The Plantations of Louisiana

After  tales from the LA State Visitor Center of the beautiful plantations about 90 miles from our campground, plus the assurance that you can tour all of the grounds for free and pay only if you want to tour the house, we set off to wander the lovely grounds of the plantations. 

First stop was Laura's Creole Plantation.  Born in the south, the camellia is one of my favorite flowers in bloom.  This blossom is getting a bit worn, but still beautiful.

A fountain was made from a large metal container.  We saw this same container at several of the plantations and have no idea what it's original use was.

SO. We were terribly disappointed to learn that each plantation costs $25 each to even enter the grounds. $50 at 4 plantations - we are just not that much into plantations!  Here is a stock picture of the plantation plus a link to it's history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation

A bit of info from the link -

In the years before the American Civil War, the slave quarters included a slave infirmary, 69 cabins, communal kitchens, and several water wells located along the road. Each slave cabin was occupied by two families, as duplex units sharing a central double fireplace. Near each cabin was a vegetable garden plus a chicken coop and/or pigpen.^[6] By the time of the Civil War there were 186 slaves working the farm. The DuParc Plantation exported indigo, rice, pecans, and sugar cane.

 Also, a piece of trivia - the parents and family of Fats Domino once lived on the plantation!

Our next stop was Oak Alley Plantation.  This was a sugar cane plantation and the owner the richest man in the south  in the mid 1800's. Again, a stock photo of the house.

The grass is NOT that green in Jan! :-)

Luke got a nice shot of the canopy of oak trees.

A walkway outside of the plantation grounds goes to the gift shop and restaurant.  From there we got a picture of the replica slave houses.

Ah ha! at least one mission accomplished...

For more info on Oak Alley Plantation -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Alley_Plantation

To get to our last plantation,we crossed back across the Mississippi River. 

Barges upon barges were on the river, huge groups of them ready to be taken to their destination.

 We were amazed at the continuous line of industrial facilities along the river, each with the capability of funneling products over (across) the road and into the waiting barges on the river.  This is a bauxite and alumina processing plant.

The largest plant here is Marathon.  The company has actually bought the land of the last plantation.  They care for everything except the actual house for which they prefer to have no liability.  The plantation is a  small enclave completely surrounded by a farm of oil tanks.  We  got a picture of the house from outside of the fenced property.

And again, for more info

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Plantation_House

We managed to get back before dark for a change so we drove out to the actual park rather than the campground.  This proud guy stood watch high in his tree.

And lots and lots of deer.  LOTS.  They seem to know that humans pose no danger and probably have food.

This morning has been spent trying to fix things.  I hate fixing things.  Luke adjusted our brake system that connects the car to the RV, is currently trying to get the DirecTV system to work while talking to customer service, found the problem with our leaking shower head, but has not been able to get our water heater to make hot water, just sorta warm.  That is a major problem.  Oh, and our recently replaced bathroom faucet leaks (spews...)--- reminds us of the boat! But we do plan to spend the afternoon in the park while it is sunny and relatively warm (57).  Tomorrow we will leave for Lake Charles for three nights.