Louisiana: Cajun food, alligators and beautiful bayous

I needed to get back to Lake Charles to get my boat off blocks and into a protected stack in New Orleans before it got cold and I lost daylight savings time.  Daylight savings time changes on November 7.  I can't take vacation during the last month of a quarter so that left October as my window of opportunity. I was targeting the first week of October or the last.  The last week had my SMU Mustangs playing in New Orleans vs. Tulane but for weeks before October 9th the weather was forecast as perfect for that whole week.  I have to make a decision about a week before traveling to be able to use my frequent flyer miles so I jumped at the chance.


I flew back to Lake Charles and stayed with my friend Mark Politz. Of course, right before my flight the forecast changed.  Thunderstorms were predicted for the following day.  But every other day looked great.  The next morning it was time to go.  Thunderstorms were moving in early and coming off the Gulf right in my path.  But I was armed with an amazing technology, the Sirius Radio Weather overlay to my Lowrance GPS.  I could watch the storm cells direction, size and intensity .  I waited until one cell passed and launched, just ahead of another.  I was going faster than the trailing cell and everything looked great.


It was a beautiful ride.

My first stop would be a quaint, little old town in the heart of Cajun country called Abbeville.  It is about 100 miles from Lake Charles.  As I approached, my Sirius weather overlay showed a storm forming right over Abbeville.  Luckily the ICW was taking me South to a point called Intercoastal City.  I used to drive to Lafayette from Dallas the summer after I graduated from college, stay at the SAE house at USL, now LSU Lafayette, then drive to Intracoastal City and take a Huey helicopter about 100 miles off shore to work as a Roustabout on a jack up oil rig.  I arrived at Intercoastal City and waited until my radar showed that the cell had moved on, about an hour.  Blow up this picture and see my boat, the black arrow, approaching and see the cell over Abbeville.  The plus sign is right over Intercoastal City.  Without the Sirius weather overlay, I may have headed there prematurely.

Once I got to Intercoastal City and waited out the storm I headed up a beautiful river/bayou 13 miles to Abbeville.  But before I got to Intercoastal City was a huge lock to pass through.

And once in Intercoastal City, which by the way was no city at all but a hand full of shipyards on the ICW, I saw my first and only alligator.  There he is in the photo below, the little black bump.  I circled him and watched as he slowly cruised away, ambivalent to me and my boat.

Once I could see on my GPS that the storm had moved East of Abbeville I headed North up The Bayou Vermilion that snakes its way 13 miles to Abbeville and beyond...all the way to Lafayette.  As I turned the corner I cam upon a large group of shrimp boats.

The ride to Abbeville was absolutely beautiful, just how you would imagine that a Louisiana bayou would look.



I arrived in Abeville just before dark.  I had arranged to tie my boat up for the night at a place called the Riverfront Restaurant since there were no marinas or docks in town. 

Abbeville is a quaint little town in the heart of Cajun country where all the street signs and historical markers are in French as well as English.

An old, old graveyard with the graves above ground since the town is basically at sea level.  Blow up the picture and read the grave stone.

The center of the town was a beautiful old church.

I stayed at a terrific Bed and Breakfast called the Ducote-Williams House. The owner Dianna cooked me a great Cajun breakfast each morning. I ended up staying there two nights to wait out the thunderstorms that moved into the area. 

My room.

The lovely Dianna and her assistant Tara.  Tara was kind enough to give me a ride to my boat the morning I left. While I was in Abbeville I ate at a couple of great Cajun restaurants, including the one I tied up to, the Riverfront.

Then it was back down The Bayou Vermilion to the ICW and Houma, about 100 miles away.