Sunday, April 6, 2014

SW Trip 2014 - Houma, LA

Houma, Louisiana
March 28 – 30

After leaving Blackwater River S.P., we headed to Louisiana to visit Kurt’s family. Houma is a town southwest of New Orleans. The primary occupation in this area is within the oil, gas and shipping industries. Kurt’s nieces and nephews all live here and are a very close knit family.
We stayed at a mobile home/RV park in town which was just a 5 minute drive from the main family home. We arrived there and setup in the rain (ugh). The family was having a simple get together at Helen’s house (the mother) and we were able to see most of the group that evening. It was nice to see the latest addition to the family, a beautiful little baby girl, Olivia. She is the granddaughter of Kurt’s nephew Kurt Wolfertz.  Nicole, Kurt’s niece, was there with her boyfriend Larry. It was nice to meet him.  What a nice guy he is and they are very happy. We had a wonderful evening talking and laughing with the family. We were very tired from the long drive and headed back to the RV.

The next day Kurt’s niece, Wendy and her husband Todd, had everyone over at their home for a crawfish boil. As usual, the food was great and it was a treat to eat crawfish, it had been a few years since we had any. Also, the whole family was there, including Kurt Wolfertz’ son, KC, who is now a police officer with the Houma police department. What a great young man he is and the family is very proud of him.
Later in the evening, we headed out to Kurt and Angel’s home to visit with them. We enjoyed a couple of hours there with them and their daughter Karleigh. They are big dog lovers and Angel is a trainer/groomer. We took our dogs with us to so they could run free in their back yard. All the dogs got along fine and also had a good time. After a long day, we headed back to the RV for some sleep.

The next morning, Nicole and Larry picked us up at the RV. We went with them in Larry’s Jeep and joined their Jeep club for a Sunday ride. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We headed out to the country on back roads to visit some historical areas. Laurel Valley is an area with farms and old plantations. We drove through an old plantation to find the decrepit wooden cottages that had been slave quarters. The farms there produce sugar cane. Next, we went to a swamp tour/restaurant business on the bayou and had a lunch of alligator and shrimp po-boys. Then we went on a swamp tour, narrated by a young seventeen year old who was quite entertaining and used comedy as part of his spiel. This made the boat tour so much more fun, as we were already used to paddling swamps with alligators! The remaining Jeep ride consisted of the drive back to town, but along the way we stopped at a favorite bar that serves “Frank's world famous bloody Mary’s”, so we all had to partake of that beverage! The day ended back at our RV. We had such a fun time with the Jeep group, what a nice bunch of people who like to get outside and have a great time.
We really enjoyed our time in Houma, and Kurt’s family made it special for us. Getting to see them all again and spend time as a family is important to Kurt and me.

Next, we are heading to Lake Fausse Point State Park in Louisiana to paddle the swamp and go mountain biking.

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