2021 Apr 8
We
are on the road again, for a few short weeks anyway. We left home on Sunday,
April 4th. Made a stop of one night just north of Texarkana, AR at
Sunrise RV Park.
Headed
out the next day for our goal of the first part of this trip, Grand Encore RV
Park, located just east of Natchitoches, LA (pronounced Nack-i-tish). Grand Encore
is a nice park, sites are spaced out so we aren’t on top of our neighbors. We
are here to hang out with the Suite Owners group, which is sponsored by the
manufacturer of our rig, DRV.
Yesterday
we went out to lunch with the group (first time we have been out to eat in over
a year!), then we went for a carriage ride through the historic district of
Natchitoches. Our guide was the daughter of the owner of the carriage business,
complete with piercings and bright pink hair. She was very informed and knew
what she was doing.
The Steele Magnolia house
Our tour guide had a baby possum she had rescued in her pocket.
This little horse pulled one of the carriages our group rode in.
The
movie “Steel Magnolias” was filmed here, and our tour took us to several of the
sites used. She knew the movie inside and out, it’s one of my favorites, so I
knew she knew what she was talking about. There have been a lot of movies
filmed in and around the town, evidently the historical aspects of the town are
popular with film productions.
After
our tour, we walked through the district and visited the shops located there.
Didn’t spend a lot of money, just bought a plastic knife to use with cheese.
Works really well!!
About
the time we got back to the rig, we had a line of thunderstorms go through,
some pretty strong winds, but nothing more serious, although we were under a
tornado watch.
Today
we went to Magnolia Plantation. The actual home was burned at the beginning of
the Civil War and rebuilt after the war, it is still in the family, so we
didn’t get to see that. We did get a tour of the ‘out’ buildings, the
blacksmith shop, the overseer’s house, which at one time was the hospital for
the slaves, and the remaining cabins the slaves were housed in. The last
building was the gin house where we saw the cotton cleaning and baling process, quite interesting! A big screw like thing
that was turned by mules and pressed the raw cotton into a screening process where the seeds were removed from the cotton. This was first mechanized by a mule or horse. Then steam was
introduced to the process and steam engines replaced the mules and the cotton was processed even faster, inadvertently prolonging the need for slave labor.
Mules were an important asset on the plantation as they were used in almost all areas of production and recreation of plantation life.
The blacksmiths domain
This building was first used as the slave hospital, then became the overseers house.
Inside the overseers house
There are a several slave cabins still standing, and were later used as tenant housing. The last cabin used by a tenant farmer was in the early 1970's
Nita
This gentleman was a volunteer and the artist of the bead weaving.
This is a shingle maker, made by hand, one at a time.
The General Store, or trade center, the hub of the fort.
The palisade.
The entrance to the fort was just wide enough for a wagon to enter.
Probably officer's quarters. The ranks slept on wide pallets along the wall, eight men to a side. No soft air mattresses, just the hard wood.
Our very knowledgeable guide
Hand crafted
