A Trip Down LA-308

There's really nothing like found time. I had my day blocked off to do some volunteer work today, but it wrapped up far more quickly than I expected. I decided to take the rest of the day to take some pictures along LA-308, a road that I've been up and down several times. I've always noticed things I wanted to photograph, but I've never had the time. So I threw on a baseball cap, put some Surfer Blood on the iPod, and hit the road. 

Here is a rough map of the route I took today:

My first stop was Assumption Catholic Church in Plattenville. I had noticed the church before, but never the cemetery. It was absolutely fascinating. Many graves dating to the mid-1800s, and as you'll see below, many written in French.























The next few are from the Napoleonville area.



Madewood Plantation.

















I found myself back in Thibodaux again. This is St. Joseph Cathedral, quite impressive.



I was getting hungry, so I used my phone to Google the best po-boy in Thibodaux. The first thing that came up was this link about Frostop's roast beef po-boy. There is a Frostop in Baton Rouge, too, but I had never eaten there. I set the coordinates on the GPS.



You can tell I'm not from South Louisiana because I thought it would be a good idea to eat a roast beef po-boy in the car. It was delicious. The root beer was quite unique. It was served from an unmarked milk gallon container. It was sickly sweet, and slightly flat, almost like root beer mixed with molasses.



While sitting in traffic in Thibodaux (yes, there was some traffic), I snapped a couple photos of nice Acadian-style homes.





Now on Hwy 90 headed back toward New Orleans, I stopped to snap this picture, a common sight this time of year along Louisiana highways.



$1.08 sounds pretty good.



There are a few extra pictures from today on Flickr. Also, I recently took a hodge-podge of pictures (some I'm fairly proud of) in St. James and Ascension Parishes that can be found on Flickr as well. Just didn't think that set warranted a blog post. Anyhow, on my way home...

Thibodaux

I had two appointments in Houma this afternoon, and I grabbed my camera thinking I'd snap a few more pictures of the area. As I set out on my journey, however, I found a key road on my route was blocked due to some sort of construction, necessitating an alternate route. After that, I missed a turn and my GPS didn't recognize me as being on any road. Instead of turning around, though, I figured I'd press on - at some point I'd have to hit a road that the GPS recognized, I thought.

This unexpected route took me straight through the town of Thibodaux - not a big town by most standards but big enough that it's well known in Louisiana. I had never seen Thibodaux before and was fairly impressed. Below are some photos from my journey today, starting in Houma and working back.

My first appointment today was great, but my second was a near-disaster. The business was located in what appeared to be a fairly rough part of town. The parking lot was full and I had to park on the street, in front of this house:



Here are some other views of the street.











The appointment was bad for other reasons, too, and I was glad to be back on the road. In between Thibodaux and Houma, I noticed a few homes I wanted to photograph. When I came upon this one, I saw the Spanish moss and a large, looming white structure and figured it would be an antebellum home. This one is very unique, though. Check out all the ornamentation. I wonder if it's original or added later.







Here's another nice home hidden behind mossy oaks.



The following pictures are from downtown Thibodaux. It definitely has that unique Louisiana look.
































Near Chackbay, LA.





Finally for today, I decided to pull off to the side of the road to take a couple photos of something very common alongside South Louisiana country highways. Along many "major" highway in South Louisiana, you will find little bayous. Here is a close up picture and then some perspective.