One of the things that we find fascinating about traveling around this great country is the fascinating people we meet. I am going to bring you a few vignettes of some people we have met this last week.
We stopped in a small town, Thibodaux, LA specifically to visit the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center. We have run into this cultural group twice before in our travels. Once in Nova Scotia, where the Acadian people were expelled by the British at the end of the seven years’ war with France in 1763; (We call it the French and Indian War on this side of the pond.) and again in Maine when we toured Acadia National Park near Bar harbor.
When we toured the Cultural Center we met an enthusiastic lady ranger who took us step by step through the expulsion of the Acadians and their disbursement around the world. Some of them made it back to Nova Scotia, others into Maine and still others became the Cajun people of Louisiana. While we were trying to follow all the details of this lecture a little old gentleman came into the museum. Our ranger greeted him by name and he stood quietly by until the end of the talk. At that point she introduced Hamlin Landry, an 84 year old Cajun. Once introduced Hamlin became a fountain of information. He had to learn English to go to school as a boy. We learned of his World War II experiences and his Real-Estate career. He joined us as we toured the museum and explained all of the Cajun artifacts from first hand experience. We got to visit the pirogue Hamlin had built and was now on permanent exhibit in the museum. I will include a photo of Judy and Hamlin below.
Last evening we went for a short ride into Westwego, LA just to see if it were practical to ride over to New Orleans from our campground, Bayou Segnette State Park. When we returned we made a circuit of the campground to see how many sites were full. A car pulled out as we passed and followed us all the way around to our site. They stopped by our site and visited with us for half an hour. They are from Wisconsin and they also ride a recumbent tandem. They thought about riding with us today, but when they found out it was about ten miles they decided the car was a better choice. We did exchange cards and may ride later.
Today we did ride the ten miles through the suburbs of New Orleans, take the ferry across the Mississippi river and rode right through the heart of the Garden District to the French Quarter of New Orleans. A local bicyclist adopted us at the first ferry landing and showed us how to load onto the ferry. He then gave us detailed instructions on getting to the French Quarter and made sure we took the right turns as we disembarked.
This happened again in the afternoon when we got to the return ferry. A young lady showed us the proper lane to get in so the deck hands wouldn’t reprimand us when embarking on the ferry. Once on the ferry she showed us the way to the warm cabin deck.
On practically every street corner we had people admire our bicycle, give us the thumbs up, or call out to us as we rode by. We certainly felt welcome in New Orleans. Yes there are lots of buildings still in the stages of being repaired, but the city is alive and thriving. At least the areas we toured. Tourists are still a little scarce, and remember we are leading up to Mardi Gras. We even have seen a couple floats being built.
Many of the people use the bicycle to commute in this area. The streets in the
French Quarter, however, are narrow and not well adapted to the bicycle. Drivers and riders seem to share the streets reasonable well.
If our weary legs will stand it we will be off for another adventure tomorrow, (today was 26 miles.) Meanwhile Judy and I send our love to all from Cajun country.
