Wheelwright Inn Natchitoches

... and through the woods - wonderful and wild.  We were glad we had to stop and ask directions of someone, or we wouldn't have thought it would go through to the state park, as it got to be a lesser and lesser road..... then improved again and landed us safely at our destination,  But it was so wild and EXACTLY what I thought this part of LA would be - as opposed to some of the congestion and chemical plants and casinos we encountered while wending our way to the Gulf state park we ...

... and we rated it "Best Small Town" on our first trip Round America...but we liked Natchitoches even better. Several motion pictures have been filmed in Natchitoches, including Steel Magnolias, The Man in the Moon, The Horse Soldiers, NBC's The Year Without a Santa Claus, The American Standard, as well as a Lifetime Television's series Scarlett. We obtained a map at the Visitor's ...

I am still setting up my motorcycle for the trip. I still havent gotten luggage, a new gas tank, an quite a few other things that I need. Thankfully, I have gotten a lot of the comfort needs out of the way. I did install a windshield and bar risers. I scored a Corbin saddle off of ebay for pretty cheap. I noticed a huge difference in comfort this passed weekend on a 400 mile dual sport ...

... immediately she'd caught a smallish fish which had to be released. This set the scene for the rest of the 2 hour expedition. Hook into water and immediate action ending mostly in the fish getting fed and us having to re-thread a worm. MJ tried his luck at bass fishing which involved sending a fake orange thing with a hook on the bottom out into the lake and then reeling it back in hoping that a bass would confuse it for lunch. Suffice to say we ...

Lazy morning watching loads of boats wizz by up and down the river. Huck and MJ went down to fill up the party boat (a pontoon boat like we went on in Steamboat). There is a boat launch at Keiths a few plots down and about 2pm we were on the boat which is very luxurious - we steamed towards the town for about 45 minutes looking at the houses on the banks. The weather was reasonably sunny and we felt like millionaires. At one point we met the son of ...

... land grant set up in 1830s - it subsequently become famous in early 1900s for Cammie Henry who with her husband owned many plantations and this one was used to house cultural artists and writers who lived free as long as they were producing work. One of the famous painters was Clementine Hunter who lived until 1988 at the ripe age of 101. Here's the Wiki: Clementine Hunter (1886/1887 - January 1, 1988) was born around 1886 at Hidden Hill plantation. Clementine's first ...

... Desiree - he is kinda large and larger than life. They are both lawyers in town. Dan explained how he'd picked up a 2 bedroom house on three acres with a timber wood for $50k at an auction yesterday - he seems to think it might be worth $125k. Nice work if you can get it. But either way it seems like a bargain. Apparently he already has 4 other houses. Breakfast of bacon and eggs was followed by the arrival of Michelle (Kathy's daughter ...

... We had a quick wash and then headed over the Miss Helens and Mr Davids which is almost directly over the river but you have to go thru town to get there. They and their son Davey ( a large lad) were exceptionally welcoming and we all had meat pies and chicken followed by pecan (pronounced pee-carn) pie. Kathy's "momma" (Maw) was also there and she is a small feisty lady and excellent company. It was exceptional and fun evening. The power was still off at home ...

... contained iron but had turned into rock without the presence of oxygen. In chemistry this is called a reducing environment. Reduction accounts for the colors on raku pottery, for example. The basaltic intrusions and heat caused by overthrusting had created interesting twists and turns in the strata as well has some diorite (igneous) and marble (metamorphic) layers. A few more hikes like this and Rory might actually begin to ...

... and disenfranchised. Things had degenerated to feeling like a flat on the verges of disintegrating - as long as you and yours were OK screw everyone else. We were glad to leave very early the next morning heading for Shreveport and Dr Dick and Judy Davis, who were the first globalfreeloaders to stay with us in Auckland. We stopped off in Vicksburg to visit the battlefields there, site of one of the longer and ...