Louisiana River Parishes Why Every Traveler Should Explore at Least Once

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, and welcome to The Traveling Fool, the show where we talk about travel destinations and the history and culture around those destinations. I’m your host, Bob Bales, and today we are talking about River Parishes, Louisiana. That’s right. I’m going to take you to Louisiana. So stay tuned, and we’ll be right back.

Now, before we get started, do me a quick favor and just please hit that like or subscribe button. I’d really appreciate it. But let’s get into this. Now, this week we are talking about Louisiana’s river parishes. Now, I know a lot of people know this, but some may not. Louisiana is the only state that has parishes instead of counties. And why is that? Well, the French settled Louisiana back in the 1700s. And the French are Catholic that were coming over here, and they organized their territory into parishes. And when Louisiana became a state, they just kept parishes versus counties. So that’s a short version. You can look it up and get the whole history about it, but that’s basically what it is.

And where are Louisiana’s river parishes? Well, I know when everybody thinks about Louisiana, they go to New Orleans. And New Orleans is a great town, don’t get me wrong. Great food, a lot of stuff to see and do. Of course, you got Bourbon Street, which I don’t know how well, I don’t know. I don’t go to Bourbon Street much anymore. I did many, many years ago, but now it’s a tourist trap and you’re lucky to get out without getting mugged. But a lot of people go down there. It’s big during Mardi Gras, of course. But the rest of Louisiana has a lot to offer as well. And River Parishes is just 27 miles outside of New Orleans.

Now, why do they call it the River Parishes? Well, they border the Mississippi River, which flows down through Louisiana down to New Orleans, and they’re just right up the river from New Orleans. We’re talking about the parishes of St. John the Baptist, St. James, and St. Charles. Those three make up Louisiana’s river parishes. Now there’s other parishes that are on the river, but those three have combined and they promote themselves as the river parishes. I had an opportunity recently to go visit this place. And I think I had been I might have driven through there one time many, many, many years ago. But I generally, if I’m headed east on Interstate 10, I live in Houston, so if I’m headed east on Interstate 10, I typically don’t even go through New Orleans. I just take the bypass and head north of New Orleans and just keep going and catch up I-10 on the other side. Because, you know, New Orleans, like any other big city, too much traffic, too much congestion, there’s no reason to drive through it. But I specifically went to visit the river parishes. And let me tell you some of the things that they’re famous for and what they have down there. And one of the things they are famous for is the plantations. And everybody’s got an opinion on the plantations.

You have got people that want to destroy the plantations because of the history of slavery. You got people that want to keep them and do things with them like give tours and other things. Let me tell you my take on this. I’ve been to history locations all over the world, and I don’t think it serves anybody any good to go around destroying history. I’ve been to Dachau in Germany, which was a concentration camp. They preserve it, they memorialize it, and they tell you about how life was at Dachau.

 I’ve been to notorious prisons in London. I’ve been to all kinds of different places, and I find history fascinating. I’ve been to Civil War forts, both the North and the South. I’m a huge history buff. I’ve been to all kinds of military forts and battlefields all over the world. Some that the U.S., I’ve been to some U.S. battlefields where the U.S. fought, and I’ve seen the other side of those battlefields. In fact, when I was in the military, I served 20 years in the Army. When I was in the Army stationed in Germany, our barracks, and this was in 1979 through 84, I was in Germany. The barracks where my company was located were former German Luftwaffe barracks. They had built them, and the U.S. Army had taken them over, and we lived there. And I’ve seen all kinds of stuff all over the world. And I think that destroying history is a crime because we need to understand history, we need to know history. And the river parishes have an abundance of plantations. And some of them are beautiful plantations. And they all do things a little bit different.

