Cavaliers celebrate citrus on ride to Fort Jackson

The Cavaliers took a chilly but fun ride on Dec. 8 to the Plaquemines Parish Fair and Orange Festival at historic Fort Jackson near the mouth of the river.

It was one of those brisk fall days where it feels so good to be bundled up against the cold while you're out enjoying a long ride through the countryside. Temps were in the upper 50s with an overcast sky, but it made for great riding weather.

Poncho and William rode up to the rendezvous point at the Phoenix on Poncho's 1996 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic, to meet David, who was waiting on his 1996 Honda Gold Wing SE. They hung out for a while to see who else would show up, and just as they decided it would just be the two bikes, Mark came roaring around the corner on his 1998 Honda Shadow 750. We exchanged quick hellos and headed off toward the wilds of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.

We decided to take a relaxed ride down the river road on the East Bank, passing the Chalmette battlefield on our way toward Violet and Poydras, where we turned on to LA Hwy 39 for the ride down river to Point a la Hache. This is one of the great rides in south Louisiana, passing grand homes and trailer parks, churches and countryside, the river's grassy green levee ever on your right, snowy egrets and pelicans and buzzards taking flight as we roar past along the ribbon of pavement that follows the sweeping curves of the river. A finer ride on two wheels would be hard to find in these parts.

Hwy 39 skirts past Point a la Hache and makes a U-turn in a middle of nowhere place called Bohemia, before returning to the ferry landing at the point. William said later that he told Poncho that he felt like we were so far out in the country we were taking him out there to rape him. Poncho reassured him he had nothing to worry about unless he heard banjo music. This part of the state definitely gives you the feeling you're pretty much alone in the world. We saw little other traffic along the highway until we got to the ferry landing. We were first in line and had to wait for the ferry to make the return trip from the west bank before we could board, but there were several other vehicles who joined us on the southernmost crossing point on the Mississippi. Once boarded, we floated west across the muddy stream, while the Cavs humored David who couldn't keep from doing his Leonardo diCaprio "I'm king of the world!" impression on the bow.

After a short gas stop in Port Sulphur on the west bank, we high-tailed it down four-lane LA Hwy 23, slowing down only to enjoy the view from the top of the bridge at Empire. It's an amazing sight of the narrow marshy wetlands straddling both sides of the river as it juts southward into the Gulf of Mexico. Except for the substantial fishing fleet docked at the marina at Empire, you really get the feeling of being at the end of the world.

This time of year Hwy 23 is also lined with produce stands offering great locally grown citrus. We passed dozens of groves full of trees heavy with oranges and saw piles of fresh citrus bagged and ready for sale at these roadside vendors.

We soon had Plaquemines Parish sheriff's deputies waving us into the grounds at historic Fort Jackson, negotiated the gravel parking lot, parked the bikes, and found ourselves in the middle of a carnival, complete with rides, games of skill, cotton candy stands, and the scary-looking carnies who run them. We laughed when we saw kids on one of the rides -- motorcycles going round carousel style.

We walked to the entrance of the old fort, crossing drawbridge over the moat into the 1820s-era brick fortifications, built at the first bend in the river only 20 miles from the delta. Fort Jackson is directly across the river from the now-inacessible Fort. St. Louis, which was built where Bayou Mardi Gras met the Mississippi. The bayou is the landing spot of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who named the bayou for the day he landed there in 1699. The forts were built by the Americans shortly after Louisiana statehood to protect their interests in the Mississippi Valley. Fort Jackson saw a seige by General Farragut during the Civil War, only to fall after New Orleans was captured.

The fair filled the inside of the old fort, with tents for food and gifts, and a dance floor and a band set up in the middle. The food was great. I had some wonderful okra gumbo, as well as spinach and artichoke bread. Mark enjoyed a huge shrimp poboy, while Poncho feasted on crawfish bread. The onion mums, crawfish pie, shrimp pasta, and jambalaya all looked delicious. The Orange Queen and King were offering free samples of fresh Plaquemines Parish citrus, including navels, satsumas, kumquats, and tangerines.

We ate ourselves silly, then wandered around the fort. Poncho led us on a tour of the interior of the fort, where the cannon used to be mounted. The shadowy interior with its 200-year-old brick arches gave us lots of fantasy material. We hiked up to the parapets to look at the river and read the commemorative plaques, which included a marble plaque laid in 1999 by Rex, King of Carnival, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the celebration of Mardi Gras in North America.

With bellies full of gumbo, we mounted up and headed back upriver along Hwy 23, whose four lanes and 65 mph speed limit felt like a freeway compared to our relaxed ride downriver along the east bank on Hwy 39. Before we knew it we were in Belle Chasse, where two jets from the Naval Air Station flew some acrobatic maneuvers overhead. After a brief stop for a tug and barge to pass under the bridge at the Intracoastal Canal, we were on the Crescent City Connection and headed home. Six hours and 155 miles after we left the Phoenix, it was the end of another great Cavaliers ride.