2015 Road Trip....Day 7 & 8 Shopping and Eating Bugs

If you want to catch up on this Road Trip Series use these links--

Part 1 PA to WV
Part 2 WV to KY
Part 3 KY to TN
Part 4 TN to AR
Part 5 AK to LA


Day 7, Saturday the weather was sunny and it was a good thing too because we had BIG PLANS for that day!

Daughter had to work in the morning and then go pick up her new-to-her car from the dealer so Hubs and I lingered over breakfast.

This Sleep Inn had a right nice breakfast menu.  Besides all the crappy carb loaded foods most motels have they had eggs and either sausage or bacon each morning, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and fresh fruit.

Here's my plate from most of our 8 day stay there.....eggs, meat, tea and fruit.

After breakfast we went out to World Market in Shreveport.
I love me some World Market, having discovered it last trip to Louisiana in 2014.
Unfortunately there is no WM around where I live so we stop when we find one on our travels.

We bought a few beers......

One from Utah.

One from Texas.

Lots of strange foods here too.
English goodies.....curried baked beans and mushy peas....neither of which I'd eat. lolz

But I might be persuaded to eat pickled veggies.....

I should have bought these Brussels Sprouts for my eldest.
When I served them when he was younger living at home he HATED them so he'd swallow them whole.
Luckily I never bought LARGE ones...lolz

People buy pickle brine for cocktails?  Hmmmm.

A German rose wine in a cat shaped bottle.

This pig barbecue was cute but just too tiny to be useful to grill anything.

I should have bought these when I saw them.  They would have made an AWESOME Christmas present for a couple of people I know(and you know who you are!).

Hubs makes fun of me because I can't use chopsticks correctly and I carry a "chopstick training wheels" device to attach to them like Asian cultures attach to their toddlers sticks who are learning to use them.
He suggested I buy these fabulous ones........

We went back to the hotel and awaited the Daughter's arrival.
Here she is with her new car.......

So what did we do that afternoon?
Well, we went to the Shreveport Mud Bug Madness Festival!

First order of business was getting seats inside the shady, tented area where the bands were playing.
Second order of business was finding "adult beverages".

We sort of found seats(out in the aisle, not at a table as people were saving their tabled seats all day long while they walked around--you had to get there early to get a table it seems)and then the drinking commenced.......

Here's one of the bands we heard and glimpsed through the people wandering around in front of us......


Another of the bands we heard....

It was a great place to people watch.
This old lady was drinking and dancing while smoking a cigar.  Thank goodness she didn't decide to go topless too!
Or maybe she did later on....lol

Time for a selfie!

Then we walked around a bit.

This vendor had mud bug themed goods......

The shot glass with the woman on it says, "You want me to suck what?" lolz

Hubs bought a spice mixture for making bread pudding from another vendor.
And I bought a hat and a souvenir pin.
Me in my visor/hat once we got home.....

Then we found the FOOD VENDORS and we were starving at this point!

Hey what's on the menu today? Why gator.
Before..........

And After........

Gator on a stick.

Daughter and I went off in search of Boudin Balls but the only vendor serving those had a fryer problem so we ended up getting Boudin Links instead.
I took one bite and my head about exploded it was so HOT!!!
I gave the rest to Hubs and he gobbled it down.
I am a wimp when it comes to spicy stuff.

You know if we end up moving down there I might just get skinny because I won't be able to eat anything they make down there. lolz

Daughter and I shared a mud bug egg roll after that just to get something in me before I passed out from alcohol poisoning. ;-)

Then there was some posing behind silly signs...
Of course I am the short one with the big chest, story of my life. lolz

I think this one was for kids to use as it was very low to the ground and Hubs knocked it over at least once in the process of posing behind it....

Then there was more people watching......

Lots of old people on various wheeled contraptions here.

If this guy's beard was longer he'd have passed for one of those Duck Commander guys.

We didn't actually eat any boiled crawfish at the Mud Bug Madness since the smallest size they sold them in was a 3 lb. container like the old guy above, who I was sitting next to, is eating. Let me tell you the SMELL of those things boiled was horrendous.
Well at least I am hoping that foul smell was coming off what he was eating and not him.  ;-)

We passed by the "rides/games" area and saw this...........


As we got to the other end of the Festival Daughter decided to get one of these gimmicky ice cream concoctions.

The link to see a short clip of her licking an ice cream is HERE.  Of course it's sideways and I couldn't get it turned but I think it's better this way. lolz

Another family photo to commemorate the adventure.......

And then we started to head for the entrance/exit.
Next to the entrance we had seen a big set-up for Baby Ray's Sauces and Hubs and I had Daughter take our photo with the inflatable bottle of sauce.......