I went to visit uh four of them, actually. I was only there for a couple days, but I visited four plantations. And I’m gonna tell you about them. First one I went to is Oak Alley Plantation. Oak Alley is the granddaddy of them all. I mean, it’s got a lined Oak Alley walkway from the Mississippi River. Actually, it’s from the roadway right across from the river. It used to extend from the river, but now it’s from the highway that runs in front of it all the way down to the big plantation house. And it is gorgeous. It’s filmed by everybody. It’s one of the most filmed plantations in Louisiana. And there’s been movies there and the and uh television shows there. And it is a huge plantation. And they give tours of the plantation home. They also give tours of the outlying buildings. You can spend the night there. They’ve got five or six, well, let me see, eight or nine actually. Cabins, some dating back to the 1920s and some that are newer. Where you can actually spend the night there. There’s a restaurant there for people to eat. There’s an event center there. They give tours of the plantation and tell you the history of the plantation from people that work there. It’s a fascinating plantation. It’s it tells you all about the history. It tells you about the enslaved people that came through there. It tells you about the history of the family that owned the plantation and what happened to it before, during, and after the Civil War. And it’s a fascinating plantation to visit.

Another one is Laura Plantation. Now, Laura Plantation is a Creole plantation. And there were enslaved people, there were free blacks, and there were French that passed through there. It’s a mixture of a lot of different things. And they do a fantastic, fantastic job of telling the story of the Creole and the enslaved people that went through there. Their primary purpose, they will take you through the plantation home. But their emphasis is emphasis, I should say, is on the enslaved peoples that came through there. In fact, in recent years, they had a big reunion for descendants of some of those enslaved people. And they, I think they said they were going to do it again in the next couple of years. But it was built by DuParc was the last name of the French family. And it was built like in uh, oh, I think somewhere in the early 1800s. It was later named Laura Plantation for one of the females that was born there in, I don’t know, 1820, 1830, something like that. And she became the owner of the plantation in later life. She actually wrote a book about her life on the plantation. She left there and wound up living in Chicago for uh the last years of her life, but she wrote a book about it. And she wrote a book about life on the plantation and how it was and the enslaved people and the creoles and everything. And there was, and I did not know this, there’s a huge difference between the Creole plantations and the plantations you see in let’s say Georgia or Virginia or something like that. They were they actually had different rules and stuff. And maybe I’ll get into that in in a minute or two, but Laura Plantation is just right up the road from Oak Alley, and that’s a fantastic glimpse into what a Creole plantation was. If you ever get a chance, you need to visit both of these places.

The other plantation in the area that I visited is Destrehan. And Destrehan is actually the closest plantation to Louis R to New Orleans. And New Orleans was where the slave markets were held at. That’s where the auctions were and everything. And the plantations were normally up the river where they had the agricultural aspect, the cotton and sugarcane and all the other stuff. Destrehan is a huge plantation, and it was oh, I’m trying to think of when it was built. I mean, it goes way back. I believe it was like 1787 or 88 is when they began the construction and it finished around 1790. And it was under a a planner by the he was another French fellow. I can’t even pronounce the name. But they had started it back in the late 1700s, so it goes way back in time. And Destrehan has played an important part in the history of that entire area. It played a huge role in the eighteen eleven German coast uprising. Okay, it’s gonna get a little confusing here. That area is also known now we’re talking about French and Creole settlers, but the area was also known as the German Coast because there was a lot of people from Germany came and settled in that area. And so it just kind of got the nickname the German Coast. But in 1811 there was a slave revolt that happened at one of the plantations at St. John’s, the Baptist Parish. Uh, and they wound up trying to get into New Orleans. It didn’t last for very long, it lasted for two or three days, but Destrehan played a huge role in it. A lot of the slaves from Destrehan uh were involved in it. And when you visit that plantation, you can hear all about the history of that uprising.

