Cajun Hunting Dog

A couple weekends ago I was in New Orleans for a Save Our Cemeteries fundraiser held in St. Louis Cemetery #3.  I'd never been to a party in a cemetery before, though I know they used to be more popular than they are now.  I took a night tour and learned about some of the more notable burials.  My relatives there were not part of the tour.

Part of the trip that really interested me turned out not to be the destination, but parts of the drive to it.  Just north of Opelousas I saw a sign along the road that said, "Cajun hunting dogs for sale."  What exactly makes a hunting dog Cajun?  When asked to find a duck or squirrel, does it say, "Woof woof, cher!  Woof!"? 

I had lunch with a friend at Shucks in Abbeville, then told my GPS unit to take me to the hotel across from the airport in Kenner.  I expected it to take me back up to Lafayette and on I-10 to New Orleans.  Instead, it told me to get on Hwy. 90 and continue for 102 miles.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  The weather was nice, the road was good, and I passed lots and lots (and lots) of sugar cane.  I had somehow believed that 90 tracked basically parallel with I-10, so I was surprised when I looked at the map on my phone and saw the Gulf of Mexico fairly close by.  "Where the hell AM I?" I thought.

As I'm sure anyone south of I-10 could have told me, Hwy. 90 curves south, away from the interstate and then back up towards New Orleans.  I went past Jeanerette, Franklin, Patterson, Morgan City -- nice riverfront area, by the way -- Raceland, Lockport, Des Allemands, and Hahnville (grrr, Hahnville...).

The town that caught my attention the most was Houma.  "Houma!" I shouted in the car.  "I haven't been o Houma in twenty years!"  I played in a soccer tournament there when I was a teenager.  Rusty bridges, weeds, and soccer fields is all I remember.  I recent visitor to Melrose gave me some restaurants to try next time I'm there.

The Almighty Internet informs me that taking 90 instead of 190/I-10 adds about half an hour to the trip from Natchitoches to New Orleans.  But if you've got some time on your hands and want a different, less stressful drive, I recommend taking 90.  It was fun.  

I got home in time Sunday to watch the Saints beat a team from north Texas by 32 points.  I assume they scrimmaged a college team or some such thing.  No NFL team would have looked that bad against the Saints.