BBB Day 29

March 24

It was a quiet night and we had a good sleep, so were up and out by 7:30, heading south a bit for a diversion in to the Louisiana Cane River Heritage area.

We drove on the Terry Bradshaw PASSway (funny, huh?) and found ourselves back amongst Spanish Moss and Wisteria and Azaleas in bloom.

Our first stop was the Oakland Plantation. The Prudhomme family owned this place for seven generations. The last living brother and sister sold the main house, the store and some outbuildings to the National Park Service in the 1960’s (they still own the 2,000 or so acres).

The main house was a little less grand than what we were expecting, but the Live Oak trees made for a grand entry:

I loved the bottle gardens in the front (some of these bottles date to teh 18th century):

Since the family lived here until the 60’s, the house is furnished in an eclectic way. ALL of the furnishings were either as left or found in the attics:

Some things were very beautiful:

…others reminded us that this WAS a plantation with slaves:

This was an interesting juxtaposition of images:

“Granny”

“Mrs. Butterworth”

The store was in operation to the 70’s:

We travelled on to another place, the Magnolia Plantation. The last female of the family still lives in the main house, and it’s rarely open for visits.

Here, the Slave Quarters/Tenant Quarters (yes, they were both through the years, but…) were in view:

It was a nice way to spend some time. We stopped at Walmart and I got carded (second time in two years!). When you buy alcohol, the cashier gets an electronic prompt, “Is customer under 40?”. I said yes and he HAD to ask for my ID. Okay, a cheap thrill!

We avoided a two-hour delay on our first south/north highway choice and headed a bit cross country, but we finally were heading east on Highway 20 again.

We tried the Poverty Point State Park, were told to take any empty site, set up then were informed by someone knocking at the door that we were in a reserved spot and had to leave. Aargh.

So we drove some more and stayed in a very quiet Loves Travel Center in Richmond, Louisiana.

Here’s a view from my chair (still cold; still inside):