Southern Cuisine

Just got to the New Iberia, Louisiana, MDS site. It was a long drive from Henderson, Nebraska, but we're here. We pulled onto the site on Saturday evening. Upon arrival, we found my parents a place to stay in Franklin, LA. The two hotels in town were booked up because two buses of National Guard had just pulled in and booked everything up. However, this encouraged my parents to get a room at a Bed and Breakfast place in town. The place looked amazing. There was a man and woman from Holland staying there as well. They were enjoying the evening on the back patio when we arrived, so we made small talk for a while and ended up talking exclusively about cycling once my trip came up. I kind of feel bad completely taking over the conversation when I bring up the trip I'm about to venture out on. It's been happening a lot lately and I feel bad for my traveling companions, as they end up hearing the same details of my trip about a hundred times over. Anyway, the man said that he had cycled from Amsterdam to Paris when he was younger, but thought Europe sounded like a much safer place to bike. My breadth of experience is limited, but I haven't found the U.S. to be that bad. Maybe I'm just used to it.

When we left our Dutch friends, we needed supper, so we ate at Landry's Seafood and Grill. It was amazing. The waitress showed us the quickest way to the meat. I had never ripped the head off of a crayfish before. I've got pictures. Actually, as I was taking pictures of my food, the waitress went and got two BIG crayfish and threw them on my plate. She seemed to find humor in a rural Nebraska boy learning to eat the local cuisine. She told us that the price of some of the sea food is going up because of the oil spill. The locals are saying that the New Iberia/Franklin area shouldn't be directly affected by the oil spill, but they're still concerned about the possibility of a tropical storm or hurricane blowing the oil inland.

We are spending Sunday in a pretty leisurely fashion. The day started off with a trip to Macedonia Baptist Church. It was a much more lively service than I'm used to at any of the churches that I've been a part of. One thing that stuck out to me was when the Reverend said he was thankful for today because we've never seen it before and we'll never see it again. Kind of an obvious statement, but I'm hearing it as I'm about to set out on a 6 month journey. I started thinking more in the direction of how I reflect back on a given day. DO I even reflect on my day? It's hard to be thankful for a day I don't even remember. Am I doing anything worth remembering? I mean, I think this trip is, but before that? Well, I'll ponder that as I go I suppose.

I'm working on some last-minute details for the next week or two of my travels and making sure I have everything I need for the trip and nothing that I don't. At the onset of this trip, my heaviest bag is my food bag. I don't think I'll ever have this much food on my bike again. I've got options though! Refried beans, black beans, rice, hummus, spaghetti with sauce, oatmeal, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, applesauce, peanut butter, beef jerky, Cliff Bars, and seasonings to keep it all tasting different each time. Most of the things listed above are dehydrated, so we'll see how they taste when I bust out the camp stove. Tortillas and/or flat bread will be a good source of carbs once I've got room to carry them.

I should be arriving in New Orleans on Tuesday afternoon and Pass Christian, MS, on Wednesday. We'll see how that goes!