THE DARK ZONE - Westwego, LA
Westwego, LA
Where I stayed
Bayou Segnette State Park
What I did
Beautiful Park, about 30 minutes to the French Quarter via the Ferry
131219-The Dark Zone
I publish the entry from New Orleans, have one more to come from Gulf Shores, Night Life.
Hey guys don’t get me wrong about our stay here in Gulf
Coast RV Park. I know my friend Ross gets it, but some of you are not. Angie
and I love it here. We are having a great time. It is places like this that we
feel have a character to them, not rows and rows of neat boxes and lots and
perfect pools with the water lilies all sitting around bobbing in the afternoon
sun, no, this is a slice of real people, real people you do not generally get a
chance to meet. People like there used to be in the Keys, people just like us,
normal people with no airs. We are even meeting people outside of the camp, and
camp is a better name for what this is, people who are growing lemons and
oranges and grapefruit who have said “help yourselves to our fruit trees, we
can’t and won’t use it all”. Yes, I would recommend this park too y’all, the
sites are nice, they have water, 50 amp service and sewers and nice clean
washrooms with great hot showers, and the Laundromat has a number of machines,
and at $15./night, which includes taxes
and all services for a 3 week stay, you cannot beat it. The monthly rate, with
Passport America is only $240. Not the Ritz no, but this is my kind of place.
“I got friends in low places”!
Just checking temps here at 6:00 a.m. in Celsius as us
Canadians should not know what a Fahrenheit temperature feels like, also I find
I cannot spell either one, thank god for spell check, it is -4 in Port Huron, 9
here in Gulf Shores, 13 in New Orleans, and 17 in Mercedes, looks like it has
finally warmed up in Mercedes, as it has been quite cold.
Ford and I start every morning, that is the second time I
get up, at around 8 a.m. with a walk about around the park where he does his
duties, and then down the street to Co. Rd. 6 and either go north or south as
the mood suits us. Sometimes Angie joins us but her foot has been giving her
problems and she is having a hard time keeping up with the old boy. LOL.
We start by going down to the 2nd loop of the
park, “The Dark Zone”, and now after
some time I do have names and places for most of the people living here, most
permanent, some snowbirds as we are called in Texas anyways, here it just seems
like we are “Pains in the Ass”. Again, Tennessee Ken is the first unit we come
upon. Have to insert here that at 6:05 a.m. the school bus has just gone by,
comes in morning and night to pick up and then drop off Mike and Kats kid, and
I think a young’un or two belonging to either Jeremy or Nick, or maybe one or
two of each. I have just come to find out that there is a third son here,
Jonathon, the middle son of Eddie and Wyvan, and he too has a child. Tennessee Ken
is from Nashville area, and worked for the municipal government there. Then
there is a fellow who is fairly protective, i.e. keeps to him self, and
although I have said hello, I have not got his name. Do know that he is
separated and on his own, drives an old S10 and has another older Chevy utility
truck, I saw the other day that the old truck starts and runs, but does not go
on the road, looks fair from the drivers side, but the passenger door has
drifted into a pole assuming from a drunken drive home down Co. Rd. 6, probably
the frame is bent, the 24’ trailer he lives full time in again is out of the 90s,
or at least looks it from its dirty and dilapidated condition. Something is
always running inside, would hate to be getting his electric bill,
A couple of lots east of that, spaced out by an empty lot
and 2 lots with trailers, not used this time of year, is Matt who is a 30 year
old single guy (?) whose mother lives nearby and is in the real estate and or
auctioning business, as Matt was helping her out with getting ready to auction
a property and a bunch of other “junk” as he put it. Matt is a nice guy, come
to find out he is also a marine mechanic and works full time, year round in a
boat yard up on Co. Rd. 12. He is one of these guys that always stops to say
“Hey” but keeps a low profile, and hides himself in a wool toque pulled down
over his ears and half of his face, must get pretty hot. Matt is also a biker
and has an awesome sounding and looking Sportster. He is also a true lifetime resident of
Alabama, as are the Childers. Then there is a nice large empty lot #30 with a
cement patio and a fire pit. I would not mind it for myself, but feel the WIFI
might be getting a little long at the tooth back this far. From there down
around the loop and half way up the other side is nothing but stored trailers
and motorhomes and old Ford trucks and **** and disruption, in storage.