Destrehan was also what was called a Freeman colony. At the end of the Civil War, you had all these slaves. All of a sudden they’re now free. They had no idea what to do. I mean, they were like, you know, I I live and work on the plantation. What am I supposed to do now? So they had what they call freeman colonies where they would bring them in, give them medical care, food, place to live for a month, two months, something like that, while they took down their names, took down their identification, assessed what their skills were, and helped them get acclimated. And so there were several thousand, two or three thousand that went through Destrehan when it was classified as a Freeman colony. And they have a list of every single person that went through there. And they have an exhibit that tells all about it. Destrehan does a really, really good job of telling you all about the plantation, the family that built the plantation, the slave revolt, and the Freeman colony. I mean, they do a really good job, and they have uh they call it a living history plantation. It’s a lot of outlying buildings that you can tour. You learn all about the construction of the plantation and who built it and everything, and who was involved in building it. But it’s a fascinating place to visit. They also have what’s called the Jefferson Room inside the plantation home, which is the Jefferson Room actually they have documents that are signed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. So I mean it they’ve got a lot of things here and it’s well worth the visit.

Now I’m gonna tell you about one more plantation you ought to visit. This one is not in the river parishes, but it’s like a parish up the river. It’s it’s still right on the Mississippi, but it’s in Ascension Parish, and that is Houma House, H-O-U-M-A. And Houma House is a combination of museum, a plantation home, garden restaurants, venues, you name it. It’s got all kinds of stuff. I think he told me, I met the owner while I was there and uh a fellow that lived in New Orleans and he bought it, restored it, and started building things on it. Um I think he told me that he had twenty five or twenty six acres there now. At one time it was huge. I mean, it was a massive plantation, but it sits right on the river, and you’ll see a lot of the riverboats uh that are coming down the river cruises that people take to New Orleans. They stop there. There’s a dock right on the river, right in front of it. And they visited a lot, but he’s got a huge, massive museum that you can visit that tells the story of Louisiana. From the settlers to all the plantations in the area to the Civil War, to pre and post-Civil War, to the ascension into becoming a state, to everything. It’s a fabulous museum. Then you can tour the plantation home itself. Then there’s also, I think there’s three restaurants that are inside various buildings that he’s built and some of the older buildings. And it’s got a fantastic history, but he does a really good job of telling you about plantation life, plus also the museums that are there that you can learn all about Louisiana and that area of Louisiana. And it’s just a fabulous place to visit. It’s more of a museum more than anything else, but it’s massive.

Houma House also has cottages there. I toured a couple of them, I didn’t stay there, but he’s on one part of the property not too far from the museum. I think he’s built something like 15 or 16 um cottages where you can rent out and spend the night there if you want. And there are several other plantations in the river parishes, but those three I highly recommend visiting because they’re all three different. You will learn stories that are different in all three plantations, and you will come away with a very good understanding of what plantation life was like, not only for the people that started them and built the homes and the farms and the plantations themselves, but from the enslaved people that worked there. And it’ll give you a greater appreciation of the history of Louisiana, the South, and the United States as a whole, I think. But do yourself a favor, hit those plantations up if you’re ever in Rover Parishes, which you really, really need to go to. And I’m gonna tell you some more cool stuff about this area. But before we do, I’m gonna uh when I do up the show notes for this podcast, I actually wrote a blog post about the plantations, and I will put a link to that in the show notes if you’re interested in learning more about them. Read more about the plantations

 But there’s other things to do in River Parishes besides visiting plantations. And one of them, and this one was a blast, take you a swamp tour. That’s right. I went on Cajun Pride Swamp Tours, which is in La Place, Louisiana. Not too far from New Orleans. I mean, you’re only a couple hours, not a couple hours, like thirty minutes away from New Orleans itself. I think you’re like 20 minutes from the airport. But Cajun Pride Swamp Tours has several boats. They have a privately owned swamp. There’s four or five experienced boat captains, and they take you out on these pontoon boats with seats all around. They have protected wildlife out there, and you get to see up close and personal with wild boars and raccoons and just all kinds of wildlife. And of course, a lot of alligators and usually the boat captain will stop and start feeding some of the alligators, and they get right up to the boat. And a couple of them will give you the pole and let you feed them. It is a fantastic tour. You get to see Louisiana Bayou and Louisiana Swamp up close and personal. I mean, get right up next to all kinds of wildlife. Uh the captains are well experienced, and it’s just a fabulous way to spend a couple hours. Take a swamp tour, contact Cajun Pride Swamp Tours. That’s where I went. They’re fantastic. You might need to book them a day or two in advance because they stay busy. I mean, they always fill up those boats. People come from New Orleans all the time to go out there and all around the surrounding area. So make sure you might want to book them a day or two in advance. But Cades of Pride Swamp Tours will, it is a blast to just get out there and experience a Louisiana swamp. Trust me, you gotta do it.

