Back in Betty's Web Again

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Hi Blog!

This is our last full day at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana. We arrived here two weeks ago and it's been non-stop fun ever since. We blogged about a few of our adventures already, like the Church Point Mardi Gras Celebration, Fishing for Crawfish, Paddling the Vermillion Bayou and our visit to Jungle Gardens. Here are some additional highlights of our time with the folks at Betty's RV Park.

First, let me introduce you to Betty's house band, The State Street Beat Band. From left to right - Dave, Dan, Gail and Brenda. When the Band is playing Happy Hour is all the more happy!

No visit to Betty's would be complete if we didn't stop by and visit the folks at Martin Accordions. Junior Martin was making accordions when accordion wasn’t cool. Now the small accordions the Martins makes (which sell for $2,400 and up) are the centerpiece instrument of Cajun and Zydeco bands.  Martin’s daughter, Penny, a former school principal, plays guitar, triangle, and bass with the family.  Junior Martin plays his favorite, steel guitar. Grandson Joel Martin plays the accordion, along with a dozen other instruments. They entertained us with a series of songs and stories that conveyed the history of Acadian, Cajun and Zydeco music.

After the performance, we got to see a number of demonstrations.  Dave got a chance to try one of the accordions. This type of accordion is called a melodeon and is most closely related to a harmonica. Dave said that while it felt familiar to the piano and harmonica, the extra chord keys for his left hand were very complicated. He just focused on picking out a few notes with the right hand keys.

Music is a big part of Acadian life. We were invited to Touchet's to listen to a local jam session. The folks from Betty's State Street Beat Band had a chance to jam with some of the local musicians.

We were also invited by the folks of Kaplan Loan to watch the Kaplan Mardi Gras parade from their office building. The folks from Touchet's were there along with three generations of both families' members. The Kaplan parade is a classic parade with dance troups, marching bands and floats with various themes.

This is a family friendly event, but that didn't mean some silliness didn't happen.

The folks that put together the Star Wars float went all out. The krew were all dressed as various Star Wars characters.

As good as the Star Wars float was, I felt a kindred spirit with the Charlie Brown float, especially since I just happened to be wearing my Charlie Brown and Snoopy solar eclipse shirt!

On Friday morning, we held a potluck breakfast complete with Bloody Mary Bar. Kathy brought Clamato Juice and introduced some of the campers to the Classic Canadian Caesar a la Leslie Manion. The difference is gin instead of vodka.  Below, Peggy and Gene are certainly having a good time at Bloody Mary Morning, but it's not clear whether it was due to the drinks, since they seem to have fun all the time!

On Saturday, several campers headed over to Buck and Johnny's for a Zydeco Breakfast. In addition to the crawfish omlettes, boudin scrambles and beignets, there were unlimited Bloody Marys and Mimosas. After filling up on breakfast, you spend the next couple hours dancing it off to the upbeat sound of Zydeco Music. Here one of the locals is trying to show Peggy and Kathy the Zydeco two step.

Back at our table, Becky tries to recover from being danced around the floor by a very enthusiastic local two-stepper.  Les comforts her.

On Sunday, Calvin and the folks from Touchet's came to Betty's to cook up some Cajun Jambalaya. Did you know there is a difference between Cajun Jambalaya and Creole Jambalaya? Apparently, the Creole version uses crushed tomatoes. There are no tomatoes in the Cajun version.  So there is no doubt, from the photo below, which version this is:

Once the sausage started cooking and the wonderful spicy aroma started filling the campground, the campers came out to keep the cooks company. Here is the finished product - Cajun jambalaya, blackeyed peas and coleslaw. We are now sold on the Cajun version of jambalaya.

Kathy couldn't resist one more chance to partake in a crawfish boil. Here the "other" Cathy-and-Dave (Berry) get ready to dig in.

To thank Betty for all her hospitality, we decided to use the last of our Meziadin Lake smoked salmon to make a gumbo for dinner Tuesday night. Now, Betty was worried. She never heard of smoked salmon gumbo. While it was not a traditional Cajun gumbo, the crowd enjoyed it! Not sure what we will do next time we visit, but you can bet it will be unique!

We are already looking forward to our next visit with Betty. We don't know exactly when that will be, but it will happen. Until then, stay thirsty my Betty RV friends and laissez les bon temps roulez!