Friday Jan 4 finds us trying to finish up finding places to store all our stuff into Polly – she is starting to bulge. What we can’t fit in now goes to the local “dead man’s store” (to quote my brother Willy) – I am sure we should be able to locate one. So that took us about 4 hours to almost finish the job, so we decided enough and to explore. But before I go any farther, let me just say that the Hidden Treasure RV park is a hidden gem. Just west of Alexandria, in Boyce actually, LA on Lake Cotile. Sites are far apart, it is grassy, beautiful view of the lake and the camp owners are just sweet people.
So, onto the exploring. Went into the town of Natchitoches (pronounced “nak-A-tish” which I fell in love with! So quaint, old houses with big pillars up on stilts sitting right on the Cane River Lake. Lake? Wait my brain does not compute river-lake. Seems back in 1860 they decided to dam up both ends of the river and made it a lake, but it still looks like a river to me. Anywho this is just a darn cute very active town. First, we went to Fort St Jean Baptiste, the oldest fort in the Louisiana Purchase and it was moved 3 times. Seemed they couldn’t figure out that rivers rise and water damages. Fort was manned by 6 infantry and 4 officers which is about the same ratio of women to men also at the fort during its time.
Then back into town to take the walking house tour which included the cemetery. Natchitoches is the oldest town in the LApurchase and by the looks of the cemetery (final resting spot, no pun. of the fort (actually it was reconstructed back to original site for the tourist) and the graves sites this place is old.
Ate dinner of crayfish etouffee at Mayeaux’s (we are feeling at home with all the French around here) that was excellent.
Tomorrow we pack up camp and head for Gautier MI on the Gulf – hopefully the weather will warm up a bit. Woke up to degrees cloudy and not suppose to get much warmer around here so we are outta here. BRRRRR