Now, one of the reasons I have been wanting to desperately go to this part of the country. Had nothing to do with plantations or swamps or anything else. I mean, those are cool. I wanted to do them, I wanted to see them. I always loved doing stuff like that. But if you know me, you know I love cigars. Big cigar smoker. Smoke way too many cigars, according to my wife and doctor both, which I still smoke them. Anyway, I’ve always just liked the taste of tobacco. I’ve smoked cigarettes many years ago. I chewed tobacco many, many years ago. I dipped snuff, I tried a pipe. You name it, I’ve done it. And I’ve always heard about this tobacco that is grown in Louisiana.

Now, if you know much about tobacco, you know that the United States doesn’t grow much tobacco anymore. It used to be a time they did a lot, they don’t anymore. But there is a portion of Louisiana that grows a very specific type of tobacco called Perique. Now, depending on who you talk to, they will say the only true Perique tobacco is grown in one parish, and that is Saint James Parish. Now Perique is grown in other parishes in Louisiana. But having talked to some people who know about this stuff, the tobacco in St. James Parish has been scientifically tested and all this other stuff. It is the closest to the original strain that the Native Americans used way back when. And it’s about the only tobacco that is used commercially. None of the other places is their tobacco isn’t used commercially. Perique tobacco is traditionally grown, the plantations grew some because people wanted to smoke tobacco. And after the plantations, farmers grew it, and everybody had a little patch of Perique tobacco so they could make their own cigars and cigarettes and pipe tobacco and stuff like that.

Now, when I was in the Army many, many years ago, I was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, which is, well, I don’t know, an hour or two north of there. And if you left the gate, went out, there was a little gas station out there, and they sold Picky Yoon cigarettes. That was a brand name, Picky Yoon. And it used Perique Tobacco. They’re no longer in business. And I think there was um somebody told me that American Spirit brand of cigarettes at one time Perique, but I don’t think they do anymore. But the Perique Tobacco is grown at St. James, and I’ve always wanted to visit this place. So I went and found a farm that grows it. It’s called 31 Farms. It’s owned by Derek and Ricky Roussel, a Rousseau father and son. And they actually have another business. This doesn’t afford them enough money to make it a full-time income. They’re trying to grow it into something bigger, and it’s continually grown into something bigger. But farms have come and gone, and right now, as of a couple of months ago, they were the only farm in St. James Parish growing Perique tobacco. A couple of others had just folded up. Now there’s a few people that have a little bit that they grow for themselves. But they were the only commercial tobacco farm. All of their tobacco is sold to a company that blends it for pipe tobacco. That’s what it’s used for primarily these days.

