That left just two couples to go to the Zydeco Breakfast at Cafe' des Amis.  They open the doors for breakfast at 7:30 and the band starts playing at 8:30.  They have the Zydeco Breakfast every Saturday and the bands rotate.

We followed Bob & Lois.  Along the way, we had our radio tuned to a Baton Rouge country station, but this morning they were playing what they called "Swamp Pop".  :)

We arrived at Cafe' des Amis a little before 7:30.  There was already a pretty big line waiting to get in.

When the doors opened, we were one of the last ones in line, and we got the second to last table.  There is a $5 per person cover charge to get in, but that is credited back to you if you order breakfast.

Now we were told to get there early or we'd have to wait for a table for anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour.  That seemed to be the case.  However, when you are finished eating, they begin to try to shoo you out so they can seat those waiting.  Since the band doesn't start until an hour after the doors open, I'm not sure arriving that early is the best strategy.  :)

We ordered beignets (ben-yays) to start.

Those are basically French doughnuts with no holes covered with powdered sugar.  :)

Fortunately for us, the beignets didn't arrive until the band was ready to play.  :)  Our various eggs/omelets orders came out shortly thereafter.  The food was fair and a little overpriced.

But the music from Joe Hall & The Louisiana Cane Cutters was excellent.  :)

They bill themselves as a Creole band rather than as a Zydeco band.  However, Zydeco evolved from Creole with the addition of blues and R & B influences.

Here is a link to a Brief History of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Music.  And here is a link to another article that doesn't mince words in explaining Zydeco Is Not Cajun.  :)

As for today, there certainly were some blues mixed in as the band cranked up.  Here is a sample from a video taken at Cafe des Amis about three months ago with the same band playing.

For what it's worth, the band was a lot louder and sounded better in person.  :)

It didn't take long for the dancing to begin.

Soon the dance floor was packed and there was a big crowd waiting for tables.  The view from our table at the end of the bar was blocked.  The Bloody Mary business was very good this morning.  :)

With our breakfast over, we weren't quite ready to leave.  So Lois & Linda ordered Mimosas.

It seemed the four of us all had on some shade of yellow or gold this morning.  So the Mimosas matched the color theme.  :)

The girls nursed their drinks as long as they could.  Then we started getting the word to give up our table.  We stood and watched and listened a little while longer, but it got too claustrophobic for me.  We certainly would have stayed longer had there been room.  :)

Perhaps it would be better to come later.  The band plays from 8:30 to 11:30, so it might be better to come after some of the early crowd has departed.  Maybe ... maybe not.  :)

It was around 9:30 when we left Breaux Bridge.  Bob & Lois visited a shop in town, and Linda & I decided to check out another local event.

I remembered reading about the Atchafalaya Basin Festival a few miles farther east in the town of Henderson.  Now we were calling it "ATCHA-fa-ly-a", but we soon learned it is "CHAFF-a-ly-a".  That first "a" is sometimes heard from the locals, but not often.  :)

We followed the signs to the park.  It was only about 9:50 a.m., so there wasn't much going on.  There were a few vendor and craft tents and the concession stand was gearing up.  There was a pretty big stage, but music wasn't starting until 11:00 (they told us 10:00 when we went in).

Still, we got out a couple of chairs and sat under the pavilion people-watching and waiting for the music to start.  Before long, they announced the festival kings and queens were arriving.

Looking over our shoulders, the festival "royalty" was brought to the pavilion via a pontoon boat on a trailer.  :)

Now, this is a small festival that is a fundraiser for two local churches, but the "court" consisted of a whopping thirteen people with various crowns and tiaras.  At that time of the morning the royalty and their families outnumbered the rest of the crowd.  :)

At 11:00, Helen Boudreaux, a fairly well-known Cajun musician, took the stage with sort of a rag-tag group of instumentalists and singers.

She was pretty good.  The rest of them where a bit ... let's just say "all over the place".  :)

Okay, so we were supposed to be back at Betty's in the afternoon to go to a local bar for more music.  And we were just about to pack it up and leave.

Then, in between bands, this girl from an organization called Louisiana Kids got up and sang.

Linda & I looked at each other like "Are you kidding me?"

She was really, really good.

Then another young lady took the microphone and she was even better.

They each sang two songs.

Look out American Idol!  These girls were THAT good.  :)

Our thoughts of leaving quickly went away, and we waited for the next band.  It was another kid - a high school senior named Hunter Courville.

Now this pudgy-faced, red-cheeked kid could play the accordian.

Not only that, but his band was excellent and that kid had a big ol' voice.

I wish I had a video camera and could play a clip for you.  We were blown away by the talent at this little festival, and we were only hearing the early musicians.  :)

It was hard, but we pulled ourselves away to go meet Betty and the others at Calvin Touchet's (pronounced "two checks"), a little Cajun bar between Maurice and Abbeville.

Every other Saturday afternoon, they have a Cajun jam session where local musicians get together and play.

It started at 2:00 p.m., but we didn't get there until 3:00.  There wasn't a seat to be had.  Half the crowd played at one time or another.  :)

The music was wonderful.  The only problem for us was that the bar was getting pretty smoky.  We had hoped to stick around as the owner cooks up a free meal for everyone around 5:00.  But we could only hang in there about an hour.

What a great day of music.  That's just what we were hoping to find during our stop in southern Louisiana.

Back home, we got a bite to eat and I turned on a little football.  Linda went to Happy Hour where Betty had gotten out the karaoke machine.

