We left New Orleans in mid-morning and drove on to the small town of Thibodaux, only about 60 miles away, south-west of New Orleans. Paul had read that there was a free Cajun music session at the Wetlands Arcadian Cultural Centre every Monday evening. We wound our way there in a leisurely fashion, arriving at the Center in early afternoon, where we looked around awhile and picked up some local information and also information on Lafayette (to be our next stop).
The woman at the Wetlands Arcadian Cultural Centre recommended a couple of places for lunch. We drove around a bit, down some very narrow streets (where it was a squeeze getting the RV through) , looking for somewhere to park, eventually parking outside the Sheriff's office. We walked the length of Third Street a couple of times looking for Spahr's Seafood Restaurant. We had just given up the search and were making our way back to the RV when we found it – on Fourth Street! Anna had the fish of the day, Tilapia, with streamed vegetables and enjoyed it very much.
We drove some way out of Thibodaux looking for an RV park. The countryside was very wet, lots of rivers and bayous.– noticeably in swamp country. After passing a couple of very shabby and run-down sites, we found the Hideaway Ponds campsite about 15 miles out of Thibodaux. It had a crawfish pool, a bass pool and a swimming pool. You could catch the crawfish to eat on site but had to put the bass back. We didn't fish, or swim!
We booked in at Hideaway Ponds, where we found a plot beside some trees (where a path led to a bayou). Then we drove back to the Wetlands Arcadian Cultural Centre in Thibodaux for the concert. We'd been told earlier that it started at 5 p.m. and we were there at 4.45 p.m., to be told that it wouldn't start until 5.30 p.m.. As there was nothing else to do, we hung around.
The session started at 5.40, due to problems with the PA system– if not caused, then certainly exacerbated by the self-important, accordion playing, semi-musician (Paul’s words) who had to keep fiddling with the cables. session went on until 7.00 p.m., which was far too long as it was pretty bad! The rhythm-guitarist (wife of the aforementioned semi-musician) played as though she had a brush-handle up her ass (Paul says). The lap-steel player played his solos without listening to the rest of the band and kept increasing the tempo, so that the triangle-player (the time-keeper) struggled to adjust. The fiddle-player was very good. The mandolin player and second guitar didn't seem to contribute very much as they weren’t amplified. The guitarist seemed to receive a lot of direction from Mrs Semi-Musician.
There were several old folk there who made a regular Monday evening of it, including some very nice and friendly older women. Their running commentary whenever the Self-Important One began fiddling with cables yet again was delightful: 'Oh no, leave it alone...,' and so on in a soft Louisiana drawl.
Altogether our visit to Thibodaux wasn't a good use of time. It seemed a nice little town and we had a good meal there, but the campsite was pretty basic and a long way out of town. The older women at the music session had exhorted us to look around their town and told us places to see. Unfortunately we didn't have time to see more of Thibodaux next day as we were moving on to Layfayette.
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