DAY #9
When the sun set the night before it was quiet in the campsite, I was one of only a few there. Waking up Saturday morning though brought a different scene. The park (at least around me) had almost filled up with trailers and pickups. It was OK to have some human noise, at least for a little while. So far at the parks I’ve stayed, it’s been really quiet.
I still haven’t hooked up my water, I deep pushing it to the next site. I guess there’s that fear that when I hook it up it wont work or worse yet, blow a line somewhere and water, water everywhere. It does help when the bathrooms at the parks are in decent condition and the one’s at this park were no exception. I was able to shower and other stuff without that never fails someone wanting to use the toilet or shower when you’re using it. LEAVE ME ALONE, DAMMIT. You should be able to tell, I don’t like when that happens.
Went into Ville Platte and while it’s rundown and well past its prime, it still retains some interesting architecture, mainly in the homes. You get outside the city (pop. 7500) and the homes are really, really nice. Most are set back from the road with a large well-groomed lawn around them devoid of any trees. Almost all are made of brick, long and low to the ground with large sweeping roofs. In Ville Platte itself, the homes were for the most part old, small, and in need of a sprucing up. the side streets were narrow and dark with trees and poverty. The area is approx. 60% black and 40% white and you can tell pretty easily where the white folks live and where the black folks live. Having said that, what I did see were people (black & white) interacting with and seemingly getting along with one another. It seemed more normal to me here than it does back in Minnesota. I liked the people around here, seemed friendly in a genuine way.
Coming back to the campsite was a bit interesting. It was getting dark and talk about a long four miles. Wasn’t sure where I was going (I didn’t know where I was going under ideal conditions), and the trees were so thick that they created an almost fence like effect, and add to that the fast fading light. About this time a thought came to me; man, you are a city boy aren’t you? OK, I manned up and put my fears aside (at least for the next mile) and finally (Whoop Whoop!!) there was the campsite. Nice way to end the day.
What, no photos again?
The Journey. 