Cavaliers Forage on Fine Festival Food

Congratulations to Poncho, Doug, and Mike D., who braved the chilly but sunny weather on Sunday, December 7 to have a great ride to Fort Jackson and the Plaquemines Parish Fair and Orange Festival. Michael and David joined them, but followed on four wheels. The Gold Wing's battery was still in shock from our recent cold snap, and it didn't want to get out of bed that morning.

We followed the lovely and slightly twisty river road down the east bank, taking the turn-off that led to the even more twisty road to the Point a la Hache ferry. The ferry came to meet us soon after we arrived, but we then had about a half hour wait on board before we made the brief river crossing.

We stopped here and there on the way down to Buras, then arrived at Fort Jackson and the fair. It was surprisingly crowded inside the fort, with lots of people having a good time. Many people probably waited for Sunday since Saturday was so cold and overcast.

We chowed down on the great festival food. Michael and David put away a couple of wonderful funnel cakes, hot, sweet and oh so cripsy! There was also gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp pasta, boudin, poboys, fried duck strips, cracklin, onion mums, and all the other delicacies that make festival food in Louisiana so delicious.

They had a good band playing. We got to see three middle-aged women dance on stage to "All That Jazz" (drag queens would have been an improvement). We saw the shrimp peelin' contest, but missed the shrimp poppin', oyster shuckin' and catfish skinnin'. We toured the booths and saw all kinds of great stuff, like the "Santa Crabs" (Santa Clause faces painted on crab shells).

Wandered through the exhibits in the catacombs of the old fort, including elaborate displays created by area school children showing the cultural bounty to be discovered in Plaquemines Parish (lots of oranges and fishing boats). We walked up on the ramparts of the fort for a look at the river. And all in all had a good time. The day had warmed up nicely and the hot food and all the festivities made for a nice time.

We headed back to the city about 2:30. Poncho, Doug and Mike were in a pretty big hurry to get back before it started getting cold again. Michael and David rescued a pair of gloves that flew out of Mike's saddle bag onto the side of the highway, but otherwise it was a relatively quick and uneventful ride. Official Cavaliers mileage was 155 miles (with an asterisk by David's name, of course).