Soon, I was hearing Linda's voice.  She sang four songs and I figured I'd better get over there.  It was a good thing I did as there are about four Cajun couples staying here together in the park.  They brought over a huge platter of fried shrimp and catfish.  Oh, now that was a nice finish to the day.  :)

After listening to some more singing and doing my share of eating, I retired to the rig to get a shower and rinse off the smoky smell.  Linda continued with the group where they told Cajun jokes and laughed into the evening.

Well, that's enough to pack into one day.  Wish you could have been here with us.  :)

When we were hitched up, I had to leave the park, drive around a block and return the way I came to make backing into our new spot easier.

Our new site is a little farther from the road and a tad quieter.  There is nothing on the other side of us but a grassy yard.

We have plenty of sunshine during the day, so the solar panels should replenish any amp hours we use at night.

Around noon we decided to take a drive to Lake Fausse Pointe State Park.  Our plan is to stay there next, but I have concerns about getting to it.  So we wanted to try a route from Abbeville coming in from the north and then we would return to Abbevlle via a possible southern route, one I expected to be less likely if not impossible.  :)

We didn't particularly like the route we took from Abbeville.  There were quite a few twists and turns and narrow, rough roads and one pretty bad railroad crossing.  If we decided to come in from the north, we'd likely make a longer trip and come in from I-10.

Once we reached the park, we paid our $1 per person entrance fee and immediately drove around the campground.  The first fifteen sites didn't appeal to us at all.  But the back section of the campground and the premium sites along the water looked a lot better.  They were plenty long enough.

The biggest issue would be whether we could get satellite as the cell phones were getting no signal, and we weren't sure if our amplifier and booster antenna would even be enough.

We left the campground and drove the remaining roads.  Though it is a 6,000-acre park, there are very few roads and limited vehicle access.  Of course, that and the fact it is in the middle of nowhere are what we like about it.  :)

As we drove through, I stopped to take pictures at one of the cabins.  The cabins are VERY nice.

They are all on the water and have huge decks and screened porches.  We didn't go inside, but we did notice satellite TV dishes and air conditioning on every unit.  They look like they will sleep 6 or 8 people pretty easily.

The cabins are $90 per night.  The RV sites have 30-amp electric and water and are $16 per night or $18 per night for the waterfront.  Of course the America The Beautiful Senior Pass is accepted at Louisiana State Parks, so the camping fees would be half.

We stopped by the Interpretive Center, but it was closed.  That's also where they have boats, canoes, and kayaks for rent.

This park is mostly about water activities with the rentals, three canoe trails, and a boat launch.  However, there are three hiking trails as well.

Here is one of the picnic pavilions on the water.

From the pavilion you can see the footbridge that leads to the trailhead for all three hiking trails.

A view from the footbridge complete with Great Blue Heron.

We did just a little bit of bird watching and we spotted one tiny alligator.  But it wasn't our intent to explore the park today.  We just wanted to see how it would be for a big rig - both getting there, getting in, and parking.  The "getting there" part seems to be the biggest issue.  :)

Before leaving, we made another round through the campground noting the "satellite friendly" sites.  We wrote down about a half dozen that looked like they would work.

We left the park and headed south on the levee road.  Uh oh.  It almost immediately goes from pavement to gravel.  And the gravel part went for fourteen miles.

Now, the first ten miles were great.  In fact, the road was flat and wide and smoother than most of the paved roads we took to get to the park.  We wouldn't have had any problem pulling the rig on that road.

But, with about four miles to go, the "maintained" part ended.  Those last four miles were full of potholes, some of which could have swallowed the Jeep.  And near the end was a very, narrow one-lane bridge.  Well allrighty then.  We can nix the southern access route.  :)

Once we finally got back on pavement, we checked out the RV park at the Cypress Bayou Casino in Charenton.  For $10 a night for full hook-ups, it's not bad at all.  We'd certainly stay there.  But you really have to have a need to be in that remote part of Louisiana to take advantage of the deal.  :) 

It was an easy drive back to Abbeville.  On the way we pretty much decided (probably 90%) that we would skip going to Lake Fausse Point.  It just seemed a bit stressful to get to with such a big fifth wheel.  We might still go if we can find a different route that would be better, but it's a longshot right now.

Back at Betty's, a few folks were preparing to head to dinner at Cajun Claws.  Their specialty is boiled crawfish and they are only open during crawfish season.

I know I said the other day that crawfish are out of season.  But, apparently, they are in early this year.  Today was opening day for Cajun Claws, which was fortunate for us.

So Priscilla & David gave us a ride, and we were joined by Betty and Wendall & Ruth.  We were prepared to get our crawfish lessons.  :)

Now we all ordered crawfish, but Linda & I hedged and only ordered one platter.  We got an order of shrimp just in case.  :)

Each platter came with 3 1/2 pounds of beautiful red crawfish.

We had eaten boiled crawfish before, but it was probably twenty years ago in New Orleans.  So we needed a refresher.

They showed us how to break off the tail and get the most meat with the least amount of effort.  We caught on pretty quick.

Linda opted for gloves during the process.  :)

Hoo boy!  Dem mud bugs waz good!  Aieeeee!!  :)

But I think we liked the shrimp better - more meat, not as much work, and nicely seasoned.  Shhhh.  Don't tell nobody or weez mite not gittabe faux Cajuns f'long.  :)

We really enjoyed our night out, and we really did like the crawfish.  They were much better than I remembered.  If only the tails were bigger and there was more to savor in each bite.  :)

After dinner it was a pretty early evening.  Linda & I retired to the rig.  We have to get up early in the morning for a 6:30 am departure to Breaux Bridge where will take part in the Zydeco Breakfast at Cafe Des Amis.

Our immersion in the local culture continues.  :)