On our way to Knoxville, we spent a day in Staunton, VA. What a beautiful and historic town. We were pleasantly surprised to find Woodrow Wilson's Presidential Library, and spent a couple of hours exploring that. I learned a lot about WWI that I didn't know, and the potential ramifications of our congress not ratifying the Treaty of Versailles.
While we were having coffee at a shop downtown, we met a great couple from Greenville, TN. They own a restaurant near Greenville called The Farmer's Daughter – all family style fresh farm food, with amazing attention to detail. They were on a trip to pick up hams in North Carolina and to visit the guy who grinds the corn for their cornbread. Google the name of the restaurant for complete directions. We went near there, and would have loved to have stopped for lunch, but they are only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lunch. If you are in the area, check it out.
We then had lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant, and rode the free trolley all around town. The bus driver was an amazing guy who, after being laid off from a hospital in Washington, DC (to which he commuted every day), now has a window washing business, drives the trolley, and is a preacher! This while raising 13 kids, all of whom have, are, or will go to college. What a guy, and very interesting, with a great attitude. We really enjoyed talking with him.
Knoxville, TN was next on our list to visit friends John and Linda Haynes from Detroit days. They bought a house on the Tennessee River 4 years ago, and moved down there 2 years ago after retiring. They are completely remodeling in a Frank Lloyd Wright style. John has done a big part of this himself, and it is absolutely beautiful. They were great hosts.....in just 1 day, we went to 3 live performances – bluegrass at a local radio station, “sultry southern swing” at the art museum, and a belly dancer at an Egyptian restaurant! Linda and I noticed that the belly dancer had long blond hair, and when we were discussing it the next day, John and Dick were both surprised – neither of them had even seen her hair. I wonder where they were looking!!??
On Saturday, friends of theirs were generous enough to provide tickets to the last home game of the season between the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt. What fun – the stadium was literally a sea of orange. We haven't been to a college football game in years and really enjoyed it. Then, when UT came back from a 24-9 deficit in the last quarter to win by one point, it was tons of fun!!
The next day, Linda took me into the Smoky Mountains and to their very cute cabin on a lake. We also drove along Tower Drive, an area with lots that have the most amazing views of the valleys and mountains that you can imagine. To add to the beauty, fall color is still in full bloom – it was breathtaking. One of my goals for this trip was to get my fill of fall color, and it hasn't disappointed. We had such fun with John and Linda –
Next up was the Big Easy. I have always loved New Orleans and have been anxious to return since the horrors of Katrina. We returned to Bayou Segnette, the state park just south of the city, in Westwago. It is only a 20 minute drive downtown, or you can drive to Algiers and take the free walk on ferry that dumps you off right at the base of Canal Street (something that worked very well during our trip to Mardi Gras 6 years ago). The park has huge sites, accepts the Golden Age Pass and has free laundry! Another bonus is that it is right next door to the big fish market open 7 days a week with multiple vendors selling shrimp, crab, local fish, oysters, etc. As we had heard, the French Quarter was not damaged, although it was kind of spooky to go by the convention center and Superdome, remembering the scenes from Katrina.
This trip was to be all about food. We had lunch at Mother's, a popular place with the locals where we split a Ferdi (roast beef and ham po' boy with “debris” and gravy) and a bowl of shrimp gumbo. We saved dessert for Cafe du Monde, the best deal in town with the cafe lattes and beignets for a grand total of $6. The next day was Thanksgiving and I had spent some time researching restaurants. I had settled on Ralph's on the Park, one of the Brennan restaurants. It sits right across the street from the beautiful City Park up near Lake Ponchartrain. When we got there it was a mad house – we certainly weren't the only people with this idea. When we did get seated, tho, it was upstairs in a very quiet area, and even beside a window as I had requested! Dick went with the traditional turkey menu (with local flavor, of course), while I decided on the blackened redfish, a house specialty. It was a 3 course fixed price menu and absolutely wonderful!
Since I had not celebrated my birthday properly, I decided that two more great lunches were justified. So, on Friday is was Commander's Palace, the restaurant that launched Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Legasse. What an absolute treat!! And if wonderful food wasn't enough, they have a weekday lunch special of 25 cent martinis and cosmos. Saturday was NOLA, one of Emeril's restaurants. The food was very good, but we both agreed that we enjoyed the two Brennan restaurants more. Emeril's food sometimes has a bit too much going on (i.e.,feta cheese and kalamata olives with my crab cake), and he puts a very high premium on it. But it was still great fun and I loved all three days. Jackson Square had its usual street theater, including three acrobats who put on a great show.
We did drive around some of the flood ravaged areas, and the damage is devastating. Even in the wealthier areas, many houses are still abandoned and For Sale signs are everywhere. It is hard to imagine full recovery – I don't know how the city is hanging on economically.
We had heard, from many other Rvers, about Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, 150 miles west of New Orleans. This is truly the heart of Cajun country – they are the descendants of the Acadians who were deported from Nova Scotia by the English in the 1700s. It turns out that the ones who landed here were part of a particularly feisty group led by Joseph Broussard. We went to a small museum in Erath, which luckily for us, was being manned that day by the man who started it. He is an eighth generation descendant of Broussard and very passionate about the history. He has written several books on the subject and was anxious to tell the story. He actually sued the British government and Crown for an apology to the Acadians, and after 15 years or so won an Official Proclamation of Apology from the Queen! He is a very accomplished attorney and had lots of other good stories to tell. We were particularly interested since we had seen all the history in Nova Scotia in September.
Back to Betty's RV – she is known for her hospitality – nightly happy hours either on her patio or in her converted garage, potlucks, organized nights out to eat crawfish, etc. Her park is small and Rvs are very close together, but she creates a great environment. Tonight she cooked red beans and rice for everyone. Interesting lady.
The Tabasco Factory is near and the tour was pretty interesting. The store, of course, sells all things Tabasco and we even sampled jalapeno ice cream, which was quite good. One impressive thing is that they don't throw away anything in the manufacturing process. Every part of the pepper is sold in some form, and even the barrels used for the 3 year aging process, after 21 years or so, are chopped up and sold as wood chips for BBQing.
Food, of course, is a huge part of the Cajun culture, and we did our best to sample as much as we could. Roadfood.com recommended Dwyers in Lafayette. It is cafeteria style, and they were already out of quite a few items, but luckily had one cabbage roll left, so we stayed. It was just simple comfort food, but oh so tasty – the seasoning is the deal here. We discovered Joey's, a grocery and catering firm that sells all kinds of frozen housemade Cajun specialties. I bought five meals worth for evenings, and we continued eating out for lunch. The two Joey's meals we have had so far have been excellent and I just wish I had a bigger freezer. I do love this Cajun food!!
