More Mardi Gras Parades!

Sunday we decided to go to Mass at St. Martin de Tours in St. Martinville. This church was built in 1765 by missionaries from France. It is still authentic with box seats for individual families. The choir sounded beautiful with guitar accompaniment, the psalms very similar to St. Alexis and St. Mary’s.
We enjoyed the “Newcomers Mardi Gras Parade” on Sunday afternoon in St. Martinville with all participants being African Americans.
We just sat around on Monday and Paul took advantage to go catfish fishing, taking home six for a total weight of twelve pounds. He discovered that catfish are hard to hook as they suck in the chicken liver bait and you think you have it set but not in all cases as he had fourteen strikes altogether. We now have catfish fillets in the freezer.
Tuesday was the big “Fat Tuesday” parade in Lafayette, two of them in fact with the second one totally African American! It’s really fascinating how people get caught up in the excitement of catching beads being thrown by the float participants. There were many beautiful floats commemorating Mardi Gras.
Paul was intrigued by a peanut roaster, on the side walk, being run by an 88 year old gent who explained that the roaster was 105 years old, and was originally a coffee bean roaster. He was buying big bushel bags of raw peanuts from New Mexico, then roasting and selling them for $2.00 per little paper bag. He had visions of his father.
We found a location to watch the parade where a young very friendly family was set up. They were very welcoming and accommodating, offering their lawn seats, etc. Faye, Heidi, and the two little girls managed to catch bushels of beads while Paul and Randy looked on amusedly!
Between the two parades, we walked to see St. John’s Cathedral but the doors were locked. We took pictures of a 500 year old huge live oak which was fenced off for its protection. This tree is massive!
Before leaving today, Paul drove up to Lafayette to check out this famous hardware store started in 1933 where he was told he would be able to purchase an original cast iron Dutch Oven. Lo and behold, they had a number of sizes so he picked out the 6 qt. model and is looking forward to try out some of the recipes in a Dutch Oven cook book purchased in Nevada!
Crawfish is very popular in these parts as evident by the few farms raising them throughout the area. We hope to purchase a few for a meal as we had tried one sometime ago to supplement a stir fry. Paul tested a few drops of “Debbie’s Hoo Ya XXX Cajun Heat” a Habanero Pepper which was extremely hot in this stir fry. We had to add a couple cups of rice to minimize the sizzle!
We drove to Covington, Louisiana today passing through a vast swamp area called Atchafalaya. The four lane highway through this swamp is built on stone piers.
Along the way Paul spotted a huge Outdoor World, Bass Pro Shop so had to stop and take a look while Faye caught up on some reading. Wow!! Everything for hunting or fishing could be found in this place! We finally got set up at Land O’ Pines RV Park outside Covington. Awesome pine trees here throughout the park.
Tomorrow we will drive to Gulf Shores in Alabama situated on the Gulf of Mexico hoping for some sun, beach and surf weather.

Later...