Louisiana Ramblings

I just got back from a short trip to Louisiana to meet up with my parents who were bringing a trailer load of stuff back from my late grandparents house. As usual, being down there was like being in another world for me. It is so different being in that environment, rural deep south, when I spend so much time in suburbia and in an office/laboratory environment at work. It was good to get away for a short time, although I missed my wife and kids, and spend time with extended family.

Angela told me I should do a blog post on the things I saw while I was down there that were out of the ordinary (which in Louisiana can be quite a lot) and other observations from my trip. So here it goes.

As I was flying into New Orleans and as we were driving around the Baton Rouge area I noticed that there were still a lot of the "blue tarps" covering roofs, remnants of Katrina still prevalent.

The grocery store is always fun in Louisiana. You can get all kinds of goodies ranging from Zapps potato chips, to andouie sausage and boudin, to Community Coffee, to fresh pralines. But I saw something new this time. On the end of an aisle in Walmart (where you usually see something that is on special or something that is being pushed as new) they had a whole display of gallon jars of "pig lips". From what I could tell, I have to assume that this was pickled pig jowls. I also learned through a visit to a local "meat shop" that you can make something from about every part of a pig.

Coming from SEC country and with the rising storm for Volunteer football in the air right now, I had to take a picture of this. In case you can't tell it is a port-a-potty that was purple and gold (LSU colors) provided by "Tiger Toilets". My comment when I sent the picture to Angela was that LSU football must be going to ****.


I think I gained 10 pounds during my three day stay in Louisiana thanks to my Uncle's great cooking. I enjoyed such delicacies as deep fried chick-ka-bobs, smoked chicken, jambalaya, fresh eggs from the chickens out back, and stone ground grits from the mill in the garage.

You can buy fresh shrimp, some so big they defy the name shrimp, at numerous places along the side of the road in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area, but you can't pay by credit or debit card. Cash or food stamps only...

When you are out in the country, nobody is in a hurry to do anything...