There is one company that makes a cigar out Perique tobacco. And it’s a very interesting story. Another farmer, not too far away, a couple of years ago, was trying to break into the cigar market with Perique tobacco, and he was unsuccessful doing that. But he was still selling Perique tobacco. Now, when you sell the tobacco leaves to a manufacturer of cigars or pipe tobacco or other things, they want you normally to take the stem out of the middle of the tobacco leaf. De-stem them. Well, he was having a hard time hiring people that would sit there and just de-stem tobacco leaves at the price that he could afford to pay them at. And he was real frustrated, but he found a company in the Philippines. The Philippines actually has some tobacco companies that make cigars and stuff. And he found a company in the Philippines that they said, yeah, we’ll do it for you. Just ship it over here. We’ll de-stim it and then ship the leaves back to you. So he would ship all this tobacco over there, they would de-stim it and ship it back. And after the first or second time he did that, the owner said, Well, what are you doing with this tobacco? He said, Well, I’ll sell it to a company that makes pipe tobacco out of it. They said, Well, we’d we’d like to try and make some cigars out of it. So he said, sure. And they he bought a barrel or two. And I say barrel, and I’ll tell you about that in a second. And they blend it with other tobaccos from other areas. They use a small portion of it. It’s not all that’s not all the tobacco in the cigar. It’s a blend. And they sell it as a cigar. I think it’s called an 1831 brand. It’s made by one company in the Philippines. The problem is you can’t buy that in the United States. Uh I was lucky enough to get my hand on three of those cigars. Derek had a couple and he gave them to me. Uh they sell most of it in Europe. If you can buy it in the United States, I have not found anywhere. I have searched high and low online. There’s no place that sells it. You’ll find very little reference to it anywhere. But they’re the only ones that make cigar tobacco out of it, or make cigars out of that tobacco.

 But I said earlier it was in a barrel. Now, what makes this tobacco unique is how it’s processed. Tobacco is normally cut, dried, hung, and then it sits in a carrying barn for a while and it ferments a little bit, and then tobacco buyers buy it and they’ll chop it up, make cigarettes out of it. Or cigar manufacturers will buy batches in bundles and roll it into cigars and things. Pipe tobacco will they’ll buy it, they’ll blend various leaves together, chop it up, and use it as a blend of pipe tobacco. This tobacco, once it’s harvested from the field, is put in bundles and they place them in used whiskey barrels that they’ve washed all the charred inside out of the whiskey barrel and they put it in there, and they put the top of the barrel on there and they put weights on there and they hydraulically press it down. And it stays in that area where it’s all pressed down and ferments in that barrel for up to twelve months. They then take that barrel and ship the entire barrel to the pipe manufacturer that manufacturers the pipe tobacco. He busts the barrel apart. All these barrels are handmade, they’re old whiskey barrels. So he rips it all apart, takes the tobacco out, puts it all barreled back together and ships it back to them. Now you can only use that barrel once or twice because each one of them are handmade, they and they have to seal all the little slats and everything in there. You can only do that once or twice for the barrel’s no good. So they only use a barrel a couple of times. But it’s a fascinating process that they go through. And he walked me through the fields, he showed me all the tobacco firming, and he told me all about the history of it and what they do with it. If you ever get a chance, it’s just an interesting business. And to visit the tobacco farm, I had a blast. I enjoyed it. Derek and Ricky were fantastic hosts. They showed me all over the place. And um I hope to visit them again here soon. In fact, I’m going back to River Parishes here in February. I’ve got a conference to go to. The Southern Travelers Explore Conference is going to be held in River Parishes. In February or March of this next year, I’ve already got plans to go to it. So they’re going to be inundated with a whole bunch of travel writers. And I’ll tell you about it beforehand so you can start following some of these people. A lot of great content out there about places all over the world.

But River Parishes has more than just tobacco and plantations and swamp tours and alligators. You can’t go to Louisiana without going and visiting for the food. And let me tell you about a place that I got this email the night before I left. And uh I had to get up early in the morning, like three o’clock in the morning, and drive from Houston to River Parishes so I could be there in the morning to do uh for I had scheduled to do things. And the day before I went, I’m told, oh, by the way, you’re gonna be on the live cooking show while you get down there. I was like, excuse me. What? They said, Well, you’re gonna be on the live cooking show. So, okay, we’ll see how this goes. There is a fellow down there, and his name is Maitland Fachauex. He goes by the name of Spuddy. S P-U-D-D-Y. A nickname he’s had since he was a kid. And Spuddy runs Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking Experience. And he’s got a couple of little income streams going on. One of them is he will teach a group of people, anywhere from three or four people up to twenty people, how to cook Cajun food. Shows you how to do it, you’re actually doing it with him, and then everybody sits down and has a big dinner afterwards. And he books these experiences. It’s Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking Experience.

