LA FUCAT - May 2015

Our fourth and final FUCAT (F'ed Up Childhood Appreciation Tour) was in Louisiana, visiting Shawna's hometown of Moreauville with John and JoAnna.  It was a trip in the making as Shawna's mom decided to do a major renovation when Shawna asked for a toilet to be fixed in the guest bathroom.  That led to tile being replaced in the bathroom along with tile and toilet being replaced in another bathroom and in the hallway, refinished floors, sheet rock on the walls with paint and new carpet up the stairs!  It turned out really nice!

Marksville High School

We flew into to Alexandria on Friday morning, meeting John and Jo in Dallas to board our connecting flight.  Their connection was really tight so they showed up to the gate with only 10 minutes to spare!  After picking up the rental car, we drove to Marksville where we saw Shawna's first high school (Marksville High), the main street where she cruised with her friends, the town square, the building where her dad used to own a furniture store and Radio Shack and the old site of the drive through daiquiri (apparently they moved).  We stopped in at the Paragon Casino to grab lunch and just couldn't pass up the $9.99 buffet.  John thought he could move here and live off of the buffet in retirement (he later changed his mind when he realized the area wasn't quite his pace)!  We tried not to eat too much but couldn't pass up the crawfish fettuccine and fried catfish.

Paragon Casino

We stopped at WalMart to pick up a few items before heading to Shawna's house in Moreauville.    After giving a tour of the house, we took a nap (we were all up pretty early to catch our flights).  That evening, Shawna's mom hosted a crawfish boil at the house which was quite yummy!  Chet brought tables and chairs and did the boil which was much appreciated.  The people who came included: Nicole, Pat, Hunter, Ginger, Michael, Katie, Linda, Diane, Michael, Jocelyn, Jean, Ashley, Judy and Eric.  We had a great time drinking beer, eating, catching up and sharing stories.  After everyone left, Chet hung around and had a few drinks with us and regaled us with stories from his time working at Angola prison.  We had planned to check out Kyrle's, which is the bar Shawna used to go to when she was young, but decided to call it a night.

Diane and Linda

Ginger and Shawna

After breakfast on Saturday, we did a walking tour of the town because a driving tour would take only 2 minutes.  We saw the site of Shawna's dad's other furniture store, Ginger's childhood house, the Moreauville School (which Shawna did not attend), the Sacred Heart Church and the Sacred Heart School (which Shawna attended from kindergarten to 8th grade).  We continued our walk across the bayou to work off some of the food from the prior day.

Sacred Heart School

After showering, we went to the Cochon de Lait Festival in Mansura, passing Kyrle's on the way - someone commented that it looked like an old strip club since there are no windows.  At the festival, we shared a few food items - cracklings, jambalaya, alligator sausage pita and the exploded fries (which made us feel like we exploded).  We had a few beers and watched the hog calling contest and the men and women's beer drinking contest.  We decided we had had enough of the 'local culture' and drove back to Shawna's house, passing through Cottonport to see the bayou.  That evening, we went to dinner with Shawna's mom, Hope and Craig at the Red River Grill.  We met them before our reservation and had a few drinks at the bar and then sat down for dinner and reminisced on old times.

Cochon de Lait Festival

Sunday was a bit of a bust.  After breakfast, we drove to St. Francisville to see the Rosedown Plantation and to have lunch.  However, while we were walking the grounds of Rosedown, we received alerts that our flights had been canceled due to weather.  So we decided to drive back to Shawna's house so that we could be closer to the airport in case we worked out some other arrangements.  We were on hold with the airline the entire way home as well as an hour after we got home (over two hours in total).  John, JoAnna and Keith were placed on the same flight the next night while Shawna was placed on an early flight the next morning with a long layover and two stops via Phoenix to get home.  While Keith and John were sorting out the flight details, Shawna whipped up a crawfish jambalaya that had a little bit of butter (OK, a lot of butter) - it was very tasty.

Rosedown Plantation

That afternoon, we drove to Alexandria and decided to stay at a Hampton Inn by the airport since Shawna's flight left early the next morning and it would allow more space for everyone to work during the day.  We stopped to watch a movie (The Avengers: Age of Ultron) and had dinner at Johnny Carino's before heading to the hotel.

On Hold with the Airline!

The next morning (Monday), Shawna woke up early to find out that her flight was canceled.  She went to the airport to sort it out and found out that she was never even placed on that flight.  They put her on a flight leaving Tuesday evening.  She decided to buy another ticket on another airline leaving Monday night through Houston but then later found out that flight was canceled as well - she finally gave up!  We all worked from the hotel on Monday and everyone left Monday evening while Shawna stayed another night and worked from the hotel on Tuesday.  The only saving grace was the free happy hour at the hotel!

While the weekend ended on a sour note, we certainly had a great time, enjoyed the food and the company and got to share life in small town Louisiana!

John and JoAnna