New Orleans to St. Francisville

And so the road trip begins. As I am sitting in the car getting my map out, I remember that I have left all my travel books on the coffee table at home. Lonely planet, Off the beaten track, rough guidebooks are all now 1500 miles away. Here we see an example of what I mentioned in my earlier post about lack of attention to detail. What I am left with is a road atlas with some random circles penciled on it. The circles represent a location that I thought I might check out. Without my books I really don’t know exactly what it was that interested me. There are two many circles in any given state so this a little like connect the dots except you aren’t going to get to them all. Not knowing what any of the destinations hold for me. I decide to simply pick one of the closest ones and head for that. Daylight is burning. Now one of the things that I always ask myself, regardless of where I am on this planet, is….what would it be like to live right here. I suppose if you are of the mind that a person lives in the moment and within them selves then it does not matter at all where you live. You will feel and be the same regardless of your surroundings. I have never been able to come to grips with that thinking. For some reason the place is very important to me. Pulling out of airport brings that in focus. The road is somewhat of an industrial zone. Horrible, ugly, dirty a smattering of chain gas stations or fast food joints around. In the midst of this is a development of modular homes it has a name like “Airport Court” As I pass by the question comes up. “What would it be like to live right there” now I can not answer that. I suppose there has to be some benefit to living there. Under a barrage of air traffic, trucks and trash it would be hard for me to know what that is. I always go back to it just must be very cheap. In truth though, that argument just doesn’t hold up. There is cheap living in all kinds of nice places. There is also a level where things just don't get any cheaper. I mean how much could you really save by living in that place. You would have to actually pay me….a lot…to live there. This would then allow me to travel and not be home much.
The road RT10 continues on North. Lake Pontchartrain is to the east and the Mississippi to west. It is busy road connecting New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Much of the highway is raised with swamp and cypress trees on the side. The swamp is a cool thing. Not something someone from the North ever sees. I see crab pots, some people fishing. It would be interesting to go back in the swamps, do a little fishing, wrestle a gator or some such thing. It looks beautiful. About half way to Baton Rouge we get on firm ground, pine forest spring up. There are a lot of new housing developments sitting right on the highway. These are not cheap places they look pretty nice in a cookie cutter all the same kind of way. I am guessing this is where you might find the sub-prime disaster really taking its toll. Those people whom a couple years ago were living at the “airport court” I am sure got talked into moving up here. Your still living on a highway but at least you got rid of the planes. Plus you have a cool fountain out front and if you get really wasted and can’t find your beautiful new house just pick anyone, they are all the same…There is a big banner on one of them saying prices start at $199,000 Maybe that is a good deal, frankly if I could afford to buy a place for $200,000 it would certainly not be there. To each his own.
In Baton Rouge I get lost a bit trying to find route 61. I end up on 61 “business” which takes me down through the city. I saw nothing that would compel me to spend anytime there. I roll through mile after mile of repeating concrete commercial scenery. Heaven forbid any American should ever be more then 1 mile from a cheeseburger and a bucket of fries. The road starts to become more rural. I pass some huge refineries and oil storage areas. About 15 miles out of Baton Rouge we are in the country. The road is great smooth and perfect, unlike in Vermont where the roads suck. Obviously frost heaves and plow trucks don’t take their toll on pavement down here. I pull over to look at my map. It is after 5pm and there is really nothing I can see ahead of me for a while. My “circle” is around something that says St. Francisville. This hardly looks like it will be much of a town and I am wondering about a hotel. Well I should be there in time to back track if I had to so on I go. When I reach my circle there is a Quality Inn right on the road. A really shady Bar, a pizza place and a gas station. I check in and get a room. It is packed with people. I ask the desk clerk what is going on and she says that St. Francisville is having some yearly shindig, also 2 weddings. I ask for a place to eat and she gives me a recommendation. St. Francisville sits about a quarter mile off the highway. It is a small town. I was told about 1600 people which would be a bit bigger then the town I live in. I have to say that I have rarely seen a prettier town in my life. It is just gorgeous. The homes are architectural treasures. There is obviously money here as people have restored or kept them in great shape. It is early spring here and the trees are just opening, along with the azaleas. The little main street is clean and quite. There are a number of antique places, some bed and breakfast places. There are several restaurants. A sheriff office, a little hospital, small grocery store. It is very similar to where I live up North except it is even prettier. I am blown away by it. Not the Louisiana I had imagined in my mind. I am also loving the temperature mid 70’s perfect. It is a bit late so I decide to do a walk about tomorrow. I drive down to the Mississippi they have a ferry dock and a pub and a Mexican restaurant their so I stop for a dinner. Big Steak, cold corona’s I chat with my bartender about the town. Apparently there is a big Grocery store and a Wal-Mart about 15 miles away. Other wise people go to Baton Rouge if shopping for big-ticket items. The bartender tells me I should go checkout the live music at this other place in town. Claims they always have good quality live music. Say no more. I arrive at this place which is packed with people eating dinner. There is a cover charge of $5 and the guy tells me the band is from Boston. Ok, that’s strange. There is an opening act some girl who can really sing. An acoustic guitar and a drummer. Very Melissa Ethridge like. I grab a beer and a table. The next band is a four piece; the singer is Eilen Jewell. She performs sort of what I call up-tempo old style country. She does a number of Loretta Lynn covers but most of the songs were original. They were very good. I got my first exposure to some country dancing. I think it might be called the two step? Sort of a cross between what we think of as swing and contra dancing. Looked fun. Not something you try without some idea what the moves are.
So the night wore on and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Great guitar player too. I stayed till the end as I always do. Eilen was selling CD’s after the show so I bought one and talked to her a bit. I asked if she ever goes to Northhampton MA (which has a great music scene) she said that she plays the “Iron Horse” often. Which floors me, as I love that place. I tell her I am from the Brattleboro area and she says ……”oh we just played at Latchis theater” Wow talk about a strange coincidence. What the hell? Well it was the perfect ending to the first day of the trip. I’m beat time for bed, more tomorrow.