USA Road Trip - The Second Week: Taos, New Mexico to Lafayette, Louisiana

The second week of our unplanned USA road trip was one filled with much celebration – starting off with spoiling ourselves on our first wedding anniversary in Santa Fe and ending with us being invited along to a surprise birthday party in Lafayette, Louisiana and meeting lots of new friends along the way!  The week also saw us enjoy some quality time with extended family in Texas and test our road trip limits during our first overnight stop in a roadside truck stop.   On reflection (given that we’re slightly behind with our blog posts and are actually writing this from Byron Bay!), this second week was the point where we realised that we really could achieve what we set out to do on this road trip – have a brilliant time travelling across the country without advance planning and making the most of all opportunities and challenges that came our way!

Sunday March 3: Taos – Santa Fe, New Mexico

We awoke in Taos on the morning of our first wedding anniversary and headed straight back to the Rio Grande bridge to enjoy breakfast and a walk while overlooking the last moments of sunrise over the canyon.  It was a lovely moment to reflect on the achievements and adventures of our first year of marriage, and share our excitement for the years yet to come.

The sun rises on our first anniversary overlooking the Rio Grande Bridge, Taos NM

We spent the morning driving the ‘Enchanted Circle’ scenic loop to the north of Taos, continuing to be blown away be the exquisite scenery at each turn – from abandoned mining shacks to huge snowy alpine desert tundra, to towering rock formations...

Farmhouses in the shadows of the mountains, Enchanted Circle, Taos NM

Jemima and towering rock formations on the Enchanted Circle, Taos NM

Santuario de Chimayo, High Road to Taos, NM

In the early afternoon we made our way down the ‘High Road’ from Taos to Santa Fe, with a stop at the Santuario de Chimayo, where the earth is reputed to have spiritual healing powers).  Alick had booked us into an adorable bed and breakfast, where we had an opportunity to have long hot showers and get properly dressed up (each of us wearing our one ‘good outfit’) for the first time since starting the road trip.  Alick had sneakily made both a pre-dinner drinks and dinner reservation in town – the first being at a bar called La Casa Sena which had a grand piano in the corner with a range of solo singers (who also happened to be the wait staff) taking it in turns to sing Broadway numbers.  Just perfect!  Dinner was at La Boca – a cosy Tapas bar which was featuring a range of special dishes as part of Santa Fe’s restaurant week, where the staff surprised us with glasses of sparkling for the occasion.  While all the food was delicious, the somewhat surprising highlight was a flat iron steak with salted caramel sauce… Delicious!  (Little did we know that salted caramel was also to feature as a highlight later in our trip – more on that in our week three post though!)  All in all, the day was such a lovely celebration of an amazing first year of marriage...

Monday March 4: Santa Fe – Tucumcari, New Mexico

Following a delicious blueberry waffle, bacon and maple syrup breakfast feast at our bed and breakfast, we set off for a day exploring Santa Fe.  Following on from our fun night out the previous evening, Santa Fe pulled out all stops for us and it was incredibly easy to fall in love with the beautiful, laid back atmosphere of the city and its residents as we wanted between market stalls, street side food trucks, shops, restaurants and breweries. As late afternoon rolled around we reluctantly hit the road again, with a view to edging a hundred miles or so east to reduce our travel time to Dallas the following day, in order to arrive at Alick’s cousin Ally’s place at a reasonable hour the next day.  Driving fatigue started to kick in as we approached a town called Tucumcari just west of the New Mexico/Texas state line, where we stumbled upon a very lively ‘Flying J’ truck-stop (a unique cultural experience in itself!) where we pulled into the parking lot, set up the mattress and tucked in for what we thought would be a very noisy and disruptive night’s sleep, but actually resulted in us both sleeping incredibly soundly!  We before our departure we saw some weird and wonderful things pulling through the truck-stop – including a car towing an aeroplane on a trailer!!

