4/9 DeRidder to Ville Platte Chicot St. Park

We left the campground and took a right turn, but it really was the wrong turn. Fortunately, Denise who was driving passed us and figured out we were headed in the wrong direction - about 6 mi by the time she turned around to alert us. It would have been further, but I needed to stop andd shed a few cloths and Russ had another flat. All this took time, thank goodness or we would have been further down the road. The Azaleas in the yards are spectacular! They are at least 14 ft high and in full bloom. They are late this year. This is a good thing as there's not much else to look at. Denise stopped in Mamou to trade driving for riding. She had gumbo, soup w/sausage, chicken & rice in a small cafe. The cook told her his grama taught him how to make it before he could walk. He said other gumbo is "book gumbo" which means it comes out of a cookbook. As they started their bike ride they spotted the crayfish fields and stopped to chat w/the men working the fields. They have traps, no unlike our crab pots that they submerge in the flooded field. Some collect 3,000# a day. After the crayfish season is over, they plant rice in the same fields.