Baytown to Scott, Louisiana – 23 February 2023
Driving from Texas into Louisiana you cant help noticing all the water. Tons of swamps and the water is muddy and brown.Coming into Louisiana we drove over an unusually steep bridge called the Calcasieu bridge. People call it the scariest bridge in Louisiana. It is used by over 90,000 vehicles per day and is scheduled for replacement as it was built in 1952.
The LaFayette KOA campsite we had booked in Scott, Louisiana was lovely. There was a massive lake in the middle of the campsite and the RVs were mostly positioned all around it. There were lots of ducks and turtles in the lake and people were allowed to fish as long as they didn’t take more than 4 fish a day. There are over 28 varieties of turtles in Louisiana, some living up to 50 years of age. Scott is known as the “Boudin capital of the world.” Boudin refers to a mixture of rice, meat and seasonings stuffed in a pork casing. There were advertisements of Boudin and Cracklin everywhere. Cracklin are fried pieces of pork fat usually the pork belly. The first night we were in Scott we walked over to the local Boudin and Cracklin store and purchased some boudin balls and cheese rollups. All deep fried but very tasty.
As we were now in Alligator country I thought an Airboat tour around the swamps would be befitting. We signed up for a 90 minute ride through the waters of the Atchafalaya River Basin. It was quite exciting whizzing through the waters and seeing all the Bald Cypress trees which are the State tree. The Captain was very informative. He would stop the boat somewhere in the thick of the swamp and then talk to us about the history of the basin. We saw a couple of smaller alligators and a few birds along the way. I was hoping to see larger alligators but glad we got to at least see a couple of small ones.
We didnt do much exploring in Scott but did pop into Lafayette for a quick drive. We have seen so many beautiful churches on our travels but the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist or La Cathédrale St-Jean. It is the cathedral and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana has to be the best. The Cathedral’s features are typical of German Romanesque architecture, a style popular in the 9th-12th centuries. The Cathedral bells ring the Angelus three times a day which is an ancient custom used to remind Christians of the mystery of the Incarnation. The bishops that have served the Diocese since 1918 are entombed in the underground crypts below the Cathedral.
Time in Scott went very quickly and before we knew it, it was time to move on to New Orleans.
