Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2017
Edit Blog Post
I woke up early at about 7:30am, David was sucking the paint off the walls; so I let him sleep in. Brushed my teeth and threw on sweats. Time to go have coffee in the casino. Played a little black jack and a little slots till 9am. Woke up the beast and let him know time to go have some fun!.
We just had pastries and OJ we brought with us for breakfast.
♦ First stop Gator Chateau in Jennings, LA.
http://www.jeffdavis.org/tourism/attractions/gator-chateau.html - No admission fee.
We got to hold a little fellow named Gumbeaux. A two year old. He was so soft on his belly and pretty calm. They rescue babies and eggs then raise till about 5 years old till they can be release back to the wild. Not only other predators but both male & female older alligators will eat the young - even mom. They are located on exit 64 off I-10. Our GPS didn't find them but it's easy to find. In a city park right off the highway. Also there is a tourist center right next door to get all the local info you need. Both Lindsay & Shelby there both were
Roadside Gator
This was the largest one we found. very helpful.
♦Then went to Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge next.
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Lacassine - No admission fee.
I'm not sure what parts of the refuge we saw. We drove around several dirt & gravel roads in the general area. Found the headquarters but the gate was closed. So we keep driving around and even had a super secluded picnic lunch. My second incident would be at the picnic. I was very carefully peaking into some tall grass looking for nests - stepped into an ant pile. Not red ants thank goodness just black piss ants. But it still hurt - Dave had stuff in first aid kit. We found an area with with a high fence that had a heard of young deer. Then right off the road we saw herons, hawks, ducks, nutria, and gators!
♦We then went and found Lorraine Park & Bridge.
https://www.visitlakecharles.org/listings/lorrain-park/149249/ - No admission fee.
This is a very unique bridge built in 1894 and links Jeff Davis & Calcasieu Parishes. It is an awesome photo spot. The park has a camp ground, boat launch and picnic spots.
♦Last stop for the day Bayou Rum.
https://bayourum.com/verify.php?return=/connect/ - Free tours.
Joined a
tour already in process. Then in their history room to check out history of cane sugar & rum making in the south. Next I got to do a tasting, Dave passed except some rum cake. They have four rums - Select, Silver, Satsuma and Spiced. I really like the Satsuma a lot. I actually didn't care for the Select. It's aged several months in a process like whiskey. It just tasted like weaker whiskey to me. I did walk out with a 3 bottle pack of the ones I liked. I was so happy when we got back to Coushatta they serve the Satsuma. I tried it several rum based drinks and quite a few hurricanes. So good.
Back to Coushatta and played for a good bit until around 7:30. Dave decided he was going to re-coup some of our losses through eating at the buffet. Buffet was very good - too good. Lots of southern favorites.
Between the drinks and buffet I was ready to head upstairs. Was being lazy and talking to one of my sons. When the fire alarm went off. We headed down to the lobby. Turns a small kitchen fire in one of
the cafes triggered the smoke alarms. One of those more smoke than anything else things. The staff handled it very well & we had fun hanging in the lobby with other guests. 15 minutes at most and it was all done.
Okay excitement done and we just hung out watched tv.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.127s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0823s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice road shot
Louisiana