Detour

This weekend Jackie was scheduled to preach at a church in Kentwood, LA (HOME OF BRITNEY SPEARS!); the church is seeking a pastor and had received Jackie's resume. We set out early Sunday morning since the church is about an hour and a half away from NOLA but unfortunately we never made it to the church. On our way there Jackie and I noticed a strange sound which seemed to be coming from our car. We suspected a problem with the tire but the car didn't seem to pull one way or the other so Jackie switched lanes to see if perhaps it was just the road. When he did we experienced a blow out. We did have a spare but it looked quite low on air itself and we also noticed that we'd picked up a screw (which was probably what punctured the front one, too) in one of the rear tires. So we checked the GPS for the nearest service station. It directed us 15-20 miles away! We thought we'd try the next "town" up about 5 miles away, however. Seriously this was the most podunk town ever. Ha, ha! There was one street which some shotgun houses down it leading to the fishing docks. No gas station. No stores. Only a dock. There was however a volunteer fire department where we talked an apparent "firefighter" into setting down his Budlight for a few minutes to air up our tire. Then we hobbled to the nearest Walmart where we had to buy two new tires.
After getting the new tires at Walmart we ate in La Place. Then after confirming with the church that they didn't want us to come for the evening service (we're going to try again next Sunday) we decided to go to the Oak Alley Plantation which was hosting an arts and crafts fair.

We first heard about the plantation from it's Ghosthunters episode a week or two back. (It's reported to have some supernatural activity going on inside it.) It really is beautiful there! The plantation sits just beside the Mississipi River and is surrounded by 300 year-old oak trees which Keeleigh thought made really great climbing trees. There were also beautiful flowers and shrubs along the brick pathways while sugar cane fields flanked the plantation on each side. We wandered around the grounds and visited the arts and crafts fair which featured some great local art and cute crafts as well as some mouth-watering food.

We also got a chance to tour the mansion where we learned the history of the place. The house was built by a frenchman and his young bride (or rather their numerous slaves) over the span of 2 years. The wife, Selena's, father was an architect who designed the original French Market in NOLA as well as Cafe du Monde. There was a large dining table set with extra-large silverware (to show their wealth by how much pure silver they could buy) over which hung a fan with a cord leading to one corner of the room where a young slave would have set pulling the cord to fan the people at the table. After dinner they would have retreated to the sitting room where the men enjoyed rum and the ladies ate pears (soaked in rum because it was unladylike to drink--ha ha!). We also saw the "haunted" bedroom where Selena and her husband slept and which still contained the elaborately carved wooden bassinet that one of the six children slept in. There was also a sick room for family members when they were ill and for after they died for viewing. Across from that room was the nursery decorated in the palest blue. The rooms on the second floor all led out to the 13 foot veranda where you had an incredible view of the oaks. In the first owner's time they could see the river but now the levee is built up too high.

We didn't see any ghosts but we did enjoy ourselves highly! It was a certainly a nice end to a day which started out kind of bumpy.