Ahh yes, the famous first post…
I took a cool little road trip today with the fam, trying to keep it 💯 you know. When I got home around 9:30pm, I got this crazy ass idea that I wanted to become a blogger and share my travels with everyone of the world. I thought to myself that i’m always going places, taking pictures and posting to Snapchat or Facebook and trying new restaurants so why not put that out on the internet?
I know there are a lot of places to get travel information, but maybe my perspective on things may be helpful or entertaining to some. So, here it goes.
Today, around 1:30pm my son was just being a little pissy pants. He was basically fighting himself to not fall asleep and take a nap. I was attempting the afternoon couch nap while he was throwing his fit and I came to the conclusion that he will not go down easy and is going to permanently disrupt my nap. Road trip time!
I told everyone lets get in the car and go! The kids were like “where are we going?” I was like “get in the car and i’ll let you know when your mother and I figure it out.” I pulled up the map on the navigation system in the car and studied it for about 5 seconds when I decided I wanted to go as far due south from Prairieville as I could go, so that made my initial destination Dulac, Louisiana. I now can’t get the song from Shrek out of my head.
The First Stop – Maurepaus Swamp Wildlife Management Area
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As we exited I-10 for Airline Hwy (US 61) south to head towards Grammercy, I notice this sign for “Maurepaus Swamp WMA Parking Area.” I said something to my wife and she said lets go check it out. So, I pulled a “Hard Brake” as notated on the map, u-turned and went back for the road.
I noticed the road was named Boyce Tower Road and it was dirt. I just washed the car so I was a bit hesitant to head down there. I know, #firstworldproblems.
That road is littered with potholes and dips, so I advise that you take it a little slow when traveling it. The road is flanked by water and swamp, which makes for a very scenic drive thats not too far off the main highway. There’s an AT&T cell tower you’ll pass and then you’ll cross a railroad track. I don’t advise stopping on the tracks (and it’s against the law) but on top the tracks you’ll see a pretty cool railroad through the swamp scene that you don’t get to see every day.
Past the tracks, you’ll come upon the parking area and a wooden bridge that goes over Bayou Conway. I totally wanted to drive across the bridge, but my daughter was too scared. We got out and took a few pictures.
After this, we turned around and headed for Thibodaux. As for the rest of this trip, I wish I would have taken more pictures and had my dash cam running. Maybe next time.
The Second Stop – Off the Hook, Thibodaux, LA
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We were getting hungry as it was a bit past the normal lunch time, so we stopped at Off the Hook. I’ve never been to it before and the images we saw online looked good enough so we decided to give it a try.
Off the Hook is a counter service Louisiana-style food restaurant. The menu is easy to comprehend and features a decent amount of Louisiana favorites as a Roast Beef Poboy, Red Beans and Rice and the like.
I ordered the T-Boy Burger which was a normal burger with sautéed onions and the wife ordered a Roast Beef Poboy. Both items were delicious. I also enjoyed a side of Rice Dressing and finished off the meal with some warm bread pudding with rum sauce. If I was in the area looking for a quick bite again, i’d definitely pick this over your standard fast food options.
The Drive to Dulac and Beyond
Here’s where the main part of the trip happens. We make our way to Houma and basically keep on going. We go through the tunnel in town and the kids got a kick out of it. Dulac is about 16 miles past Houma on Louisiana State Highway 57.
Once We got to Dulac, I just kept driving. We saw a lot of marshland and a lot of fishing camps. It seems to be a heavy fishing area, but also appears to be home to a few businesses dealing with the oil and gas industry. The road features a ton of these “Wetlands Cultural Byway” signs notating that the road I was on is some special road to travel. After doing a little Googling, I came across the Louisiana Byways website that will most likely give me ideas for future day trips across the state.
Louisiana state highway 57 ends at state highway 56. From there you can take a left and head back towards Chauvin and basically look back into Houma
Scarlet Scoop Ice Cream Parlor – Houma, LA
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Kids, those kids want everything. While at the end of the earth, with no businesses around, my daughter decides she wants ice cream. After a little googling (once we could get a decent cell signal) we saw this place online and decided to check it out since we had to head back through Houma anyway.
Scarlet Scoop Ice Cream Parlor is cool. It’s a small ice cream parlor near downtown Houma. When you walk in, you are greeted by the warm, sweet smell of ice cream and candies. This is a sugar bug’s heaven! There were many flavors of ice cream to choose from, along with various vessels such as a chocolate dipped waffle bowl to put the ice cream in.
I opted for the milkshake, because that is one of my ice cream based desserts. I chose to make the shake with Cookie Monster ice cream, which had Oreos, Chip’s Ahoy, cookie dough and bits of chocolate mixed in. It was delicious.
I noticed on the wall there was a hand written letter from Ben of Ben & Jerry’s fame to the owner of Scarlet Scoop persuading him to keep following his passion of delivering delicious ice cream to customers. I though that was cool.
The Ride Back Home
After the ice cream, it was time to get back home. The sun was going down. From Houma, I decided to take LA 20 back to Thibodaux and then LA 308 up to LA 70 near Donaldsonville to get me back to I-10. From there it was a straight shot back home in Prairieville.
I wish I would have taken more pictures. Next time…
Overall, we traveled 199 miles on this trip and spend about $14.88 worth of gas. Not bad for an afternoon spur of the moment road trip.
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