March 16, 2019 - Laplace to Baton Rouge, LA

Rain, rain, and more rain! It rained all night and was still raining when we started off this morning. Our first stop was at Laura Plantation, just south of Gramercy, Louisiana.

 
We took the 90 minute tour and our guide, Pam, did a great job of explaining the Creole history and telling us about the family that owned this sugar plantation. There are 12 buildings on the plantation that are on the National Register of historic places.  This was the main house which is built on brick columns. Because the house sits just across from the Mississippi River, the lower level which was their “basement” was used only for storage. All of the living quarters were on the upper level of the house.
The two small buildings were part of the kitchen.

The large pots were originally used in the sugar processing.

After the tour our heads were swimming with so much information we were overwhelmed!

We stopped at the B&C Seafood Restaurant for lunch. We split the catfish and shrimp plate and both decided their catfish was better than their shrimp!

This is the Mississippi River  -  well out of its banks - near the plantation. When Tobey biked this route a month ago, the trees were NOT in the water!

After lunch we were on to Baton Rouge where we are spending the night at the Hollywood Casino. (again) By the time we arrived, the sun was out and we were able to take a self-guided walking tour of the downtown area.

At the “new” state capitol building we took the elevator to the 27th floor where we could go outside and see views across the city.

We could see the Mississippi River and he parking lot for the Hollywood Casino. Our little RV is in the far right corner of the parking lot – near where the water is well over the banks of the river!

Looking below is the Old Arsenal Museum and Indian Mound.
These are the formal gardens and in the center is the grave of Huey Long. He was governor and U.S. Senator from Louisiana who proclaimed “Every Man a King.” He was assassinated in 1935 at age 42.

We stopped by the Former Governor’s Mansion which was completed in 1930 and first occupied by Governor Huey Long. It was used by governors until 1962, when a new residence was built closer to the capitol building.

We both liked the Old Capitol Building better. It was built to look and function like a castle. In 1847, the city of Baton Rouge donated the land to the state where the building sits. It faces the Mississippi River.

A couple blocks from the Old Capitol Building is the USS Kidd Museum. We didn’t go aboard, but opted to just walk along the Mississippi before returning to the RV for the night.

There have been several cars coming through the parking area, stopping to take pictures of the river.

We had the luck to spot this bird come in for a landing not far from us! We will enjoy a quiet evening and head west tomorrow.