, Great, Great
Grandma.
As
you look out from the front of the house you see the Mississippi River levee. Before
the levee was built in the 1930’s, all the ‘big’ plantation homes built along
the river were built on stilts. Each
spring when the river flooded, the water just simply flowed under the house. Also this open lower level is where the carriage
drove through to pick up and unload guests and property (out of the weather). Only after the levees were built did families
finish the lower levels of the ‘big’ house into living space. Every Plantation needed river front property as
that was the only method of transportation for incoming goods and outgoing raw
materials, plus people. Plantation
property is narrow and deep (away from the Mississippi River) – some properties
are as deep as 7 miles from the River.
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| View From Street |
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| View from Back Of House - Main Entrance |
This family still has a working sugar plantation and they
lease their river front property (on the river side of the levee) to a barge
company for them to tie up their barges, and they also own a river edge sand
pit. We are so glad we chose to visit St Joseph. They have preserved many of the slave houses,
the kitchen, the plantation store (used after the Civil War, bought from Sears),
and the school house, but the original sugar mill is gone.
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| Entrance Hall |
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| Childs Room |
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| Main Dinning Room |
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| Front Porch |
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| Window Shutters - Closed Every Night |
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| Detached Kitchen |
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| Plantation School |
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| Slave House |
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| Nearby Sister Plantation House - Felicity Plantation |
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| Nearby - Oak Ally Plantation |
After a great Mexican meal, we are back at the hotel for the
night. Cal hopes to leave again in the
morning by 6:30. He hopes to get to
Donaldsonville by noon tomorrow.
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