St. Francisville & New Roads and parts beyond
I feel the need to make a post. I've been hit and miss lately. I have so many adventures to write about. I have so many pictures to share. I've been putting pictures on flickr with the intent to post some of them here. I just haven't take the time lately to post any of the stuff we've been doing.
Last week, Joe had off five days in a row. Because he was working when Kelsi came home, he opted to wait until he was off to make big plans with Kelsi. So we got together and thought of all the things we used to enjoy doing when she was here before. We made a list and started knocking them out, one by one.
The first day he was off, Joe was exhausted, so he slept. On that day, Kelsi and I just swam at the pool. It's pretty much what we do every day if we don't have any plans. On the second day, we had planned to go to Tunica Hills, but we got a really slow start. We ended up going to Gigi's (my grandma's) in Denham Springs instead. On the third day, we finally got out of the house. On the third day, we made up for lost time.
Our plan was to go to Tunica Hills just past St. Francisville. We got all the way up there when an argument broke out in the car that Joe didn't print out a map and didn't know how to get there. He was just going to drive along the Tunica trace. We backtracked to St. Francisville, but were starving by this time, so we stopped over at The Myrtles for lunch.
The Myrtles is the local haunted house. It's an old plantation that is haunted by a slave and the first owner's children. The slave was a notorious eavesdropper and had her ear cut off and was banished from the house for her bad behavior. In an attempt to get back into the house, she boiled some oleander leaves and put the mixture in the children's birthday cake. Instead of just making them sick, she killed them and their mother. She was immediately lynched and hung out in the front yard. She is said to haunt the place because of her guilty conscience.
We were going to book a room, but we decided to put it off for a little while. So we had lunch and walked around the grounds, then took a little tour of the bottom floor. The mirrors are supposed to be haunted, too, in that the streaks keep coming back into the glass even though it has been replaced several times. There's also a spot in the back yard between two of the buildings where Cloe (the slave) has been photographed. She wasn't there when we visited, but Joe did see a ghost of a soldier on horseback in a window. While we were on the tour later, we learned that that ghost might have been the guy that had shot the second owner of the house. Also, Kelsi and Joe felt the cold chill of a ghost under a tree, but I'm pretty much numb and didn't experience anything.
After lunch and the tour, we hopped back in the car to try to find Tunica Hills. It was getting late in the day when we finally got there. We got as far as the parking lot when we realized we needed three dollars in cash for the parking lot before we could go on the trail. We saw a store back behind us, so we did a u-turn and headed to the store to get some cash.
Well, this store was built in the 1800's and didn't come equipped with an ATM. The lone cashier said she wasn't affiliated with the park and that she didn't accept credit/debit cards and couldn't help us. We asked where the closest ATM was and she directed us back to St. Francisville. Since her store was pretty and it was such a nice day, we walked around the grounds to take a gander.
After that it was back to St. Francisville to find an ATM. On the way we passed a little coffee shop and I was tired and cranky and dying for a cup of coffee. We stopped in right before closing time and got some yummy latte and Kelsi got some ice cream. It was a great diversion, as it was a small mom & pop that was charming and offered a little bit of local flavor, including hand-colored pictures on the wall and a big chalkboard outside that invited everyone to become the next great artist.
While waiting for the coffee, Joe and I talked about how it was already late in the day and waaaay too late to start a hike into the woods, so we would have to postpone the Tunica Hills hike again. We had seen the sign for the ferry a while back, though, and thought Kelsi might enjoy a ride across the Mississippi. The Mississippi River was at flood stage and had started to creep towards the road.
Sandbags had been placed along the sides of the road to slow her progress. Water is so beautiful in every form to me. While the Mississippi is undeniably brown and muddy, it provides living vein in the life of this Baton Rouge resident. I couldn't help but take a few shots.
So after a short wait, we finally boarded the ferry. One of my friends, mixter11nm, takes the ferry every weekday to go to work, but it is a special treat for us. I got the idea that there are people who use the ferry here for a regular commute, but as it was an adventure, I felt that it was noteworthy. The sun was getting lower on the horizon. The smell of the river reminded me of lazy days spent on the Tickfaw River in my past. The current was strong, though, and the ferry driver was adept at conquering its force.
Joe's idea was to just stay on the ferry and go right back, but since I had never been to New Roads, I said, "What the heck?" and we headed in that direction. It must have been our day, too, because as we headed into town, there seemed to be some commotion going on at the town square. We alighted from our vehicle to see what the fuss was about. Well, we just happened upon live music and dancing! What do you know? Furthermore, right beyond was the False River (which isn't really a river at all, but a lake).
We went down to the pier and sat and listened to the sounds of the band and watched the sun get lower on the horizon. We watch the ducks swim, sparkly speedboats load and unload from the ramp, and let the moment wash over us. Here was this gorgeous setting just a short drive away from us! We promised each other that we were going to get a boat in the near future so we could enjoy more moments on the water. We remembered when TJ, Adele and Kelsi were younger they all have boats they were going to acquire: TJ wanted a sparkly speedboat, Adele wanted a blue canoe, and Kelsi was going to have a purple paddleboat.
We debated the merits of staying there to watch the sunset over the lake. The problem was that we weren't sure of time of the last ferry ride back, and it would be a long drive back if we missed it. As we walked back to the car, we HAD to dance for a moment before we went off into the sunset.
Back to the ferry to cross the Might Mississippi again. At this point I gave the camera to Kelsi to take some pictures. She did a good job, didn't she?
After alighting from the ferry we still had a little bit of daylight left. Aren't summer days glorious? We followed our nose and took a little driving tour around the historic area of St. Francisville. The town was settled in 1809 when several houses were moved there from Bayou Sara because of the changes in movement of the river's course. It is home to many plantations and is listed on the National Historic Registry. We gawked at the beautiful old homes, churches, and public high school. We found buildings buried in vines and stairs leading to nowhere. I was reminded of another part of my life living in a historic area much like this one in Virginia.
It was a memorable day! As we drove home and left the beautiful rolling hill behind us, we made plans to return. We'll spend the night with a ghost or two at The Myrtles. We'll finally hike to those waterfalls at Tunica Hills, we'll spend more time on the Mississippi, and we'll get us a boat out on the lovely False River. Time spent in that part of Louisiana promises to be of a slower pace than in the city and will always be easy on the eyes.