Bits o' Betty's RV Park

Hi Blog!

On Thursday, February 15, 2018, we left Betty's RV Park after a month long celebration of Cajun Culture and all things related to Mardi Gras! We are now settled in the Davis Bayou Campground in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. During our stay at Betty's, we were so busy, we fell behind on our blog posts. We collected a huge number of photos from all the different events we attended. Rather than blog about each one, we went through the photos and picked a few to help us remember all the fun we had.

Betty is the hostess with the mostest. With her niece, Monica, we felt enveloped into the family. If you stay with Betty, you will get caught in Betty's Web!  Here, the two of them serenaded our group:

Music is a big part of Cajun Culture. The Museum Cafe in nearby Erath hosts jam sessions on Saturday afternoons. We met Dave, Joe, Kristy and the boys on our very first day at Betty's as they offered us a special concert at the campground. We were happy to get another chance to hear them play at Museum Cafe that first Saturday:

Food may be an even bigger part of Cajun culture. Betty did her best to come up with a list of restaurants for us to sample. Dave was determined to have gumbo whereever we ate. The only exception to the rule was Morvant's in Youngsville, which is known for its burgers and po'boys.  Dave didn't object to a spicy sausage po'boy in lieu of a bowl of gumbo:

For Bernie's and Dodo's 50th Wedding Anniversary, some folks got together and hired Don Rich, a popular south Louisiana swamp pop singer, to come and perform at Betty's. Swamp pop is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences. 

Although a fairly obscure genre, swamp pop maintains a large audience in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, and it has acquired a small but passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, northern Europe, and Japan. When Don starts playing those toe tapping tunes, you just can't help but get up and dance.

On February 8, 2018, our friends Ginny and Eric stopped at Betty's on their way to Mobile. They came bearing gifts. In return for us gathering Star Trek autographs for their son Adam, Eric and Ginny gathered craft beers for us! There was also an exchange of Knob Creek Smoked Maple Bourbon for local Bayou Rum! We stuffed them with jambalaya and boudin and sent them on their way with a promise to Betty that they would return!

Happy Birthday, Dave! February 12, 2018, started with a pot luck breakfast accompanied by Zydeco music, courtesy of DJ Betty. No sooner did we get cleaned up from our breakfast, than the band showed up. They must have heard that Kathy was making another pot of her seafood gumbo.

Everybody got into the act. Here, Barb and Kathy made their washboards hum!

After a number of ladies-only dances, the guys jumped up and did their own jig!

John Paul and Celine are RVers from Quebec. They were kind enough to spend some time with us working on the itinerary for our upcoming 2018 trip to the Canadian Maritines. We look forward to seeing them again this summer when we camp in their hometown of Carleton-sur-mer, Quebec.

As the birthday cheesecake was being passed around, the band began to sing "Happy Birthday," only they changed the lyrics to "Hope you get some tonight. Hope you get some tonight."  No further comment:

Well, it finally arrived. After a month long celebration, it was finally Mardi Gras on February 13. After a late night celebrating Dave's birthday, we opted to skip a Mardi Gras Festival in Mamou, and instead settled on the 2:00 p.m. parade in Kaplan, based on a recommendation from Betty's niece Monica. With donuts in hand, we staked out a spot to watch the parade with Monica, her husband Cordell, their family, and some other folks from Betty's.

Mardi Gras floats come in all sizes, shapes and designs:

The revelers on the floats throw candy, cups, frisbies, stuffed toys and, of course, beads - lots and lots and lots of beads. We did a great job handing off most of them to the young kids that surrounded us. The rest of our beads, we donated to Betty to use as garden mulch!

Here's a photo of another funky float with its partying revelers:

"Throw me something mister!"

It is hard to believe that our time at Betty's RV Park is over. We met so many wonderful, fun and adventurous folks. We can't wait until our paths cross again. 

Betty - we will be back! Once you've been caught in Betty's Web, there is no escaping!