Well, Spuddy also has a live television show once a week. And me and Spuddy made us some uh fish soup, I guess it was. And he I sat there and helped a little bit, stirred some stuff and threw some stuff in the pot, but had a blast. Spuddy’s a great guy. But he had been doing this for several years. He actually started out as a computer programmer and project manager. Then he went into sales and then he finally bought this old restaurant, which he ran for several years because that was his passion was Cajun food and Cajun cooking. Well, the restaurant’s not open anymore, but he uses that restaurant to host Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking Experience. And he also films his television shows here. Go to YouTube and check out Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking, and you’ll see some of the things he does up there and learn to cook you some Cajun food.

Another thing you gotta do while you’re in this area is try some andouille. Some people call it andouille sausage, but andouille is sausage. And you’ll get a couple of different uh it’s different than any other sausage you will have, but it’s fabulous. And if you look into the history of Andouille, some will tell you it came from the French. Others will tell you it has a lot of German influence because being the German coast. Uh and some of the places that there’s a lot of places that’ll make their own andouille sausage or make their own andouille. I went to a couple of them. I went to Wayne Jacobs Smokehouse and Restaurant. Wayne Jacobs has a German history. Even though Andouille might have been originally from France, there’s a German twist to it. And he does all kinds of smoked beats at Wayne Jacobs’ smokehouse and restaurant. He showed me how he smokes them. They use these Cypress uh smoke houses made out of Cypress and everything. Been there for years. Took me out there to those things, but he has all kinds of smoked meat, chicken, and just various kinds of sausages, and all just he’s got a huge meat market in there. But he’s also got a restaurant, and the food is fabulous.

You get a chance, gotta go there for lunch. I mean, he’s got lunch specials every day, and it is good. And he had some pecan cornbread. My God, that stuff was delicious. These people know how to cook, I’m gonna tell you. And I met the owner of Wayne Jacobs, and he’s a great guy, hell of a chef, and he’s got a couple of books out, and you can find his books there at the restaurant. And he’s also come out with some spices that are signature spices that you can buy there at the restaurant. You gotta check this place out.

The other place that is world famous, because and they they say we’re we are Jacobs World Famous Andouille. And so I asked the owner, I said, what makes it world famous? They said, because we keep winning all the awards. They have andouille contests and festivals and stuff all the time. And Jacobs World Famous, who is not related to Wayne Jacobs Smokehouse and Restaurant, they’ve been winning awards for years. And they’ve been in the same place for many, many, years. And you go in there and it’s a small, I mean, it’ll fit like four people or five people in there. You go in there, there’s a counter, and there’s just all kinds of smoked meats. Just everything in the world. And in the back is where they do all the processing and smoking. And she took me all through out in the back there. And um showed me all about the place and how they smoke all their andouille and other stuff. In fact, there was a guy there that works there who was smoking up some ribs.

But they’ve got a fabulous facility and I’m telling you, the andouille is delicious. And they sell little packs of it, so you don’t have to buy like six pounds of it. Stop by there and ask them for a sample. They’ll give you a sample of it and to show you what it tastes like. But they have the little uh sticks that you can buy that like about half the size of a slim jim or something like that, that are packaged up five or six to a pack, and just all kinds of stuff. And then they have the regular sausage, which is like a link of sausage. But you gotta check out the andouille.

There’s an andouille trail in river parishes. And if you go to the river parishes website, which is the tourism website, they list several places where you can try and get your little andouille passport stamped. It’s a great way to sample a lot of excellent food in the area. But they have some other great restaurants too.

