Photography and Web: Kurt
Part V. Baton Rouge and Onward
| Monday, May 13.
We docked in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The first thing we did after breakfast was hear a talk by Charles Vahlkamp
entitled, "What Is This Place Called Louisiana and Who Is This Man Named Huey Long." It was a very interesting
and enlightening talk. I had heard about Huey Long from my father when I was child. |
It was a very cloudy morning that became rainy. We visited the USS KIDD,
a Fletcher class destroyer, which claimed to be one of America's most famous fighting ships. Her missions in World
War II were to Wake Island, Rabaul, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and landings on Bouganville, Aitape, Hollandia
and Guam as well as the invasion of the Phillippines. We had just gotten on the ship when it started to pour. While
on the Kidd, we took a picture of a sailor, now a guide, who had been on the Kidd during the war. There is a maritime
museum next to the Kidd. We went back to the barge to get our raincoats and umbrellas, and at that moment the rain
stopped and it never rained again. Well-prepared, however, we carried all that stuff through the Old State Capitol.
There were walking tours to the Old State Capitol where there
were a number of exhibits about the Louisiana Purchase, and we traced the additions to the United States with the
passage of time. A fascinating display of film clips of several Louisiana governors, including portions of two
speeches by Huey Long with a teleprompter of the text was in another room. We walked by cases relating the circumstances
and facts relating to the assassination of Huey Long, a rogue governor of Louisiana. They presented doubts that
the man shot on the spot was really the man that killed him. It was implied it could have been one of his bodyguards. |
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We went back to the barge for lunch and dumped the raincoats and umbrellas.
A Cajun trio played for us at lunch and later on in the afternoon, they gave an hour concert.
There was a film, "Wrestling the Mississippi" which could be seen either in the auditorium or in the
cabins on closed circuit TV. We watched it in the cabin. It was about flooding and the various opinions about how
to curtail it. New Orleans is seventeen feet under sea level. One side is Lake Ponchatrain and the other side is
the river. The levees keep a lot of Louisiana from being covered over with water. They dread having both a hurricane
and a flood at the same time. The levees and the buildups have caused the land to absorb less water so that when
it rains it all goes right into the river. |
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We ditched the talk, "The Year of the Rose," but did attend "Acadian
to Cajun: The History of South Louisiana Music." Balfa Toujours told how his
family had gone from France to Port Royale to Grand Pre (Acadia) in Canada and then back to France and from there
to Louisiana. They played the tunes and the little accordion that Cajun bands typically play. We heard a great
deal about the Acadians when we visited Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island
in October 2001. There are many, many Cajuns in southwestern Louisiana. We had Cajun dishes for both lunch and
dinner and they were great.
The barge trip ends tomorrow; we have to pack today. Billy Ray Reynolds played country for us from 5:30 to 6:30
p.m. He was a lovely man, he really was. |
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Tuesday, May 14. On our last full day on the river we passed a lot
of barges. Some of these tugboats pushed twelve, even fourteen barges, usually three or four across and three or
four deep. We saw some fairly big ships. That time of year there was grain going down and oil coming up. That was
what was on the barges, but you couldn't really tell because they have covers on them.
We had a disembarkation talk right after breakfast. We had the musical production the elder hostlers had been working
on. The Barbershop Quartet sang several numbers. There were several pianists in the group and a large chorus. Only
one person brought any kind of an instrument. After the performance the staff gave all of the men a CD and all
of the women a copy of Raichelson's book, a history of music on Beale Street in Memphis. The Bar-B-Cue Lunch, which
was supposed to be served on the Sky Deck, was relocated to the dining room because it was so windy. The menu included
fried chicken, red beans and rice, ribs, etc. |
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We docked about 12:30, but they really didn't let us off the boat until
1:30 p.m. ACCL's Niagara Prince
was docked nearby. We had been on that ship for two very nice excursions with
great snorkeling in the waters of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
We went on a walking trip of the French Quarter |
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