On the way out their booth was open and reps from the company where there giving away barbecue sauce.
Except to get a free bottle you had to pose with a silly sign and let them upload your photo to Facebook.
Sweet Baby Ray's is the Daughter's favorite barbecue sauce so she talked me into posing with her for a photo to embarrass myself on Facebook.
Yah, you know it didn't take much to talk me into that one............

Yes, if you are Facebook friends with me you saw me doing a really bad impersonation of a barbecue sauce bottle this past May. lolz
Hey, it's obvious I have no pride, especially when it comes to free food! (We each got 2 bottles for being such good sports.)

Then it was out the exit under a sign that read, "Thanks for Comin' Tail Pinchers".

Here's a video of someone's trip to the Mud Bug Festival in 2008 HERE.  You get more of a sense of the sheer numbers of people there from his video.  Evidently he stayed the whole day and night on his trip.
Unfortunately for us, we weren't there when any Zydeco bands were playing which is one of the reasons we went to it.  But we just couldn't stay more than a couple of hours at the thing as it was muggy hot(this is LA after all and it was late May), lots of walking and did I mention it was mobbed with people? lolz

We had take-out Chinese for dinner back in the room, swam some more and just relaxed the rest of the day/evening.  After an afternoon of sensory overload I was ready for unwinding.

Day 8 of our Spring Road Trip to Louisiana the Daughter took us to a flea market down the road from her house.
Everything was inside of a ramshackle old building that had three corridors and all the vendors were inside this building.

The vendors were a mix of discount, new merchandise and thrift store/garage sale or antique-y type goods.

There really wasn't much I really wanted to buy(except for a case of canning jars that I didn't feel like walking all the way back to haggle for-but I should have)but there was this one vendor selling Confederate themed items.

Comforters and sheet sets.....

to these lovely table lamps with confederate battle flag shades.....

I saw this photo for sale in a vendor area that wasn't open that day but you could see the goods through the chicken wire gate.....

There was a produce vendor outside that we bought a watermelon off of(Highway Robbery at $9!!!)for the picnic we were having the next day at Daughter's house.

Then it was off to find lunch.
Daughter took us to a place called "Superior Grill".

The place was highly recommended but was PACKED!
We had a 20 minute wait outside on the patio.  There was a lovely Magnolia tree in bloom out there and the warm breezy day had the patio smelling marvelous.

This place was quite pricey but as Daughter's BF's mother recommended it I am not surprised as she seems to enjoy the high life. ;-)

I had a rare drink at this restaurant(I prefer to drink at home for cheap).  A large margarita.....doesn't that look good?!?

Hubs and Daughter......

Some décor over by the bar area.....

I don't even remember what I ate there(too long ago and a faulty memory or was it that Margarita? lol)but it was nothing special and way overpriced.


We went back to Daughter's house to visit for awhile then we decided to all go back to the hotel and take a swim.
I rode with Daughter in her car and Hubs drove our car back to the hotel.  I went with Daughter because she wanted to take me somewhere first.
Where?
A drive-thru Daiquiri Store.

This drive-thru daiquiri seems to be quite popular not just in New Orleans but all over Louisiana. I first heard of this on a segment on Anthony Bourdain's old show.
I call frozen daiquiris "Adult Slurpees" myself.
But it's wild that you can by this at a drive-thru window.
I hear that it's also a "thing" in parts of eastern Texas now all the way to Dallas.




A link HERE to Anthony Bourdain's take on this phenomenon from his old show "No Reservations".


Here's the one I got.....Peach Gummi Rings Daiquiri...........

That thing was potent! lolz
Sonya Ann, we have to RETIRE HERE!!! lolz

After sipping our cocktails and a swim(and no, we didn't drown)we ordered a little something for dinner and had it delivered to the hotel.

I experienced a food first that evening.  My first real, honest to goodness Muffeletta Sandwich made in Louisiana.

The video is HERE.

It was an ok sandwich but the beer I had with it, Polygamy Porter, from Wasatch Brewing was outstanding!
I picked it up at World Market in Shreveport and figured we'd hit them again before leaving LA and I could stock up, but alas!, we didn't go back before leaving town.
Sigh.

It's a really good Porter.
And not just because they take the polygamy jokes and run with them, though those are great too.  ;-)
I especially like the line on the lable, "Take some home to the wives!" lolz

Seems they had a devil of a time with their advertising in Utah for this beer.  Local billboard companies refused their signs so Greg Shrif, the owner, made a commercial.......


It takes real balls to move from Milwaukee to Salt Lake City UT and start a brewery in a state where a large portion of the population doesn't believe in drinking, not even caffeinated sodas let alone alcohol.
Oh heck!

After some talking and tv, Daughter went home and Hubs and I floated off to sleep with full tummies, exercised muscles and alcohol induced dreams.

Sluggy