Friday we did some more sightseeing in the area, our first stop was Brownell Memorial Park. We got lucky because the lady who opens it didn't have anything else to do on New Years day so she opened the gates. We wandered around on a trail to the a thick swamp, and to the cypress-strewn shores of Lake Palourde. The bell tower in the park rings every 15 minutes. Although many people see snakes and alligators, it was a cold day and no reptiles ventured out.
Our next stop was Swamp Garden. Morgan City is really built on land reclaimed from the swamp and this area was protected to remind people of what the land used to be. However the swamp garden has been converted to Cypress Garden and the alligators, snakes and other swamp creatures have been relocated. It is however a very pretty garden which we wandered through.
Despite the drizzly cold weather Saturday morning we saw that people took advantage of the long weekend to sail on Lake Palourde.
Since Saturday afternoon was rainy, we decided to spend it at the Amelia Belle, a docked riverboat, which is now a casino. We spent a few hours, went in with 20.00 came out with a bit more than 11.00, so not a big expense.
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Sunday the clouds finally parted and it appears that the sun should shine for the last few days we are here. Of course the long weekend is over, so most of the rv's are leaving. We chatted with a neighbour, who was moving to another site in the park and found out some of the parks history. This park was built by FEMA, after hurricane Katerina. It was built on the lake. The lake was filled in so that the land we are sitting on is reclaimed from the lake. After the hurricane, homes were needed for displaced persons and this area was considered ideal, so the federal gov't brought in tons and tons of rock and soil to create this rv park as an extension of Lake End Park. After our visit we took advantage of the trails in the park . We spotted at bird unknown to us. After some research we decided it was an Anhinga. We also watched it swimming and it looked like a water snake. This bird swims with its body just underwater, only its neck and head are visible. Very odd sight indeed.
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Tuesday was to be our last full so we went to Cypress Mill Museum and Wendell-Williams Aviation Museum in Patterson, just a few miles away.
Cypress Mill museum.
Old trees were cut in the early 1900's when the cypress industry started in this area. Most old trees at least 800 years old, and one as old as 3900 years. Found out that there was even a Spanish moss industry. The Spanish moss was harvested for stuffing mattresses and cushions for furniture, used in log house mortar, mulch and making toys. It had been used for thousands of years by the natives. Spanish moss got its name from a story about a Spaniard with a long beard who climbed up a tree to catch an Indian girl who was trying to get away. She dove off the tree into the water, but he got stuck in the tree, and his beard became Spanish moss.
There were several examples of dugouts that were used in this area. Dugouts were made, first by the natives, and later by the Acadians, by carving cypress trees with hand tools. The dugouts were well designed for moving through the swamps.
Wedell-Williams Aviation Museum:
Harry Williams was in the cypress lumber industry, and as the aviation industry was building, he invested in it. He was a speed demon. A story said that he got stopped for speeding in a small town. He went to town hall to pay the $10 fine, and gave them $20, so they wouldn't bother stopping him again when he sped through on the way back. He hired Jimmy Wedell, who was an excellent pilot, and plane designer from East Texas. Jimmie, and other pilots flying planes made by the company, won many national level air races in the 1930's. Most of the company personnel died in various plane crashes.
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Wednesday we left Morgan City for Guathiers' RV in Lafayette. When we arrived in Morgan City, we had a problem with our kitchen slide-out. One end was 3.5 inches short of going out when the
other end was fully out. We had phoned Gauthiers' and
were able to make an appointment for the 6th. We had explained the issue to
the service manager over the phone and he figured
he knew what the problem was. We arrived at their shop about 8:30 AM. They
took a look at it, and confirmed that the mechanism was as
expected. We headed off for some coffee, then did a bit of
shopping. By 12:30, we got a call that the unit was ready for us to
pick up, all fixed. When we returned, we found that in addition to
the slide-out being fixed, they replaced our shore power cord, a necessary repair.
The charge for these repairs was only $330 (plus tax), a bargain
compared to our fears that we might either have to live with the slide out remaining in, covering our furnace cold-air return. and then
trying to sell a trailer with a slide not operating when we got back to Canada. We didn't even
have to pay for one night in a hotel before continuing on our trip.
In addition, the service manager had recommendations on lubricating
the slide, which no other service has recommended, plus how to deal
with a variety of less serious issues we have.
We highly recommend Gauthiers' to anyone needing RV service in the
Lafayette area.
We headed to the A + Motel and RV Park, in Sulphur, just a few miles west of Lake Charles . A very nice park, good amenities, so we will be here for a week.
Thursday morning we went back through Lake Charles to the town of Iowa to check out an outlet mall we had seen yesterday as we went by. It was not your typical outlet mall. It looked like it had been located in a small old indoor mall. There was one large store in it, another small women's clothing store, and a gift shop which was selling local crafts. Not at all what we expected.
We returned to Lake Charles to pick up some more RV supplies and then headed to Albertsons to refill our freezer and fridge. There are some items that we like that we know we can get at Albertsons, so we were glad to see one here.
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