Our first USA truck stop experience - Tucumcari, New Mexico

Some of our company for our overnight stop in the Flying J....

Tuesday March 5 – March 6: Flower Mound, Texas

After an early departure from the Flying J truck stop, a fairly uneventful drive into Texas and a very random lunch stop in a town called Henrietta, Texas (where the locals were so surprised to see tourists from Australia they loaded us up with souvenir calendars from the local burger joint and gave us a free serve of fries with our burgers!), we made our way to Ally and Luke’s place in Flower Mound (just outside of Dallas). 

Fun times with the Stokes Family! 

Finley and Rafe

It was great fun to catch up with them all and Ally and Luke’s boys Finley and Rafe had grown so much in the nearly 4 years since we last saw them. The two days and evening we spent with the Stokes family was a really special opportunity to catch up on their news, see their life in Texas and enjoy spending time with them and with their beautiful yellow lab Bill in their home. Our time with the Stokes’ was spent being introduced to geo-caching, visiting a delicious Texan lunch spot, organising garden beds in their community garden, making s’mores on a backyard campfire, satiating our cravings for delicious home cooking, sampling local craft brews and generally hanging out.  Tuesday evening was climbing night for Ally, Finley and Rafe so we also joined them at the local climbing gym (where the three of them put us to shame with their climbing skills – and our complete lack thereof!).  A lovely couple of days with family whom due to the tyranny of distance we don’t see often enough…

Our first geo-caching experience, Flower Mound, Texas

Thursday March 7, 2013.  Flower Mound TX to St Francisville, LA

Leaving Ally and Luke’s mid-morning we made our way (not altogether without incident) through the labyrinthine freeways of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and onto the highways south-east toward Louisiana…

Leaving the Dallas area it was striking how quickly the scenery changed from scrubby desert to greener, wooded countryside as we approached the TX-LA border.  We saw fewer and fewer buzzards circling, and instead started to notice herons, smaller marsh harriers and kites wheeling overhead.  A couple of hundred k’s after crossing into Louisiana, and turning south off the Interstate freeway at Alexandria, we decided to follow the smaller roads for the remaining few hundred k’s through Louisiana towns such as Marksville and Effie, en route to St Francisville.  As the sun sunk in the sky and the shadows grew longer, we really started to get the feeling that we were in the south.  Suddenly we found the road on an elevated causeway, with low swampland on either side, and ramshackle cottages dotted between weatherboard mansions ringed with wide verandahs.  Even the air changed, becoming denser and warmer, and taking on a slightly musty-muddy smell…  Such a great change from the cold, crisp dry air of northern Arizona where we were only a week ago!

 It was fascinating to drive through the farmland; going past the many disused and derelict houses, overgrown farmyards and abandoned cars we found ourselves reflecting on the history of this particular part of the south.  Characterised by loss, resistance and displacement, we traced the human history of the area through the colonisation of the Native Indian people, to the Acadian diaspora re-located from Canada (from whom the Cajun identity arose), to the arrival of slaves – and their liberation following the Civil War – and great changes in fortune experienced by the plantation owners in the years that followed.  The complexity and depth of historical experience that has shaped this region of the USA is so visceral, and continues to influence the identity of the people who live here, to this very day…  (Unfortunately we were both a little too weary to get many photos of this - but the images are certainly in our heads!)

We experienced this first-hand on our arrival in St Francisville, when we went to the Magnolia Café for some much-needed sustenance after the long drive.  Perching up at the bar eating grilled pork chops and steak, we had the most fascinating conversations with a whole raft of locals, all of whom were regulars at the bar.  From workers at the local nuclear power plant for whom the battles of the Civil War seem to still hold much relevance, a retired and ailing tow-truck driver and his real-estate magazine owner friend, to a lobbyist for American citizens over the age of 50 whose daughter-in-law was an senior advisor for the democrats during Hurricane Katrina, we learned so much about the experience of living in Louisiana, and certainly have got a great feel for the timbre of the region. Feeling very full (and very lucky to have had such amazing conversations), we set up camp in the car park of the café, and crossed our fingers that the local sheriff wouldn’t disturb us during the night….

