The Creole Nature Trail

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On impulse this morning we decided to drive the Creole Nature Trail that begins in Sulphur, Louisiana and ends in Cameron Parish. The drive is a beautiful one with wild flowers, marsh grasses and a variety of water fowl on display. Fishing camps and duck hunting sites are an outdoors man's dream. We were the only ones with no fishing gear and every family was fishing for next weeks dinner. I do miss seeing the beautiful red wing black birds that were part of my commute everyday when I lived in Lake Jackson and they were everywhere along the trail. A large rookery with great white and spoonbills reminded us of our visits to High Island. This is mating season and the great whites have little ones to feed and the spoonbills are engineering their nests. Turtles plod their way across the road and most make the journey safely as drivers give them a wide birth. We saw two alligators moving across the highway as well. They raise up on their feet so as not to drag their bellies on the road and then disappear into the bayou. Traffic stops for them to make the journey from one water hole to another. A purple footed gallinue flapped awkwardly over the bayou and came to a graceless landing. Their big feet allow them to enjoy the marshy bayous but they are not good flyers. The trip on a ferry gave us a chance to watch brown pelicans circle over head. These are one of my favorite water birds. The pelicans and the alligators let us know that dinosaurs still live among us. Lunch was a spicy shrimp sandwich and sweet tea in a shack with the Gulf Breeze blowing through. We wondered why people chose to live in this place until we saw two barefooted children playing in the grass of their front yard totally free and unsupervised. There is something to living in an isolated area. We left the trail and drove into New Iberia. We love tracing the path that James Lee Burke has set down in his many novels and feel that he is hiding at a table of a local restaurant watching us order his favorite meal. We ate at Janes Seafood and Chinese Restaurant where we were instructed not to leave our cigarette buds in the fern plants. A charming couple taught me how to peel and eat mud bugs and gave us hints about places to visit tomorrow. Some times the best trips are those we did not plan

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