Introduction to Louisiana

October 22, 2020 Writing My Story

Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, Louisiana

I have now been in Louisiana for a week. Wow, it seems way longer than that! I’ve experienced and learned so much!

My first campground reservation was at Fairview-Riverside State Park. It is located on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. I arrived on Thursday, October 15th at 3:00 in the afternoon. It’s sunny and warm!! The campsite resembles a large county park with lots of pine trees and campsites in between. It is situated along a river and different parts of the park definitely have the Louisiana trees and foliage!

PHOTO OF PARK AND CAMPSITE

Beautiful trees with sphagnum moss decorating them like Christmas tinsel.

At times it feels like you’re going back into prehistoric times where the dinosaurs lived… Yes, a sweatshirt. Then in the afternoon you’d be in Capris and a tank top 😀

I had to include one more. This was just so pretty. The walk along the river within the state park.

While waiting to check in, I met John and Delores (who also goes by “D” like I do). They ended up being two sites away from me! Their goal was to fill me in on Louisiana lore!! 👍 So…They filled me in on Louisiana lore, showed me how to make traditional Gumbo (in detail… we actually made a video and she was great at it!!), and treated me to the meal! I brought Wisconsin cheese and crackers, and Spotted Cow beer for John and their son-in-law Max (furnished by Mathew) . Max, in turn, shared Louisiana craft beer with me! I met their daughter Meliss (no a) and granddaughter Imberly (no K). Interesting, right?

Max texted his buddy {who went to U of W-Madison} a picture of the beer for his craft beer opinion. His buddy said he was, in effect, consuming “the Holy Grail of Wisconsin” !! He was serious! Funny! But that gave Mathew and I bonus points!!

JOHN AND DEE WITH GUMBO

**Spiced sausage, chicken and smoked pork with roux…mmmm**

MAX AND MALISS with a girl on the way!

Max works as a physician’s assistant at a hospital in the north side of New Orleans. So, Max and Meliss pointed me to a great seafood place there…named Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop {where locals go & I did-take-out-} and to what they call a SnowBall place called Sno-La (Our snow cone somewhat.) I had that for dessert…cheesecake and strawberry center with flavored creamy ice around it. Yummy! At the seafood place I ordered Shrimp Scampi and it was awesome!! You can really taste the difference with fresh shrimp. Larger and about a dozen! Great seasoning! Had enough for 2 days!!

**Part of Chef Ron’s. Those are all dollar bills people have marked and left on the wall. Tempted to, but didn’t. 🤔**

My shrimp scampi with potato salad on the side 😋

On MapQuest I found the New Orleans City Park was not far away. So I drove to eat there. Beautiful and huge park! I watched a family/friends softball game while I ate and then drove around.

Within the City Park is the New Orleans Museum of Art. I found it Serendipity and pulled over. It is walled off beautifully and you do pay to get in. I walked around their sculpture garden for nearly 2 hours until my knees couldn’t take it anymore. 🤪 It has absolutely beautiful grounds, sculptures and did I say huge? (Search for “Besthoff Sculpture Garden” in New Orleans). So scenic and such a wide array of sculptures! Upon pay entry, you had to provide your name and phone number for a Covid trace list. Also, EVERYONE had masks on throughout the outside park. No protests here! I want to include just a couple of the unusual sculptures that were there. It was a fascinating place.

The figure of a squatting man repeatedly. It was VERY tall! A standing man was on the ground supporting all of them but I could not get it in the total picture.

There were so many sculptures to look at you almost missed this one. You got to have a safety pin!!

Wasn’t this from Alice in Wonderland? The detail in this sculpture and its size was wonderful.

there were so many beautiful walkways of different levels with scenic ponds, Bridges and sculptures placed throughout. It was very relaxing. Here you were at the same height as the water level.

See the head of the skeleton further down this beautiful walk?

I found out this whole city park, of 1,300 acres, was 95% flooded by the levee failure during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with $45 million in damages. You wouldn’t know it to see it now! Beautifully re-done. Wonderful way to spend the afternoon 👍

THE CAUSEWAY

To get to New Orleans, I drove across what they call their Causeway. It is a bridge that connects the north side of Lake Pontchartrain to the south side & New Orleans. It is 23.8 MILES long! Cost to travel to New Orleans is $5. Coming back is free. It is the world’s longest bridge over a continuous body of water! Two lanes in each direction on separated bridges. Interestingly, it has “crossover” sections that connect the two bridges and allow you to turn around.

It also has periodic emergency pull-over sections. Once there, you have to call the police for their help to re-enter the highway! This is a busy highway. It also had a continuous rocking -caused- bump every truck length section of poured concrete. …the whole way. Gets kind of mesmerizing! But I knew I wasn’t going to take my RV across it in case it would rock for over half an hour!!

Coming into the north side of New Orleans off the causeway. Yep, just like any other City until you get to the French quarter 😅

The lake is so huge, it appeared as if you were in the middle of the ocean. It is over 40 miles long and 25 miles wide and is the second largest inland saltwater body in the US. (Lots of trivia in this state!) average depth of 12-14ft and max depth of 65ft. (you can guess the largest saltwater lake in the nation . Honest! 😅) The waves on the lake looked more like ocean waves. In comparison, Lake Winnebago is 28 1/2 mies long and 10 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. Max depth of 21’. And average 15’ .

( No, we’re not going to compare to Lake Superior!! ) 😅

I stayed at this State Park from the 15-18th, so it was a busy time! Then I pulled out and set my sites on Grand Isle State Park down on the Gulf. 3 hr drive. That will be the next installment. 👍 Stay healthy and stay warm everyone!! Write soon.