Friday March 8, 2013. St Francisville, LA to New Orleans, LA

Well the good news is that we didn’t have a visit from the Sheriff during the night in St Francisville!  We’d been thinking about what to do with our day around St Francisville and had noticed the day before that there was a wildlife reserve just out of town called Cat Island, where we drove out to have breakfast.  It was our first taste of the famous Louisiana swamps, and gave us a great opportunity to develop an appreciation for their unique charm and beauty (as well as their unique smell!!).  We saw many beautiful birds (egrets, cardinals, kites) as we drove out, and while we ate breakfast, but didn’t see any Louisiana Black Bears (not sure if we were sad or relieved about that!!).  We did find it interesting that we were in a nature conservancy area that allowed hunting (with permits) and were pleased that during our time there we didn’t hear any rifle shots close to hand!

Historic House on Royal Street, St Francisville LA

We spent the rest of the day driving around the many historic sites and plantations from the Indigo, Cane and Cotton boom-times in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  It was a fascinating experience, highlighting again the way in which histories can be told and retold in many different ways when recounted through different lenses.  Having visited a couple of plantations and looked through the St Francisville Museum, we were feeling a little like we were only getting one side of the story; that of the plantation owners, and their descendents.  We’d been brought a little into the world of the slaves by the (very good) guide at the Myrtles plantation, as he told the horrific story of slave girl Chloe, who it is believed still haunts the plantation to this day, but still felt that we wanted to hear a little more from the slaves perspective…

After walking around the stunning grounds of the Myrtles Plantation, we drove down to Donaldsonville, where we found the River Road African American Museum. We were lucky enough to meet the founder of the museum, Kathe, and had an absolutely fascinating tour from her around the various exhibits.  We were both really moved by the experience, which told the stories of the millions of men, women and children who were forcibly removed from West Africa and transported to Louisiana (and surrounding states) from the early 1600s through the mid 1800s (and the American Civil War).  The museum is very well curated and captures in a very powerful way the experience of slaves being ‘owned’ and traded amongst plantation masters.  It was a fascinating visit, and we both felt that we had gained a much more holistic sense of the history of loss, belonging, trauma and pride that characterises the area.

House in Donaldsonville, LA

From Donaldsonville we drove on down the road toward New Orleans.  Again we took the scenic route, which while taking longer also enabled us to avoid much of the Friday afternoon NOLA traffic!  Arriving at the accommodation we had booked through AirBnB we were greeted by our friendly host Will, who proceeded to give us fantastic tips on where to go to eat, drink, listen to music, and everything in between!  We headed out to the French Quarter, starting on Frenchmen street with some Bluegrass at the Spotted Cat Café, before moving on to Apple Barrel for a one-man blues guitar show…  Awesome!  Our third bar looked like a bit of a seedy nightclub (neon lights and the whole works) but we were lured in by the sounds of a big horn band, who proved to be very entertaining, and we spent the next hour jiving to their big sound and entertaining lyrics…  We then decided it was time to sample a Sazeraq, the famous NOLA cocktail, and headed to Bar Tonique on the northern fringe of the French Quarter.  Having accidentally found ourselves on the famous Bourbon St en route, we were relieved to find Bar Tonique to be a nice haven from the madness a few blocks south! 

We eventually made it back to our place (a classic New Orleans ‘half-shotgun’ house) in St Roch at around 3am, having had a couple of drinks on Bourbon St and feasted on food-truck fare on the way home, and fell into bed, very satisfied that we had given the NOLA nightlife a good go!

