Lonnie still in the land of dreams...
Here at the campground of the Acadiana Park in Lafayette, Karen is awake and ready to go, I'm still groggy and working on waking-up while our friend Lonnie is out like a light... Men watching him laying on them camping-chairs my neck start hurting. But just like magic, he wakes-up and is ready to go. And where are we going to, with 3 people and 3 cars... Back to Breaux Bridge were the Crawfish Festival is in full force, the plan is to be there at 3:30 to see Keith Frank performing. We all hop in our cars and carpool, or should I say caravan, out to the festival grounds in Breaux Bridge. It is a zoo, just to get to the parking area, lines of cars, people crisscrossing the streets, police is controlling or orchestrating the whole mess. Parking is 2 bucks, entrance to the festival is 10, not a bad deal. This is yet another feeling to be at compare to the Jazz Fest in New Orleans of the International Music Fest in Lafayette, here are 3 stages, lots of food-booths and a fairground area with a Ferris-wheel, bumper-cars and all that jazz. By the time Karen and I tackle our way to the stage, Keith Frank with his Soileau Zydeco Band are in full swing. Next thing I'm dancing right there with everybody else on that hot pavement.
The Crawfish Festival in full force...
After Keith Frank is Jeffrey Broussard & The Creole Cowboys, and how does he manage to keep the same toothpick in his mouth during a whole performance???
The consumption of drinks of various kinds is enormous, so are the folks attending it...
A never ending stream of Zydeco and some Cajun... here is Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys...
A few Swine-Flu cases and a lot of Crawfish eat'n is going on...
The night is falling and my feet failing, but not to worry, the dancing goes on!!!
Geno Delafose with his French Rockin' Boogie is next and a closer look at the Fairground activities...
More people, more rides, Carrousel, Bumper-cars, Ferris-wheel, and more...
I move to the beat of the "Same Old Two Step", dancing with locals and a few nubies. Asking this young black lady to dance, is like using a crow-bar to get them out on the floor, " I don't know how to dance to this..." and next thing is they almost lead me around. One of the young ladies ask me how to dance it and I counted for her, next thing I saw her dance with Reggie and he thought her more steps, she had a blast. Sometimes the young blacks add break-dance to the Zydeco step and then it is a real show to watch, I don't care what they say, these guys got the moves...
By now the Same Ol' 2 Step is done, and Geno Delafose is doing overtime, while I have to find some more food, I pick a Cajun Hot-Dog, with lots of grilled onions and more hot-sauce, a fine choice at this very moment, all I want with this a "good" beer and that is the thing of unknown on these festivals, just Budwiser, Miller and crap like that, but that they have plenty.
When Geno finished his last note I make my way out to the car, it is amazing how many people are here, this place is packed and police-officers are everywhere, not that this makes me feel safe, it's rather the opposite!
To tally-up the total of expense on this festival, 2 dollars for parking, 10 to get in, 4 for the first 2 bottles of water, another 2 for the 3rd bottle, 7 bucks for a spinach-crawfish bowl, another bottle of water 2 dollars, the cajun hot-dog 7 and then another water 2, buying water is usually against my religion. Like at the Jazz Fest in New Orleans I brought my own water bottle and then kept filling it up at the water-fountain, here at the Crawfish Festival I could not find a fountain and so had to keep buying the bottled water, the trash that get produced for this kind of behavior is unbelievable, I can't stand it and usually reduce as much as I can, NOT today, sorry dear Earth!
Take 8 minutes and watch this clip on TED about our plastic garbage heap in the oceans, it is sickening that we all don't start changing our habits. Fuck this buying bottled water bullshit, filter your own tab-water and drag it with you in metal bottles, because fresh so called spring water is a plastic bottle itself is stupid. Sorry for your inconvenience.
Before I head back to the campground I stopped at a gas-station to pick-up a beer and some to snack on, no luck with "good" beer and so I buy a Gaterade in a plastic bottle that I will fill many times with tab-water before I loose it or forget it somewhere. Back at the tent I can only take a shower and then have to lay down because I'm more dead than alive.
During the night it rained a little bit, I keep waking-up because the guys on the other camp-site either talk into the wee-hours, or then another-one coughs a lot. In the morning I get driven out of the tent because it is getting hot inside. I clean-up the site, boil some water for tea and eat the danish I bought last night at the gas-station, all this while I'm writing a bit for this blog here on my Palm Pilot.
The camp-site in the morning...
At 10 it is time to pack-up the last few things and head over to Poche's in Breaux Bridge, one of my favorite store to buy local goods, here I feel like a kid in a candy-store, I wanna buy everything. They have a great selection of meat products, local made pies and Pecan Pralines. I spend 50 bucks on a couple of mini Pecan Pies, 4 Pralines, 2 jars of Pickled Quail Eggs, and some of their own Pepper Hot-Sauce. In 2004 I ordered a Turducken for the Christmas Party in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I went there with Kent and Jessica to celebrate with Harry, Carolyn and Kay at the Seeley house of Harry and Carolyn. It was a winner alright. I'm ready to do the same again, just looking for the right reason.
I better hurry now, I need to drive to Walker, about 10 miles east of Baton Rouge on I-12, to see Brenda and Tommy , thats a 70 mile drive and it'll take me a bit more than an hour to get there.
Route Map of drive from Poche's to Brenda and Tommy's in Walker.
Last time I went by their house was right at the Laborday weekend when we're all were going out to the country for the festivities, KAren had a broken collar-bone and could not join us, Hurricane Gustav was about to hit New Orleans and so we evacuated Karen to her cousin's house here. Brenda, Karen's cousin nor Tommy where at home and so we just left Karen and her two cats Max and Zack there. This is also the house I spend a lot of time right after Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. Karen evacuated there too and so I went there too in hope for helping and doing some work, but all I ended-up doing is was having fun with all these people there.
Brenda and I on the porch, waiting for Tommy to join us...
So it is good to be back. Brenda is waiting and next thing is we're sitting out on the porch watching the squirrels doing their thing and catching-up on each others lives. Tommy joins us a bit later, he was playing music at the local church and thus stayed out of troubles this beautiful Sunday morning. Boy I love these two, we talk, we laugh, walk around the garden and admire the new growth of vegetables Tommy planted this season. The weather looks like the sky is going to fall anytime soon, there is thunder way yonder and clouds are thick and dark, when all of a sudden some freezing cold air blows around us, I know Tommy likes his house on the cold side but air-conditioning his vegetable-garden is a bit too much, I think to myself. It really felt like a air-duck is spewing out cold air, but it actually came from the sky, thats how turbulent the weather is here.
We go inside and eat some lunch Brenda prepared, Green Beans with Potatoes, a Casserole of Eggplant Parmesan with local Rice, a feast for champions, and that just what we are.
After that it was time to set-up the camera for the famous 3 o'clock shot...
3 o'clock at Tommy and Brenda's in Walker, LA...
Brenda and Tom Guidry watching at pictures on my computer.
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