Day 40: St. Francisville, Louisiana - REST DAY
Miles: 7.14 ------------ Total Mileage 2,232.98
Theme: The Butler Greenwood Plantation - A Great Place to Rest!
So - where did I leave off last night, oh yes, we are staying at the Butler Greenwood B&B. What a fabulous place to have a day off. The Butler Greenwood B & B used to be an Indigo Plantation. The indigo plant is used for blue dye. The driveway is lined with beautiful old oak trees that have Spanish moss hanging from them. The trees are several hundred years old. The grounds are lovely. There is a small area of Indigo plant near the main house, but otherwise the working plantation is gone. On the property is the main house and there are about 6 other buildings spread out around a pond. Tex, Victoria and I stayed in the Pond House. It is a lovely place with a kitchen, a living room with a large leather couch, one bedroom with a private bathroom and jacuzzi tub, and then a second bedroom with 2 queen size beds and a bathroom. There is also a large front porch, but the best part is the back porch which overlooks the pond which has an amazingly comfortable hammock! As you may have guessed I tried it out and stayed in it for quite some time. The only thing that motivated me to leave the hammock was dinner!
The other buildings were very interesting as well. Young Pup stayed in the Gazebo - which looks like a chapel as there are huge stained glass windows on each side. She had the place to herself so was very pleased! Alice stayed in a place called the Tree House, Dianne and Linda had the Dovecote and Liz and Nancy stayed at another place. All of the places were different and full of character. I can't recall the numbers of acres on the estate but it is full of birds, flowers, etc. There is a resident Peacock called Humphrey. When Lisa, Tex and I first arrived Humphrey showed off and displayed his feathers. It was quite a display! And so this is where we are having a day off. It is about 3.5 miles from town - but most of us are simply happy as clams for the quiet and beauty of this place. Some want to be closer to town (as we are on our own for food on our days off) but for me, this is perfect!
Enough about the grounds and where we stayed, now on to the day off. I slept in (didn't get up until around 6:15 or so) and had a leisurely morning. There is cereal, croissants, juice, coffee, bananas... in our houses, so I ate some breakfast on the porch. While I was sitting there, Humphrey came around checking out what was happening. He is a beautiful bird! I must have sat on the porch for an hour or two. It is such a peaceful place. Around 10:00, Ann - the owner of the B&B was giving a tour of the main house. Tex and I went to that. The downstairs of the main house is full of antiques and is still in it's original state. The plantation has never been sold and Ann is the 8th generation to live there. Of course I am not good at remember many facts, so I won't go into any detail. One thing that I thought was extremely interesting is that there was a globe in one room, but rather than having the countries on it, it was a celestial globe. The globe was from the 1800's. Antiques Road Show would have had a heyday going through the main house!
After the tour, Tex, Young Pup, Victoria and I got on our bikes and road into town. We were interested in lunch and I was interested in finding a Louisiana sticker for my helmet. I have put a sticker from each state we ride through on my bike helmet. We went to lunch at Magnolia's. The word on the street is that that is the place to go. Let me tell you, the word on the street is right! Victoria ordered an alligator appetizer that she shared. When in Louisiana, how can one resist? I have to say, it wasn't bad!
After lunch Young Pup went back to the B&B while Tex, Victoria and I spent some time downtown. It is a quaint town and the people are very friendly! We stopped at the Tourist Info place hoping to get a sticker there. No such luck, but the women running the place were very nice. We decided to go across the street to a store, so rather than move our bikes over there, I asked if it was okay to leave our bikes in front of the Tourist Information Building. One of the women (probably in her late 60's or 70's) said "It's fine to leave them, they would be safe and if any one bothered them, I will flatten them." I knew our bikes were in good hands! The three of us had a great time just checking out a few stores and riding our bikes in the historic district. By around 1:30 or so, we headed back up the road, back to our B&B.
The rest of the afternoon was spent on the porch with various people coming by and hanging out with us. Alice came and visited as well as Nancy, Kathie M, Carol, and Linda. Lots of stories were shared, many laughs - and we even let others relax in our hammock!
Before we knew it, it was time to go to dinner. At 5:00 those who wanted could get a ride in to the Oxbow (a good restaurant) with local cuisine. So into the van we piled. It was Greta's birthday - so it was fun to be able to go out to a nice place! We had a great dinner - with all sorts of dishes I had never heard of. And now, we are back - it's 8:30 and I am the last one up in our house. The morning will come quickly and we have an 87 mile day --- so I'd better shut this down. What can I say ---- another great day with a group of fine women!
That sounds like pretty much a perfect day to me.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine grew some indigo and we dyed spinning fiber with it. You make a kind of dirty looking tea with the leaves then steep the fiber/cloth/yarn in it. When you take it out, the fiber is kind of dull yellow color, but as the oxygen hits it, it turns blue in front of your eyes - a matter of seconds! Magic. And all that indigo is what was used to make blue jeans blue. True facts.