Abbeville Louisiana; Betty’s RV Park 2018 Year 2

This is our second time down to the southern Cajun country in Louisiana.  The small town of Abbeville has some of the friendliest people and the best food.  And they like to have a good time!  They have festivals going on every few days.  We went to two festivals over the first weekend after arriving, including the world famous Omelette Festival.  We have been so busy having fun that I may need a few days to just rest up!

The drive was the perfect length at 153 miles while towing the 5th wheel coach.  We needed to arrive by 12 noon to be able to take in the Cracklin Fest so we were jacks up and ready to leave New Orleans by 8:30 am.

My only real concern on this leg was commuting through the New Orleans city traffic on a combo of I-10, I-610, and I-310.  It really helped that it was a Saturday morning.  There was still a lot of traffic to dodge leaving town, but it all worked out well.

This is our second time staying at Betty’s RV Park with the first time last October, just before we went to Florida for the winter.  Here is a LINK to the first blog post.  I have a hard time believing that we have been on the road for 1.5 years now.  Crazy!

While Betty’s RV Park may not have all the amenities, it more than makes up for it with a friendly atmosphere where the RVers all become friends after their week stay.  Betty is a sweet and charming hostess.

Not only does Betty plan a daily 4:30 pm happy hour for her guests, but she also plans many excursions each week to get out and absorb the local culture.  We took advantage of all of those offers.

As I write this blog post, it is Sunday and our 9 days will end tomorrow as we slowly make our way to the Dallas area to meet family for Thanksgiving.  Well, here is a quick run down of our week so far:

Cracklin Fest

The annual cracklin festival was delayed due to rain, so that we could enjoy it on Saturday, the day of our arrival.  Good cajun music and freshly prepared cracklins.  It was a great weather day at about 80 degrees.  The event was held at the local 2 Checks venue.  A bar plus more.

Cracklins are a chunk of pig skin with fat attached that have been deep fried and well seasoned.  If prepared correctly, they are so good that they become addictive.

The Annual Abbeville Omelette Festival

Folks, this is the largest festival of the year and it is something to see.  They actually had people from six other countries travel here just for this event.

Lots of parades and pageantry leading up to breaking out the huge skillet.  The main event starts with a pile of sand in the middle of the street in the center of the town.

Then, the crew lays down a pile of firewood and soon it begins the burning down process to a hot pile of embers.  At this point, they start a forktruck and move this enormous stainless steel skillet over the flames.

After they have cooked up the green peppers and onions, they add the 5,034 eggs to the hot skillet.  The many cooks will be constantly stirring the omelette with long wooden spoons.

The omelette is then served out to the waiting crowd.  All the time, a Cajun Zydeco band is playing in French and English songs.  Pretty amazing to watch this festival play out.

Rip Van Winkle Home and Gardens

We toured this local attraction (LINK) with our good friends Bob and Lois.  They are the couple who showed us the Finger Lakes wine country in New York.

The story is that Joseph Jefferson built a hunting lodge on Jefferson Island in 1870. He was an actor and played the part of Rip Van Winkle on stage over 4500 times. That is where the island got it’s name: Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island.

His home is in the Southern Plantation style and is built on top of a salt dome at 75 feet.  Unheard of in these parts.  Using the salt dome, they even had a basement.  Now that is highly unusual.

Cajun Food

The outings to restaurants were many in my quest to find the best charbroiled oysters.  Lots of good cajun food – too many to list and very few pictures for some reason.  The food in this area is just incredible.

In some towns the restaurants are there just to get something to eat.  Locally, they are a treasure!  The best overall place was Dupuys (pronounced Dupwees) and best charbroiled oysters was Shucks.

Abbeville Walkabout

One day after lunch at Dupuys, we took a walkabout around town.  Lots of interesting things to look at and we stopped in the historic old railroad depot.  It was moved several feet to its new location and is now part museum and part gift shop.  We toured through their old caboose as well.

Sugar Cane Plantation Tour

Betty arranged a demonstration of a working sugar cane plantation.  How the combine works to cut the sugar cane and a talk on life on a sugar cane plantation.  This local family described how they have owned and operated a 1,000 acre plantation for about 100 years down through several generations.

They plan to keep the plantation in the family.  Not selling to the big Corp farms.  I like that.

They work it with about 15 migrant workers from Mexico who live in trailers that the owner provides.  They begin harvesting the cane in September and work almost 24/7 until it is finished in early January.  Rain or shine they are working.

The Woodman Tour

Next up it was a chat and tour through a local man’s woodworking shop.  Basically, he had gathered cypress driftwood over the last 50 years, allowed it to dry for years, then machines it into some fine pieces.

Gerald Judice is now mostly retired, but his daughter is now making wood crafts and selling them at craft shows.  He demonstrated how the shop works and actually made a small wooden bowl on his shop lathe.  Very cool demo using the 100 year old cypress wood.

Zydeco Breakfast

After an hour drive to Breaux Bridge, we arrived at the world famous Buck and Johnny’s for a dive into the local music culture.  Every Saturday at 8 am, they open their doors for the Zydeco Breakfast that packs the locals in for four hours of Zydeco music and dancing and good food and drinks.

We left Abbeville with Bob and Lois at 7 am and arrived just before the opening bell.  While we are not big into dancing, there were many out there on the dance floor with their cowboy boots and hats.

It was a fun time with the group from Betty’s: Dan and Marlene, Fred and Michelle, Bob and Lois, and Pat and myself.  We had an entire table to ourselves.

Martin Accordions

Betty arranged a tour for us at the finest maker of Cajun accordions in the world.  They are hand made in small 17 lot batches and take a month to build.  The owner started the business about 50 years ago and still continues to build these gems himself.

His daughter and maybe another person are now helping to run the business, but most of the wood working is done by the owner, Mr. Martin.  This small family group does it all from buying the wood, reeds and other parts, to assembly and testing.

I asked if he would ever consider selling and he said no.  It will always remain in the family.  Mr. Martin grew up speaking cajun french that has some differences from the language in France, and as an example he told a story where he embarrassed a family from France by using a term not translated well from his Cajun French.

The highlight was a concert demonstrating the differences from cajun music to Zydeco and how they were both derived from early the 1700’s immigrant music.  The early european settlers brought guitars and fiddles and it wasn’t until the 1800’s that the accordion came from Germany to blend with the stringed instruments.

Brunch at Betty’s

We had a great pitch in breakfast this morning with most all the current residents in attendance.  It was a feast to behold.  Fred and Michelle, Bob and Lois, Betty, Dudley and Patty, Dan and Marlene, and Pat and I.  Mimosas, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, cheesy cauliflower, sweet rolls, etc.

Tomorrow, we pack up, raise the jacks, and begin the next trek to the Texas Lone Star state.  While we hate to leave this fun stop, it is time to go.  I’m looking forward to relaxing for three months down in the valley.

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Take care and God Bless.