We went to the small cafe on the second deck for breakfast instead of fighting for food in the Main Dining Room. We thought it might be easier. All I wanted was an English muffin and coffee. They brought me a muffin but when I asked for butter and jam (always a Butter Battle!) they assured me it was on the way, then promptly forgot about me. I begged for butter three times before they finally brought it. Then I had to repeatedly beg for jam. The muffin was stone cold at this point. And I hadn’t even gotten to asking for a refill on the coffee. The manager finally noticed that I was getting increasingly unpleasant so we brought a fresh muffin WITH BUTTER AND JAM! Hallelujah! I was so worn out I didn’t even ask for more coffee. There was a room called Perks that provided coffee, cookies (sometimes) and soft serve ice cream. I always got my coffee there.
We toured St. Franceville later that morning. Actually, we just drove through it but we got to see some lovely period churches and homes. We drove past sugar can fields on the way to the next mansion. The guide explained that these fields were only a few months old so the cane was short. In 3 to 5 years the cane would be over my head and ready to be harvested. I’d seen mature cane fields on Maui so this was new to me. The guide also explained where the term Cajun came from. Acadia in Eastern Canada was taken over by the British and the French Acadians refused to turn Protestant. They stayed Catholic so the Brits booted them. They wandered around until they landed in what became Louisiana. They were called Acadians, Acajuns, and finally just Cajuns. They had their own version of French which was taken away; the guvmint insisted they learn English. Cajun French is now being taught in school to keep it alive.
The mansion we toured was called Rosedown. It was built in the 1830s and stayed in the family until the 1950s. It was a beautiful place but the story was sad. The daughters inherited the property and lived in a few rooms on the ground floor. They had an outdoor pump for water. No indoor plumbing or kitchen. The story reminded of the Beauvoir women living in Gray Gardens (is that right?) on Long Island. Grand house but living in poverty. The Rosedown sisters sold eggs to pay the taxes but the house decayed around them. The mansion has been restored and is lovely. Nice tour. We skipped the tour of Angola Prison. I’m sure it was educational but I didn’t want to spend $150 to go to prison. We listened to a lecture on the boat by the “Riverlorian” (his word). He gave an hour lecture about the Mississippi River. Interesting. We took a short nap, then fought the dinner battle. Not only was being served a problem, they expected us to sit at the same tables every night. I enjoyed the two ladies from Falls Church but Horrible Henry from Florida was a trial. We thought we lost him after two nights because he found another table but he showed up like a bad penny the last two evenings. We got really good at ignoring him but I didn’t like being stuck in the same place. Gordon prefers meeting new people and I prefer avoiding people like Horrible Henry. The only good thing about being stuck is they had Gordon’s glass of milk waiting by his plate every evening. I couldn’t get butter to save my life but Gordon always had milk. I should have made HIM ask for butter; we’d probably have gotten it. Anyway, we finished up the evening in the theater. The staff did an hour of Broadway show tunes. They were really good. We skipped going to the bar afterward. Gordon doesn’t drink and I was tired of people.
For some reason the boat didn’t stop at Baton Rouge. We went directly to Natchez. I’ll talk about that later. I’ve written enough.
Rosedown Plantation
