Rayne,LA

We arrived in Rayne, LA on Tuesday. It is the FROG capital of the world and they have alot of frogs everywhere. Frogs and Rayne have a long history that dates back to the 1880's,when a gourmet chef named Donat Pucheu started selling, juicy delectable bullfrogs to New Orleans restaurants. Word of Rayne's frog delicacies spread like wildfire and so it goes...... There is no longer a viable frog export due to growth of population & change in field irrigation. So now you know!!!!

This is St. Joseph's cemetery, listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not! Bucking Christian tradition, the graveyard began with the graves placed in a north-south position rather than the traditional east-west position. You would like this one ,Lorry.

We spent a day touring Crowley- "where life is Rice and Easy". Saw a rice/crawfish plantation and learned that after the rice is harvested thet use the same fields to cultivate crawfish. Great use of the land. Also visited the Opera House, a huge restoration project that will be very nice when finished.

On Wednesday we took a "swamp " tour of the Atchafalaya Basin in Henderson,LA. The weather was a little drizzly and the wind was cold! The cypress trees are one of nature's true art forms and I was surprised to learn that they are endangered (too much water). These trees were about 90 years old.

One interesting thing during the "Swamp" tour was passing under I-10. The bridge is 18 miles long and took six years to build. It was weird to be in a "natural" environment and have thousands of vehicles pass overhead. Ah-h-h progress is a wonderful thing??

We are now ready to start the LA State Winnebago Rally so we will be very busy for a few days sooooooo Happy Trails to you........Until we meet again..