The coffee started grinding this morning at 6; I felt like throwing it across the trailer. I didn’t get right out off bed though, I managed to have another half-hour in bed before dragging myself to the shower. At 7.45 we were sat in Waffle House having breakfast before getting on the road south. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is apparently the longest bridge over water in the world at 24 miles. It was quite an experience as at certain points all you can see is water; Lake Pontchartrain sure is huge and uninviting looking.




Our first stop of the day was at Vacherie where a craft fair was taking place at Oak Alley Plantation. It was already really busy when we got there and we had to park a little ways from the entrance, but no worries, we got a hay ride on the back of a tractor to the gate. I was expecting cool crafts but here in the south they have ‘different’ crafts, things like butt buckets (for ciggies), and hair bows and such. We wandered around but didn’t see anything at all that we fancied. There were what I think of as typical southern clothing (I might be wrong, but…) high collared stripy shirts with lots of embroidered motifs all over them – people seemed to be snapping them up.



The grounds of the plantation that the craft fair were taking place on were lovely, with lots of old oak trees everywhere, hence the name. We didn’t go inside the house but the gardens were beautiful.




After leaving the fair we headed north west first to Gonzales so Mike could visit the Croc store. He loves his crocs but is so hard on them that he needed a new pair. He got a nice lined pair and I finally got a pair of slippers that I have been looking for since we got back.
From there we went a little further north and checked out Baton Rouge. On the way we got our first look at the Mississippi as we crossed over the Veterans Memorial Bridge; it is a big old body of water for sure with lots of activity along its shoreline. Going over the numerous bridges here gives the best view of the river as when we were driving alongside it we couldn’t see it for the levees that are everywhere.




Well it sure is quiet in the capitol on a Sunday, we didn’t have any trouble getting around as we were about the only car on the road. We visited the capitol building which is apparently the tallest capitol building in the States – I believe it.



On our way back to Abita Springs this afternoon we didn’t come along the freeway but instead took the lesser roads. It sure is interesting seeing how people live. There were some really beautiful houses that we passed along the roads today, then there were the ones that looked like maybe people shouldn’t really be living in them. It blows my mind that people seem ok with living in a junk yard, with broken down cars and old mattresses and just garbage all around them. We even passed a place that had a hole in the side of the building – but it had a satellite dish on the side of it so I guess they were happy!

Mike: I wouldn't like if I had a nice house and there were a bunch of wrecks in
the neighborhood!