P-P-P-Po' Boy Heaven.....

March 6, 2012

A good “road day” today, finding two sleepy little towns, way, way out on the coast.  Before we went, however, I wanted Tony to see the little store I had been in the day before that’s just up the road, Guillory’s.  I hailed a guy sitting in his truck in the parking lot, eating a sandwich, told him we’re from the Seattle area, so what should we order inside?  With no equivocation he said, “Shrimp po’ boy or the club.”  In we went amidst a 100 yellow jackets floating around all pissed off around a garbage can near the front door.  Again, everyone stopped, stared, followed us to the meat counter.  I told the guy behind the counter that we’d just received word on what to order from the guy in the parking lot; he laughed and set to it.  Two girls at a table said, “Hey, we’re eating the club, come look at it.”  So I did, it looked delicious.   

Off we go to Shell Beach, which we assumed would be a beach with shells.  I hadn’t had any quality shelling in quite awhile so was all atwitter at this chance. No beach, no shells.  Boo hoo.

It was obvious on the road in that this place was wiped off the map by that fickle bitch Katrina.  Acres of land have been mowed around the stumps of house foundations, but not much rebuilt.  What has been rebuilt is higher up that we’ve seen, even in Biloxi and Gulfport.  There were a lot of canals with a lot of garbage and old boats still lying in the weeds.  The fishers are back, rebuilding boats and docks.

Beautiful Hopeland, LA boat

Wiped Clean in Yscloskie, LA

Shell Beach Katrina Memorial

Shell Beach Worried Jeebus Cross

Yscloskie Bridge Tower

Yscloskie Fishing Boats

Shell Beach House Up Wayyyy High

Shell Beach New House, Old Steps

Shell Beach Refinery

We pulled off to the side on some grass, overlooking the river, anticipating above discussed sandwiches.  We were immediately covered in a cloud of mosquitos and flapped our way back to the road and found another river view without mosquitos.  Once Tony saw the po’ boy, he rewrapped the club and we dug in to that bad girl.  It was so good we didn’t speak until we were done.  The shrimp “popped” in your mouth when you bit in, so fresh.  They were lightly breaded with a subtle “bite” at the end, covered by a beautiful white hoagie-type roll.  Whatever secret sauce was used added to, not covered up.

Shrimp Po' Boy - those are Ton-Ton's Hands!

We were google-eyed with happiness that we had the club sandwich to eat for dinner!  I can only tell you that it was phenomenal as well.

March 7, 2012

Out the door before 2:00 today!  Go team Beddo-Corning!  I call that a miracle, and it gave us the time to visit the Chalmette National Cemetery, and next door to it, the Jean Laffite Historical Chalmette Battle Field.  It was odd and remarkable.  This was the battle of New Orleans that sent the English packing for good – and they were fighting against good old Kentucky boys.  Begone, I say!

Malur Beauregard House

Spotts First Shot at Battle of New Orleans

The cemetery was extraordinary because it started out as a Freedman’s cemetery.  Hundreds of gravestones, with the men’s names, and “U.S.C.T.”, which stands for United States Colored Troops.  I felt so honored that these veterans were laid to rest respectfully.

Freborn Barn, USCT

Trees covering graves

Antoine Gravenburg, USCT

We tooled around NOLA looking for a place I could plug in a thumb drive and print off some paperwork for both of us.  We meandered all over the place, many different neighborhoods, saw so many houses obviously rebuilt from Katrina.  And so many that were still sitting, forlorn, marked on the front as to bodies inside, animals, gas off or on.  We’re curious what percentage of citizens who left before, during and after Katrina – came back.  Gotta’ research that one.

Home to a fabulous dinner prepared by myself, of teriyaki chicken, rice and peas galore.  Two helpings for each, I felt a bit guilty but hey, in NOLA – no diet.

Azaleas in Bloom, Chalmette, LA

Big Cat in a Little Box