Traveling in the South

On Monday morning we left Lake Placid, FL in a huge rainstorm!  We had to drive up US 27 for about 100 miles in this rain and it is not a fun highway to drive in under any circumstances.  I don't understand why whoever plans transportation in states didn't think about an interstate running down the middle of the Florida peninsula.  Highway 27 is filled with semi's, orange hauling trucks, RV's of all sorts (especially this time of year when all the snow bunnies are heading back up North) plus all the local traffic of every small town (with at least one stop light but usually 3-4 or more in the case of the bigger towns) along the way.  It took us 2 1/2 hour to make it up to the Florida Turnpike 100 miles away!  Of course we were showered with water every time we got near a semi which was very often!  Finally when we got up to about Ocala where I-75 and the turnpike intersect  the rain stopped and we headed up north to I-10.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to get from Lake Placid to the Alabama border!  After that we had a fairly sunny drive passing through Mobile, Biloxi, Gulfport, and all the way to the outskirts of Baton Rouge where we decided to quit for the day and found a place to stay.

As I was checking in a man came in and asked if I liked seafood.  I said I did and he highly recommended the restaurant next door called Don's Seafood.  We got settled and went over to it.  The menu said they had been in business since 1934!  They had pictures on the wall from the 1950s.  The waitress asked if we knew about their Monday specials and proceeded to tell us about their oysters.  Bob had already seen the oysters on the half shell on the menu and come to find out on Mondays they are $0. 25 apiece!  He ordered 1 1/2 dozen for $4.50!!!! And he ate them all plus a cup of crawfish bisque.  I had the seafood salad.  It had 8 large very fresh shrimp, about 1/2 cup of lump crab, and 1 cup of spicy crawfish (all not in the shell) a hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes all on top of a huge bowl of greens!  I took half of it back to the room which had a refrigerator and we brought it back to Texas in our ice chest.  The dressing was on the side so it was great.  They really specialize in good old southern fried and cajun cooking but had a lot of just broiled type fish too.  Fried catfish and red beans seemed to be really popular that night along with the oysters.  We found out the original Don's was in Lafayette and there are 6 of them around that region including one in New Orleans.  The oysters we could tell had been caught (harvested??) that day.  They were huge and very,very fresh!  I would recommend this place to anyone who is in the Baton Rouge or Lafayette areas to check it out.

Bob's oysters after he already ate his half dozen!

My salad after I ate more than half the shrimp and crab!

The next day we got up and headed to San Antonio, a drive that takes us through Lafayette, Lake Charles,  Beaumont, and Houston. We got here about 4 in the afternoon and it was so nice and warm! Around 80-85 degrees.  The kids went outside to catch butterflies and play.  So here we are!  Ready for more adventures.