March 18: Natchitoches, LA.

Another big 1 1/2 hr. drive and we land in Natchitoches, LA. I have been pronouncing this wrong (along with many other people) for all my life. It is pronounced Nac a tish. I'm anxious to hear from my French speaking friends to get a real French pronunciation of this one. The locals seem to thinks it's a Louisiana thing - may not be the original way to say it.

Natchitoches is the odlest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It was established in 1714. It was originally an outpost on the Red River to trade with the Spanish in Mexico. The sucess of trading with the local Indians, prompted leaders to establish a trading post here and named it after the local Natchitoches Indians. The Cane River Lake is where the Red River once ran. Over the course of years of normal current and flooding, the Red River changed it's course and bypassed Natchitoches. Northwestern State University is located here, too.

After we got set up and established TV and Wi-Fi - YEA!!! we drove into town for lunch. Ended up at a place called the Chuck Wagon. It was a converted Wendy's and served basic American food. Larry ate fried chicken and I had a chicken fried steak. The big deal was in a closed off room there were a lot of students. Larry asked about them and we found out that the KU rowing team is down here for spring break training on the Cane River. We chatted with them (I of course informed them that I was K-State but they were OK with that) and we all went our way. We decided to drive downtown to see the area and got out to walk. Found WSU is also here. We visited with them and found that there is going to be a scrimmage tomorrow between several schools. Larry and I will wear our WSU t-shirts tomorrow and go cheer them on. Small world.

Tonight as I sit here updating three days of my blog on Wi-Fi (after days without it - I'm just really, really excited to have it back) and watching TV (yea!), I can hear frogs around the small pond behind our camper. Probably have to close up the windows tonight to block them out. We're also camped behind a truck stop so I'm hoping that won't be too noisy.

We will be seeing several more plantations. I'll try not to bore you with too many photos - Larry says once you've seen one, you've seen them all. But I enjoy the history of them - and the beautiful landscaping. The downtown area looks like the French Quarter in New Orleans and there are several restaurants to try out before that diet plan goes into effect. Larry's anxious to try real Creole/Cajun food - maybe not crawdads - but the other stuff. I'll be looking for fried shrimp or hamburger steaks - maybe another chicken fry. Meat Pie is the big food around here so I'll try one of those. And I'm sure the desserts will be unique too.

In case you didn't notice, I've updated three days, so go back and check out the other two if you started here.