The Louisiana Outback Trail, April 28-29

Today (Thursday 4/28) was an eventful day for us.  After spending nearly two months in Texas (most of it in the heart of Texas)we crossed over into Louisiana. I can't believe we were in Texas that long!  We decided to follow the Louisiana Outback Trail (LOT), an All American Highway, most of the way, AKA as Highway 82. towards our Friday destination of Broussard, LA.

 We crossed several very unique bridges before hitting the LOT.

The bridges offered spectacular view of the waterways

 and more oil storage tanks

 There was work being done on this bridge

Finally we crossed into Louisiana

 We caught Highway 82 at Port Arthur, Texas,  and then followed it along the Gulf to Abbeville, LA.  The highway is a narrow two lane road with out shoulders most of the way but with very little traffic.  This was all new territory for both Joel and I.  There were lots of rice paddies and crawfish farms and bayous along the way and much to my surprise, grazing cattle.  I didn't realize there was ranching in these parts.

Near Cameron we had to take a short ferry across the water way. I've never seen a ferry where the cars were parked sideways.

 We had to unhook the car and drive the motor home and car  separately onto the ferry as there was a 50' limit.

 The car was loaded on first and the motor home loaded on last, which meant it was the first off.

 We had planned to breakup the 250 miles drive somewhere in between but never found the right spot.  The scenery was mesmerizing and far different from Texas and the mileage and day went by fast.

 Part of the inter coastal waterway which we crossed several times.

These are rice paddies which also grow crawfish.  The craw fish grow naturally and the farmers put out baited traps to catch them.  I was looking forward to some good crawfish etouffee.

There were lots of bayous and mudflats along the way.

 We drove into  Abbeville, an old sugar cane town and found a quiet neighborhood street to park on for the night. Joel discovered that Abbeville is also the home of Betty's RV Park, known for outstanding hospitality and famous to many RVers.  The next morning we got on our bikes and headed out for Betty's and stopped in to check it out.  We talked with a couple from Florida who were heading for Amarillo, TX for the summer and confirmed the park was just as friendly as we had heard. I can't imagine anyone spending the summer in Amarillo which gets just as hot as Florida.  Betty herself later appeared and we chatted with her for awhile before continuing on our ride, but not before making a metal note this would be a fun place to spend some time.

The town of Abbeville has lots of old, interesting buildings and churches.

St. Mary's Catholic Church and the interior.

This old house was next to the church.  It might have housed the priest?

 The old Abbeville power plant was next to the Sugar Cane storage tanks

Before leaving Abbeville we stopped to fill up with fuel.  While Joel checked the tire pressure I filled the tank and watched the meter climb to 90 gallon and expressed my concern to Joel that he let the gas tank get so close to empty (the Beaver holds nearly 100gallons) and at the rising cost, just about that time the gas station attendant came out shouting that diesel was spewing out the other side. I'm not sure how much fuel we lost, but at $4.00 a gallon every little bit lost stings. The gas station attendant really didn't want us sticking around and was still hosing down the area when we left.  Joel will now have another project before we get on our way again.

We  headed for our rendezvous with our WIN friends at  Maxies RV Park in Broussard, where we might stay for the week and met up with our WIN friends.  Catching up with WINS means busy times, so stay tuned for more. Joel will have to make time to figure out why the gas spewed out the other side and how to fix it. ..He is known as Mr. Fix It, so I'm sure it won't be too big a deal.