I went to Pier 51 Seafood Restaurant and Oyster Bar. It was fantastic. Um had a great dinner there. For breakfast one morning, there’s a place. I go to a lot of local places. There was a place called the Donut Hole. And it’s on the airline in La Place, Louisiana. Just a little bitty donut joint. Well, little did I know that it’s like famous in the area. It’s always busy. There’s some tables and chairs in there, but people were coming in, getting their donuts and leaving. I went in there just to grab some breakfast. They have donuts and kolaches and breakfast items, and they sell Mardi Gras king cakes during certain times of the year, and they have really, really good coffee. I went in there, got a cup of coffee, and got I think I got a kolache or something for breakfast. But they open up at 4 a.m. in the morning and they close at 11 o’clock in the morning. I mean, they’re open for breakfast and that’s about it. And they’re open every day except Monday. They’re closed on Mondays.

And while I went to this place, right next door, I mean right next door, I’m looking, I said, this is straight out of the 1950s. It’s called Fro Stop Drive In Restaurant. The place was closed. I was there about eight, eight o’clock in the morning, and it was closed. But what caught my attention is this huge neon root beer mug that’s on a pole sticking way up in the air that rotates around. I’m like, man, this is you don’t see this stuff anymore. Nobody built stuff like that. This is a drive-in right out of the 1950s. And I’m sitting there and I took a few photos of this place and everything in this. I’m looking in the windows, you know, just being a pest and looking at the decor in there. And this older fella drives up, gets out of the car, gives me the side eye, and so I kind of walk back over to my car and I see him take his keys out, unlock the door, and go in. So, like I did. I walked up to the takeout window and tapped on the takeout window, and he came up and opened the window. I said, I told him who I was. I said, Look, I’m a travel rider. I’m here vesting the area. You have a really cool restaurant here. I said, Could I come in and take a look around? He’s like, Yeah, sure, come on in. Well, he was the owner of the place. And I found out that this place was opened in 1958 by a fellow named Morris Terry. And he leased out this restaurant until 1973 when his daughter Evelyn and her husband Jimmy took it over.

Jimmy was the fellow I was talking to. Well, nowadays, Jimmy still comes in there, but their daughter Terry st joined, and now she is the owner and manager. She graduated LSU back in 1993 and just came back and started running the place. And I met her too. She pulled up a little bit later. And they make their own homemade root beer there, and they serve primarily burgers and french fries and it’s a couple other things, but it’s just an old-fashioned diner. It’s cool as all get out. I did not have a chance to go back there and have lunch or dinner, but I desperately wanted to. And when I go back in February, I am gonna go to the fro-stop drive-in restaurant and have me a burger and fries. I mean, it is right out of the 1950s. And they’re open, um, I looked up after I left there. It says they’re open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. And I appreciate uh Jimmy letting me in and stoop around and look at the place. And they were just accommodating us all get out and friendly as as you could be, and just told me all about the place and let me take photos and all kinds of good stuff.

But there is just a ton of things to do in this area. And if you ever get a chance, I know you want to go to New Orleans and see all the cool stuff there, and and there is. This is like twenty miles outside of New Orleans. And you can go up there and spend a couple of days. You can even there’s hotels there all over the area. And like I said, some of the plantations have cabins you can rent. But there’s also if you don’t, you could leave your hotel in the morning, New Orleans, and drive up there for 20 minutes, spend the day and then drive back to New Orleans. It is a fantastic area. It’s slow paced compared to New Orleans. Everybody on that was as friendly as could be. Tons of history. All kinds of historic locations and places all along the side of the road. They have historic markers that tell you all about these places, historic cemeteries, historic old churches. These are buildings that go back a hundred, two hundred years. They’re still there. Lots of history, fantastic food, and like I said, the people were all just friendly as all get out. And it’s just a beautiful, beautiful place to visit.

If you ever get a chance, you gotta go there. So that was my trip to the river parishes of Louisiana. I enjoyed it. I highly encourage you to ever to go see it if you ever get a chance. I think you’ll enjoy it too. And next time, I’m gonna take you someplace else. So I appreciate you listening. If you haven’t had a chance, hit that like or subscribe button. Like I said, there’ll be a couple of links in the show notes about uh because I actually wrote a blog post about some of this stuff. And until next time, safe travels.

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