Poche's-January 2, 2012

Before I tell you about today's food, let me say that these Cajuns know how to shoot fireworks. We were very impressed. The displays came very close to looking professional with one side of the lake competing with the other. Our side won. We've never even had access to this variety of fireworks anywhere we have lived. At the same time, the money spent on the fireworks would have made a nice dent in our national debt! Now food. I have a new addiction: chicken and sausage gumbo. Before I was hopelessly hooked on red beans and rice. Now it's this gumbo. We ate at Poche's in Breaux Bridge today. They have a specialty meat store in addtion to the restaurant. They were very busy and have been every time we've driven by there. It was so good. Plus we did not get stared at nearly as much as we normally do. Not sure what that indicates, but it was nice. We also stopped and got another bag of satsumas. They are just divine and we're going to stuff in as many as we can since we will not get them anywhere else. We're ready to move on down the road. I will miss the pretty scenery. The crops in this area are rice and sugar cane. Both are very pretty crops and add to the greenery on the side of the road. Our next state is Mississippi. There's nothing much on the side of the interstate there except swamp and commercial property. The scenery has been a real treat on this trip, as well as the people we have met. In looking back on 2011, we have traveled over 7200 miles in 21 states, met some wonderful and unusual people, eaten some fabulous food and seen the beauty of this country that we prevously only imagined. What a blessing! We look forward to much more of the same in 2012.