Something To Shoot For

Our first night in Louisiana we stayed in a cabin at Lake Fausse Pointe. It’s certainly the wildest place we’ve stayed on our road trip. There were squirrels and birds all around, alligators right outside the cabin and turtles in the water. Luckily the snakes and bears were nowhere to be seen but our morning walk was beaten back by clouds of mosquitoes.

Gator Baby. . . Frostie. . . Spanish Moss. . . The Laura Plantation House. . .

Pretty soon after crossing the state line we were holding a baby alligator. The following day we visited The Laura Planatation. They provide a really good tour of a historic house and don’t gloss over the dark side. Perhaps because they have the memoirs of one of the more realistic owners as historical record. Our tour guide Ginger also gave us a great introduction to Louisiana and Creole.

We went to Nashville on the weekend to see Jenny & Johnny play at The Mercy Lounge. Jenny Lewis is amazing and they put on a great show. I wasn’t familiar with Jonathan Rice before their album I’m Having Fun Now. I’ve been warming to him listening to the album, and his performance of Carpetbaggers has won me over (the recording features Elvis Costello, no small shoes to fill). For an encore Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and Kirsten Dunst took to the stage to sing backup for Jenny.

Keris & Stuart were kind enough to take us to The Broken Spoke during our stay in Austin and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have found out about this one without them. It’s a country music dance hall that’s been around for about fifty years. Without a hint of irony there’s a honky-tonk band and plenty of guys and girls of all ages dressed to the nines in their western attire. It seemed like some of the people there may have been attending for decades. It also highlighted that there’s a lot of Americans out there who can dance, and dance well.