Cajun Country

36, Day 67 (Written Friday February 17) ~ After a couple of days in New Orleans (we will be back Sunday night), we headed south this afternoon to Houma, Louisiana (pronounced Home-uh). Houma is right next to Thibodeaux and is located in the Atchafalaya Basin. This is the heart of Cajun country. Those of you familiar with Swamp People on the history channel, this is where R.J. and Jay Paul Molinere live. And those of you familiar with me know that I am in cochon (Cajun for hog) heaven.

We got into town just as their local Mardi Gras parade was beginning, checked into our hotel, and then met with David and Kathy Jones for supper. Kathy was the secretary at the Memphis School of Preaching when I was a student and David was my teacher for the book of Luke. They work with the Hollywood Road congregation here in Houma, or as David calls it, paradise. They took us to Boudreaux and Thibodeauxs Cajun Kitchen for supper last night. I opted to wear my Saints hat instead of my Alabama hat, and I'm glad I did. Wall to wall LSU fans, with piles of crawfish in front of them, filled the place. We had crawfish po boys, boild crawfish (Jade tried one but decided she can live without them), oysters, catfish, shrimp and gumbo. What a meal. I could sit and listen to the locals talk all day. I love their accents, and Jade swears that when I'm around them I start to imitate them when I talk. I told ya'll, I was born in the wrong state. I ate a pound of crawfish, but pretty much every other table had five pound buckets, and usually shrimp to go with it. These people love to eat, and if it crawls, swims or flies, it's fair game.

I love New Orleans, but it is so much different from the rest of Louisiana. The people here hunt, fish, trap, farm and they love life. They call it the "joie de vivre" (the joy of living), and I can completely understand why.

(Yes he's real. 12 feet long, killed for stealing pigs from a farm).