Small SoLa Facts

Perhaps you know some of our facts, perhaps you don't know, I don't care...or maybe I do for even publishing a blog about it? Guess I do!

COOKIE:
The official state cookie of Louisiana? Well as of recently it became the well known tea cakes. I am a huge tea cake fan. My brother-in-law just became a huge tea cake fan. People who eat them for the first time become tea cake fans. They're just that yummy and simple as well. I myself make tea cakes with a memorized recipe inspired by a woman very close to us who's lived through so many of America's great changes, and still is alive today. The thing about tea cakes, flavor wise they're light, with a fresh vanilla taste to them. Majority of the times I would crack and chop up fresh pecans from local trees and use them in the dough. These are so authentic here you can't buy them in stores, unless a true Louisianian makes them. Someday I will get myself a little stamp with the shape of Louisiana as the mark and stamp them across the cookie. If all goes well maybe even the name Louisiana across the square ones. All in all, you must try them somehow someday.
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METROPOLIS:
Louisiana has some pretty big cities, even far outside I-10. North Louisiana has Shreveport, Monroe. SoLa has Baton Rouge as the state's capitol, and New Orleans as being a major business center, historical amongst the world, culturally diverse, and our largest city. This city was once nothing more but a swamp a few blocks from the river until workers pumped away the water, causing the land to dry up and sink below sea level in the process which set the stage for the country's most costliest disaster in history, flood of Katrina.




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DONUT:
How the hell can you tell me you visited NoLa and didn't have any beignets? You must be traveling with the uptight or just didn't have a damn clue. The official state donut, yesh...you've named it. It's beignets. They're a definite must in Louisiana. Stop by the locally owned Cafe du Monde on Decatur St. in NoLa's French Quarter and just enjoy the live sounds that exist there, the decadent aromas there, and life and beignets (served with homemade hot cocoa) in the Great City of New Orleans!

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BRIDGE:
Want another route out of NoLa? Well how about taking a route that's record breaking on its own. The City of New Orleans holds itself for doing things big, especially Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). But one notable thing about NoLa, is that it holds the current record for the longest bridge over open water....in the world. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway twin span bridges both spanning around 24 miles long over nothing but water, it's no wonder seeing land on the otherside proves silly. The northern terminus is located in Mandeville, along with a nice beach along Lake Pontchartrain with its southern terminus being in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. This is the same lake that flooded the city. Certain weather conditions can make this trip an unforgettable one, such as crossing the lake under a full moon, setting sun, ultra dense fog, thunderstorms right in the middle of the bridge...etc...you know...
***When viewing this video make sure you low the volume down...I wasn't using my iphone to film this but a simple camera. I know it's a bit blurry.***




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CAPITOL:
So you probably know that Louisiana's capital is Baton Rouge yes? Well did you know it holds its records as well for having the tallest state capitol in the US of A? It's one of the most scenic things about Baton Rouge, next to the Horace Wilkinson Bridge it looms above the trees like a giant lighthouse you can see before even reaching the city of Baton Rouge. The architecture is unlike anything one has ever seen in Louisiana for a building this old. Decorated with emblems of the state bird, the brown pelican, to famous governors, to the front entrance steps each of which represent each of the 50 states as they became official. And tours are absolutely free, so ride an elevator to the top and see what you see!


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Louisiana Heat

One thing I love about living in SoLa was riding through its southern most points to where not a tree will grow...roads are limited...you could easily see for miles, any growing thunderstorm, anything. You could go at the right time of day, roll the windows down one hour and have warm wind rushing in to bathe the interior with warmth......turbulent sounds that are always louder than the Indie you're blasting already. Our summers are hot, you can ask anybody that and get the same pandemic question. Some days, the humidity is harsh enough to make you feel like you should be swimming to your destinations. It's even more interesting on days where not a gust....a breeze nor a zephyr isn't even thought of by mother nature. Supposedly our climate is humid-subtropical with moderate to severe summer rain-spells or seasons. Summers here can reach as cool as 70 and as hot as 100 with heat indexes from the suffocating humidity to 115-120 on some days...Brutal yes?!
Last summer, the dreadful summer of 2009...I decided to tackle on a summer job, as a technician in my dad's small at-home type of business helping clients with landscaping, etc. Downtown Abbeville is where we spent the majority of it, applying a thick double coating of water-seal that was more like syrupy paint from before sunrise-sunset with a cool-off break....and every morning we would wake up early to beat the sun, doing as much as we could on whatever tasks the clients needed service with. Cruising through Abbeville at that time of morning....with the air still cool from the lows of the lower 70's, I was always still sleepy, never ready to leave the truck. About an hour in the sun would rise...and so would the temperature by the minutes. I always tied a white t-shirt around my head to protect myself from inconvenient flows of sweat into my eyes and to block the sun of course. My little brother became dizzy several times as a result of not wearing anything on his head that month. It was like this...every single day in June....but July, the days after my birthday, is when it would rain and rain every day for a few hours and clear up. Turns out for the whole month of June, a high pressure system sat over Louisiana, kept the skies clear of clouds and hopes of rain, for the whole hot month of June. Those cool off breaks, the majority of outdoor workers would seek shelter from the sun since we live in the sunbelt region of the SoLa. I have to say though, July truly saved me. We never went back there to see if more work was needed, which I'm sure there was...I was just tired of having to be this exhausted. It was like summer returned to normal for what we're use to during summer months. The days would start off mostly clear, warm, humid, but breezy and as clouds develop, some disappeared, but some don't. They become cells, wall clouds, hail cores from that one little morning survival cloud. And if you're a cloud watching person, time-lapsing the growth of a cloud into a city sized cloud is amazing. The cells and showers also relieve the south from the heat, giving name to our climate...humid-subtropical as well as visited by the occasional hurricanes.

This is just a few hours outside my bedroom window from morning to noonish

iTen Louisiana (About this blog)

GOAL:
I-10 spanning at 2460 miles long across one seaboard to the other, why not highlight the 279 miles worth of the interstate here in south Louisiana (SoLa) and places, people, life, differences (better word that just flat out 'issues'), and just the world that SoLa has to offer all things geographical (and edible). This will include not just around the I-10 corridor.

iTen:
Likewise, spanning 279 miles long in SoLa from major cities including Lake Charles all the way to New Orleans and then Slidell, the last pieces of Louisiana, or the first depending on where you're entering the state from. Enter a new world in SoLa that's been influenced by life here since Pre-America.

MAJOR LOCATION:
A] Lake Charles (West)
B] Lafayette (Central)
C] Morgan City (South Central)
D] Houma (South East)
E] Baton Rouge (South East)
F] New Orleans (South East)
G] Slidell (South East)

LOCATION:
Sulphur
Rockefellar State Wildlife Refuge and Game Preserve
Lake Arthur
Maurice
ROADTRIP - Highway 82/Creole Nature Trail (includes Perry, wetlands, Cajun Riviera)
Abbeville
Avery Island
Atchafalaya Region
ROADTRIP - Highway 1/ Port Fourchon, Grand Isle
ROADTRIP - Pontchartrain/ Fontainbleau State Park, Northshore, Rigoletts, New Orleans shoreline, Manchac
ROADTRIP - Mississippi River SoLa/ all along highway 23 communities all the way to Venice, La as well as Delacroix Highway and
Hopedale Highway.
FINAL - Chandeleur Island/ SoLa crescent jewel on the map.

The regions listed may be subject to deviations. Places not listed above will most likely be visited and documented, as well as a vice verse circumstance.