Southern Fun

 Hi all,
Continuing our trek southward our next stop was Jimmie Davis State Park. It is located near Chatham, LA in north central Louisiana. The newer park built in 1996 on a peninsula along Caney Lake, one of the premiere bass fisheries in the state.
 The park is 300 acres and features 17 cabins plus 2 deluxe cabins and 4 dorm style units with a conference center.
 It also features 73 campsites with water and electric and 2 boat launches and a marina.
 We really enjoyed the heavily wooded park and spent a lot of time bike riding the roads throughout the park.


beach area

splash pad

boat dock for campers

splash pad by beach

 We had nice weather and decided to stay an extra day enjoying the mid week quiet.
 Thursday we landed at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville Louisiana just south of Lafayette. Betty's is a small 17 site private campground built around the owners house.
 Betty's RV is not your typical campground as you don't have much of a campsite- no picnic tables, no fire pits, and just enough decent room for your rv. But what makes Betty's unique and rated one of the best small rv campgrounds in America is her famous happy hours.
 Most everyone in the park meets at 4:30 in a her neat outdoor gathering room. In cooler temps everyone just fits inside an indoor patio.
 The happy hour consist of introductions and hors d'oeuvres sometimes a dinner is planned. Our first day here and Betty was making a big pot of her gumbo for all to partake in.
 The camping season here is just beginning as snowbirds are just beginning the migration. Not full here but looks like we should have a nice group for the weekend.
 This is our 3rd visit here and we just love the Cajun experience. We love the different spicy food that you don't get anywhere else and listening to the heavy accordion Cajun music just puts a smile on ya.
 I had been thinking about this trip for a while as I had learned they were having two festivals in the next two weeks that I really wanted to attend.

 Saturday is Cracklin fest held outside nearby Touchets bar.  Cracklins (pork rinds) are deep fried in huge black kettles with cooking beginning at 8 in the morning. Cracklins are just one of the fare going on potatoes, sweet potatoes, Bedouin, chicken and even some venison backstaps were offered up.
 We arrived  with Toni and Doug, a Canadian couple we just met, at about 9:30 the music already going, early arrivals are treated to free beer, well its noon or 5:00 somewhere.
 One thing that makes this all surprising is you don't pay anything for the food, it is all placed out on tables in cardboard boxes and you just take a paper towel and kind of graze along. We would sit and listen to some music then sneak over and snack some more.

 We danced a bit but only to slow songs, some of these Cajun dancers are as much of a show as the music and we just didn't have enough dancing fluid in us.)