Cracklins

We already had reservations at a hotel in Lake Charles, LA for the night so in terms of driving Friday would be a relatively short day.  We took the opportunity to sleep in a little bit and we were on the road by about 9:30.  We were hungry but we wanted something a little different.  We opted for Krispy Kreme because the hot donuts from there are a special thing.  There are almost no Krispy Kremes back home, in fact the one we used to have close by (it was a half hour from home) went out of business because New Englanders only seem to like Dunkin’ Donuts.  Now the nearest one to our house is over 100 miles away!  In the south they are everywhere.  We went to the nearest one, only 3 miles from our hotel and we got our fix of the hot donuts.  The light outside was flashing so we knew there would be fresh donuts.  We ate a half dozen between the two of us followed by a bottle of milk before we got on the road.

After leaving Krispy Kreme we headed west.  We entered into Mississippi after only a few minutes and raced across the state in about an hour.  Just before hitting the Louisiana border we stopped at a rest area where they had a lunar lander on display.  We thought that was pretty cool.  This particular one never went to the moon, it was only used in training but as far as we could tell it was the real thing.

We got back on the road and pointed towards Abita Springs, LA, where there was a very unusual museum called the Abita Springs Mystery House or the UCM Museum (pronounced “you see ‘em).  The museum features an eclectic collection of antiques as well as all kinds of “stuff”.  The $3 entrance fee was well worth it as we spent about 45 minutes exploring the most unusual place.  We definitely recommend it to anyone who may be visiting the New Orleans area. It is a nice little day trip and if you go on a Saturday there is a brewery in town as well that gives tours on Saturdays. 

When you press the button a tornado starts swirling in the middle.  It eventually knocks over the trailer on the left side.

You can actually play this organ but you need two people.  One to crank on the right side and one to play.

Inside the box

This machine stole one of our quarters.

After leaving the Mystery House we were getting hungry.  While in this area of the country there is all kinds of good food, we had one very particular place and type of food in mind:  Andre’s Cajun Cracklins, just west of Baton Rouge.  We had been there before for their tamales and cracklins and since we were last there well over a year ago we have been craving them.  There are many roadside stands throughout this area that sell cracklins but the ones we found here seem to be especially good.  We don’t think cracklins are very good for you but they sure taste good.  We drove for about an hour and a half from the Mystery House to Andres where we ordered a pound of cracklins, a half dozen tamales, some cheddar stuffed breaded jalapenos, a meat pie and a crawfish pie.  When you hear pie you probably think of a large sized pie but the meat pie and crawfish pie are actually about the size of an empanada. Our whole mean came to only $26 and we ate our meal in the car.  We were very full for the rest of the day but just in case we brought some cracklins with us. 

Tamales

Cracklins

After getting our fill we headed west again, this time staying about 10-15 miles north of the interstate, and drove towards Lake Charles.  We made one more stop, at a McDonald’s restaurant for a southern tradition, sweet potato pie.  We rarely go to McDonalds restaurants but when we are away from home we try to make a point to go because they usually have something regional on the menu.  This time it was sweet potato pie.  Think of a McDonalds apple pie but instead of apple you have sweet potato.  As expected, they were quite good.  We got back on I-10 about 20 minutes from Lake Charles and we arrived at our hotel a little before 7.