jan 16 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012

I awakened with a start, realizing Evangeline and Hiawatha were not mixed up together.  Longfellow wrote both of them and I confused my poems.  At least I got the poet correct, if nothing else.  I was not upset that I was wrong, (that often happens) I was upset that I had imparted my faulty knowledge.  Longfellow wrote lots of epic poems and  my professor, Mr. Jordan (he pronounced it JERdan) would not be happy I confused them.  Please do not tell him!

Our camp ground was in a lovely wooded area beside a very busy highway.  Dan said it kept him awake most of the night.  Sometimes it is so handy having a literal deaf ear.  We called Don Bell in Baton Rouge, La. To ask him and his wife, Eva, to meet us for lunch today.  Let’s see how I can explain my connection to Don.  Dan and I live in the Caleb Bell house.  Caleb had several sons.  There was Jacob, Joseph, William, Caleb Norris, and daughters.  I’m going to ignore the daughters so I won’t confuse you any more than is necessary.   Caleb Norris and Jacob (or Joseph) were the first two persons from Carteret County to become circuit riders.  Making a really round-about story shorter, Caleb Norris ended up in Kentucky where he married his second wife and built a Bell’s Chapel  just as the chapel of his grandfather's was named.     Don Bell is descended from Caleb Norris Bell.  Caleb’s brother, William, decided to stay in Beaufort and become a dry goods merchant.  I am descended from William.  In May of 2001, Don hosted a Bell family reunion at Bell’s Chapel in Kentucky, and we were invited because we live in the house where Caleb Norris was born.  Now, aren’t you delighted to have read all this?

Don and Eva opened a touring travel business after he retired at the age of 57, and he suggested we do ourselves a favor and leave early so we would go through the Atchafalaya Swamp before the sun was too high overhead.  We took his advice.  What a beautiful drive we had.   He told us to stop at the Welcome Center there.  It took me several  tries to figure out how to pronounce Atchafalaya, and asking many people, too.  It sounds closest to,  “Uh-chaff-fuh-LIE-yuh”.   The center is beautifully done.   There are exhibit stations of low-water living, high-water living with crab pots, rifles, washboards and tubs, and cooking tools for each section.  One fascinating display depicted this area of Louisiana from 10,000 years ago, to 7,000, to 3,000 to present.  It depicted the future places of Baton Rouge, where we were standing, New Orleans future place (all originally in the ocean), and the delta area of today.   There were animated exhibits of the fauna in the swamp area along with the plants.  The raccoon peeped up from a tree stump and the terrapin stuck out his head and opened his huge jaws.  I am really happy they did not include an animated alligator.  The beautiful bronze figurines of alligators and bears, egrets, cranes, pelicans and muskrats were place in inconspicuous places to startle you as you walked around the center.  The black bear was inside a glass case, and stuffed!  They had an informative and well done 5 minutes movie about the swamp as it is today.  The movie was introduced by a mechanical stork and he also told us when to leave and where we could go, but gently.  There are many books and poems done by local people.  The entire time you are there there’s a conversation being held between a couple and they are speaking with the Cajun accent and the colloquialisms.

As we left, we decided to explore a bit and drove south.  We shook, jiggled, jostled, quaked, chattered and tried to talk, with little results.  This was probably the worst road we have encounted on the trip.  The more we drove, not finding a place to turn around, the more I became convinced we should not turn around.  After having our inside massaged all over everywhere, we came to a Y in the road and I saw a name I had seen on the map of Louisiana.   We headed that way.  It took us over a really interesting bridge and led us back to the west end of the swamp, so we were able to go over the swamp again.  It was as compelling as it was the first time we crossed over the swamp on an elevated bridge road.  The elevated road ran about ten to twelve miles.

We spent three delightful hours with Don and Eva Bell.  They insisted we eat with them, so we would have more time to talk.  Eva had a boneless chicken stuffed with a savory cornbread dressing,  a green bean casserole, and for dessert there was a King cake.  Since 12^th night we are in Carnival, preparing for Mardi Gras and Lent.  No matter how much of the scrumptious King cake we ate, none of us found the Christ child!  I suppose Don and Eva will find it before too long.  We had a wonderful and tasty meal.  Their idea of staying in their beautiful home was a great idea.  Everyone was relaxed and we did not have to rush to leave a restaurant.

It was a busy and fulfilling day, so we stopped soon at Jellystone Park at Robert, La.  Tomorrow we will reach Mississippi and hope to visit Jefferson Davis’ home.  We’ll let you know if we’re successful or not!

Take care and blessings,

Trippin’ Trailer Travelers