Kinder Louisiana. Rolling to the Big Easy

Rolling to the Big Easy a WBCCI Caravan

The Caravan has four main stops over the next 14 days. We will visit Kinder, Palmetto State Park, Lafayette, and New Orleans

Kickoff

We rolled into Kinder around 1800 on March 2nd. We are arriving a day early for the caravan. The campground was a little confusing and the office staff was not super helpful. We had to drive the campground twice to realize we needed to leave, check-in at a remote location. Check-in was confusing for all involved, the staff was not sure how to process our request to be with the airstream group, they initially put us into a campsite far away. After scouting the campground for the third time we were able to call the office and settle on a site that had us with our group.

Arriving was fun, the rally hosts had a block of sites reserved close to each other.

I feel that this campground was the quintessential initial meet location. It had us all close together, yet far enough apart. The grounds were perfect for the people with dogs to socialize them. Quick camaraderie was established as interactions and communications were easy.

GAMs

In caravans, apparently it is normal for attendees to do Getting Acquainted Meetings (GAM). We were one of the first hosts for the GAM. We had fun with our GAM, making a pink pineapple tray and giving away little flamingos, Meeting new people is always fun for me. Finding common interests across attendees was fast and made future interactions easy. I feel that other events could benefit from GAM style meetings. In the caravan environment we have multiple days to breakout into GAMs and the following days had us meeting many other caravans members.

Where we camped

RedShoes RV Park

The RV Park was large, we had lots of walking area for the dogs. The security was great, the first day I did not have my mirror hanger/ID tag. The security prevented me from entering. Additionally every time we entered the park at night we were verified by security. The RV park is a perk of the casino, I didn’t know that Louisiana casinos had craps, Donna and I went to play craps multiple times. We had lots of fun at the Park, Casino and the planned events

Planned Events

Intro Dinner

The first dinner out was at Fausto’s Family restaurant and taxidermy storage.

The Restaurant had many cajun, creole food, we had alligator, gumbo, fried chicken, and a po-boy,
The restaurant had lots of taxidermy. I have never seen so many critters. The picture does not truly give a view into all of the animals that were in the restaurant as every horizontal space also had critters, where the walls and ceiling had big game and big game pieces. I have the highest confidence the restaurant is the primary storage location for the owners taxidermy collection.

CrawFish and Rice Farming

We visited a crawfish and rice farm, the season of crawfish is February - June. Crawfish farming is prevalent in the region, nearly every field is flooded and traps visible. The workforce is primarily Hispanic via work visas. We learned how crawfish are harvested and about the equipment used.

The farms have local a Co-Op which is providing contracts, sorting, storing, and shipping. The farmer we talked to was complimentary of the Co-Op and the benefit of pooling resources. The farmer is also overstocked on rice and has no way to sell it due to tariffs instituted by the Trump administration. The farmer said he and all of his neighbors are in the same position and are scared for their livelihood.

Alligators

Donna and I would have never choose to visit a Alligator exhibit, we are so happy we did. We learned a bit about alligators and were able to hold and interact with baby alligators along with seeing some adolescents. I was really happy with the experience and will continually try to do things outside my own comfort levels.

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The Dogs

Minny

Minny Minny is in good spirits, she is sick, not walking much but is enjoying our company and still singing, growling, and accepting cuddles.

DooWee

Doowee DooWee is happy, getting lots of walks, is a little bit curios/jealous of Minny’s stroller

Gallery