Saturday March 9, NOLA to Lafeyette, LA & Sunday March 10, Lafeyette

After a somewhat slow moving morning after our late night, we wandered down to the highly recommended restaurant ‘Elizabeth’s’ for a recovery breakfast (where Tess enjoyed one of the best meals of the entire USA leg – fried green tomatoes – and Alick worked his way through a classic hearty NOLA breakfast of smothered steak and grits).  From there we headed down to the ninth ward where Andy and Will – our hosts from the previous evening – had suggested we go to make sure we had an understanding of a different side of New Orleans – the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina (Andy and Will had both come to NOLA as volunteers post-Katrina and have lived there ever since).  Visiting the ninth ward was one of the most confronting aspects of this leg of our trip – with entire streets completely decimated and completely untouched in the 8 years that have passed since the devastation.  In some cases, handwritten signs had been posted to indicate street names and house numbers in the absence of anything remaining on these streets.  At one end of the ward, there were a series of new developments built, as part of Brad Pitt’s ‘Make it Right’ project.  Given the strong emphasis that was prominent in the French Quarter about NOLA’s recovery from Katrina, the complete contrast of the ninth ward had a very strong impact on us both. 

House in ninth ward, NOLA

House plot, ninth ward, NOLA

Abandoned house, ninth ward, NOLA

House plot, ninth ward, NOLA

Makeshift street signs with Make it Right project houses in background, ninth ward, NOLA

After seeing the ninth ward, we found ourselves somewhat conflicted about heading back into the French Quarter and, remembering the recommendation we’d received from Thomas, the fellow traveller we met in Albuquerque, decided to make our way to Lafayette instead to check out music at the Blue Moon Saloon.  The drive across to Lafayette was another experience to remember.  On leaving the immediate environs of New Orleans, we soon found ourselves driving across a dual carriageway built on a causeway suspended over swampland below.  This in itself wasn’t particularly striking, as we had experienced a number of bridges similar to this on our way into NOLA; what was amazing was the length of this causeway.  We must have been driving over the swamp for 40 or 50 miles, pretty much dead straight.  We certainly started to understand why the swampland of Louisiana is such a pervasive theme throughout the local music, art, food and other culture…

Swampland home, LA

We made it to Lafayette by 4pm but arrived at the Blue Moon Saloon to a sign stating the venue was closed for a private function – so disappointing!  However, the sign didn’t state whether the private function was just for the day or extended into the evening so we decided to temporarily ignore the sign and walk on in…  We started chatting with two women who were sitting on the verandah, who turned out to be sisters – Bubbles and Judy – and explained they had the venue booked for the entire evening as a birthday party for Bubbles’ daughter Dawn and her partner Brandon.  After a great conversation with Bubbles and Judy about where we were from and our travels, they insisted that we mustn’t leave, and had to come along to the party!!!  We couldn’t quite believe their generosity, and agreed to find somewhere to go and change and come back for the party later on.

No sooner had we found a park around the corner outside a deli (where we planned to spend the night in the back of Jemima) were we approached by a young family asking about our travels in Louisiana (with the brightness of our car again being a great conversation starter).  On hearing we had just arrived in town, they recommended we followed them into town to an event called ‘Art Walk’, which was a monthly event that involved the galleries across town opening late into the night, with free admission to view local art works and listen to local musical talent.  We took up the suggestion and walked into town, checking out some great contemporary art – even including a short preview of a new musical called ‘In His Grace’.  With free champagne flowing, we spent a couple of hours at ArtWalk getting a sense of the musical and artistic vibe of the city and mingling with the locals before making our way back to the party at Blue Moon Saloon.   

From that point on, the remainder of the evening was a blur of people filled with pure warmth, friendliness and genuine hospitality and who really know how to party!!!!  We were so touched by how everyone welcomed us with open arms and were so happy for us to completely gate crash the party.

The moment we walked in we had full bowls of gumbo placed into our hands (so delicious!) and were introduced to the entire extended family.  There were two bands playing during the party – ‘The Mike Dean Band’ from Lafayette and ‘T-Bird and the Breaks’ from Austin, Texas – both of whom were just brilliant and really got the whole party dancing.  After making quick friends with two women named Melissa and Blyss – whose husbands, Buck and Mike, were playing in the Mike Dean Band – Melissa invited us to come and stay at their place in Cow Island the following evening – a generous offer we happily accepted.

