Bicycles and Armadillos, Harmonicas and Gumbo

This was a day filled with pretty much everything.

We've been drying out from a drenching thunderstorm.  Maybe 36 hours of pouring rain.  Three to four inches of it.  It rained so hard, our campground became a lake, and our kayaks started floating away.

We discovered some leak in the door gaskets of our Jeep, and moisture gathered on the front driver and passenger floors.  When we got up this morning, some rain had penetrated our slide gaskets, run down the edge, and got our bedroom carpet damp.  The joys of RV'ing:  water and electricity; electricity and water.  We tried to diagnose the leaks and we have plans to mitigate them in the future.

But today we could dry things out.  David turned the kayaks over, poured the water out of them, and started drying out all the stuff we store in them.

We decided to take a bike ride down to Palmetto Island State Park.  It is a recent addition to the Louisiana State Park system. The new state park is located about 11 miles south of our campground in Abbeville, Louisiana. The state of Louisiana acquired the property for the park in 1981 but did not begin construction on it until 2002. The park opened in 2010.

We packed a picnic lunch and mounted up for our first long bike ride in perhaps 4 months.  We were eager to see the area south of our campground toward the Gulf Coast.  As we pedalled, we crossed one of the ubiquitous Southern Lousiana drawbridges - quiet at this time:

Further down LA Highway 82 (after enduring several miles of 60 mph pickup truck traffic - those dudes don't slow down a stitch for bicycles), we spotted this horse, who was confused by humans mounted on two wheels:

The landscape is one of land and water merging:  rice fields, dry fields, canals and raised roads.  All flat:

Some farmhouses were perched picturesquely on their own ponds:

Eventually, we entered the park, and immediately encountered cypress swamp on both sides of the (only slightly) elevated road:

The entrance sign and the ranger at the entrance kiosk made us feel welcome.  Here's Kathy checking out the sign:

The ultimate purposes of this bike ride was to scout kayaking opportunities in the park.  The ranger suggested we start at Evangeline Pond, which is at the head of a network of several ponds and streams.  Here, David is assessing the likely put-in spot:

We also checked out the picnic areas and other boat launches.  We spotted a canoe rental station that looked closed, and some local kayakers taking advantage of the day's warmer, drier weather:

After selecting our kayak spots, we rode further to a lunch spot where the stream enters Vermilion River:

As we munched PB&J sandwiches, Mr. Chips, a river tug, came tootling up the river, signaling us with its horn as it passed:

Both pedaling into the park, and returning out, we were honored to encounter two cute little armadilloes, who were busy foraging through the leaves for buggy meals.  The little guys weren't the least afraid of us.  It might have been the armor they wore.

Our return trip was hard.  We had a stiff headwind and it was slightly uphill, so we worked hard for the 11 mile return.  Here, David stops to rest about halfway home:

We were amply rewarded for our bikely endeavors, however.  Kathy experimented making a crockpot gumbo for Happy Hour.  David's arm had been twisted to bring his harmonicas to the musical performance.  We listened to our RV friend Dan and a local group play a great variety of Cajun, Zydeco, blues and folk songs.  David did the best he could to keep up with them:

The music started at 3:30 and didn't end until perhaps 7:00.  As soon as they wrapped up, Kathy fetched her gumbo, our friend Cookie cooked some wonderful moist Louisiana rice to go with it, and Debbie prepared some scrumptious potato salad (you can't have gumbo without rice and potato salad - everyone knows that) and everyone tasted it.  We felt proud that our host Betty gave a seal of approval to Kathy's gumbo.  It may have used store-bought roux, but it was that secret element of TLC that gave it the earthy, spicy flavor that good gumbo must have.  Kathy was encouraged by this and promised to make more for dinner some evening.

For his part, David simply claimed the leftover gumbo for himself for tomorrow's lunch.