Tess with Melissa and Blyss

The women who insisted we gate-crash the party - Bubbles (Kathryn) and Judy

At one point during the party, we were asked where we were staying that night and, on mentioning that we had a mattress in our car, there was a flurry of action to arrange us alternate accommodation.  In the end we had two offers made – one from Dawn (the host who had arranged the surprise party for her partner Brandon and booked out the entire house) found us a bed in the Blue Moon Saloon, while Judy (who initially invited us to the party) insisted that her daughter Chanda and husband Mike had plenty of room in their guest house… On their invitation (and on the recommendation of their daughter Kayla who told us with much excitement that the house was ‘amazing’) we followed our gut instinct that they were good people, took them up on their offer. 

There is little that we can put in writing to describe how amazing Chanda and Mike’s place was – from the guest house that is as nice than any hotel room we’ve ever stayed in, the amazing pool (complete with swim-in bar), the full size home gym or electric fireplace within the walk-in robes – it was absolutely as Kayla said – amazing!  Above all, however, Chanda, Mike and Kayla were such kind, genuine people and we ended up sitting around the pool with them, drinking whiskey and wine and talking about life until we suddenly realised it was 5am and we should probably get some sleep!

Room with a view at Mike and Chanda's

After a slightly slow start the next morning, Mike and Chanda took us out to Don’s Seafood Shack – a restaurant owned and managed by Chanda's first cousins the Landry family (Dawn, whose party we had crashed the night before is the manager and part-owner with her brother) - to sample some more of Louisiana’s incredible food – starting off with BBQ oysters before a massive crawfish, shrimp and crab feast.  We don’t think we’ve ever seen so much food in our life and when we got to the point where we couldn’t fit in another bite, Kayla (who was working in the restaurant that morning) set about filling up our car fridge to get us through the next few days on the road.  

At Don's Seafood Shack with Kayla, Chanda and Mike

BBQ Oysters for breakfast - delicious! 

After farewelling Mike, Chanda and Kayla with hopes to someday see them again either in Lafayette or Australia, we set off to have a look at Avery Island – where we got our first glimpse of some small alligators and the site of the Tabasco Sauce factory (which was unfortunately closed by the time we arrived).  After a relaxing arvo in the Avery Island gardens, we then worked our way across to Cow Island to take up Melissa and Buck’s kind offer of having us to stay the night their place.

Alligator, Avery Island LA

Blyss and Mike had also come over for the evening, as had another couple named Kelly and Troy – so with all of us it was quite a gathering.  Melissa and Buck’s house sits alongside Buck’s grandparents crawfish ponds and Melissa had cooked up a delicious crawfish ettouffé for us – yum! Melissa and Buck’s two young sons Cody and Gabe were a delight to be around and so polite (it was quite an adjustment for us to get used to being called ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’!) and Cody, being a massive Steve Irwin fan, was so well informed about Australia and shared many tidbits with us about Australian wildlife that we had no idea about!  We had a lovely restful sleep in the Verret household that evening (with Cody generously giving us his room for the night) and before we knew it, it was time for more farewells the next morning as we set off in the direction of Austin, Texas.

Hanging out with the Verret's - Buck, Cody and Gabe (shame we didn't get Melissa in the picture too!)

Out of all of our travels in the USA, Lafayette was definitely the hardest place to leave – farewelling our new friends who had so generously opened up their homes and hearts to a couple of random Australians.  Above everything else, we left Lafayette knowing that everything said about ‘Southern hospitality’ is completely true.  If we ever return to the USA, Lafayette will certainly be at the top of our ‘must return to’ list and we truly hope that some of the new friends we met there make it to Melbourne some day so we can return their hospitality.