On the left at the very end of the park, or top if you
prefer, past the storage units is swamp land, which includes a little pond
where Jeremy’s 30 or so Muscovy Ducks congregate day and night, when they are
not walking around the park and Ford isn’t giving them fits. The old S10 just
went by, heading to work I guess. That makes 2 full timers.
On my left is forest/swamp, and on the right hidden in with
the junk is a 20’x20’ screened in cage which houses Jeremy’s pheasant, who is
ailing the poor guy. Jeremy does have a heat lamp inside the structure, and it
is funny to look in in the morning and see the pheasant at the top perch of the
structure, huddled up to the red heat lamp. I also do think that the odd duck
is enjoyed for dinner every now and then. The Pea Hen as I found out it was died on Christmas Day.
Jeremy is in the next trailer, a park model singlewide and
keeps it and his lot in fairly good condition, and has a live in girl friend,
and 2 sons. Jeremy works for his dad in the family business, Eddies R.V.
Repair. A nice guy. Next to him is an empty lot, and then on the corner is a 5th
wheel, and beside that is another unit out of the 90s, again in much need of a
bath and tenderness inhabited by an older gentleman who owns a Road Glide. This
rounds out the inner circle of the second loop. On the left after the woods and
swamp and a couple of storage trailers backed into the woods, is a seasonal, no
one there, and then Mike and Kat and Bryan, there large 12 year old son,
probably in the 200 lb. range, in a 30’ park model, relatively new, with no
slides and surprisingly even less windows. Would seem close quarter to me. Kat works somewhere, as well as does the
books for Eddie and Wyvan. Mike helps around the park and is supposed to be a
Repo Man, and has a newer Ford F250 set up for towing, that has not moved a
wheel since we have been here. The repo man must not be a good business around
Christmas in southern Alabama. Later come to find out that Mike does not want
to do repos this close to Christmas. There you go.
The second school bus just went buy, 6:30 a.m. That about
does it for in here. I believe there are 8 full timers in here, 3 of which are
sons of Eddie & Wyvan, the oldest and the youngest and the middle, and at
the moment there are 4 snowbirds, so to speak, most have been here or have been
coming here for sometime. I’m old, but it is like going to a Shriners meeting,
it makes you fell young.
Ain’t Trailer life Grand? No wonder they call us “Trailer
Trash”. Gonna go for an episode on Jerry Springer. LOL
As I venture out of the park onto the little street there
are 18 lots, 9 on each side, most with prefab homes, but a couple do have travel
trailers and there is one motorhome. Have found out lately that there are a few
lemon, orange, and grapefruit trees along the road, and we have helped myself
to the fruits, they are ready and they are quite good. The fellow right at the
corner is Wes, who built the development and must be a relative of the
Childers, who I have found to be a nice guy, and he lets us pick his
grapefruits. Wes has an old Ford truck and I asked if I could take some
pictures of it, low and behold I walk down the street one morning and there it
is right by the road, uncovered and washed. Nice guy!
No matter which way I turn, there are little streets, some
paved, and some dirt roads off the main road as in KP. The one I frequent most
is south of us, and again is lined in prefabs and old trailers, but at the end of
the street is the Bon Secur River, and right across the river from us as we sit
on a dock, posted as Private, sits the famous Billie’s and to the north of
that, the Aquila Sea Food fisheries, but it is an 8 mile drive to get to them
by land. These two sea food producers are the best in the area and aside from
selling shrimp have a full array of fresh fish, Grouper, Red Snapper, Tilapia,
etc.
There is a property for sale here on the street, with a widows
walk you could look out from and see the shrimp boats going up and down the
river and out on over to the bay, the asking price, private sale, is $85,000.
Not bad, could probably get it for much less. Have heard that property taxes
here are in the hundreds, not the thousands.
Have to include if we go to the North there is a subdivision
of prefabs on out right, which we circle around through, and sneak through the
back yard of one of the homes and get back to our motorhome. I believe there is
a number of walk aways in this survey, and some of the sides by sides as a
result are in bad shape, as are the lawns. Pride of ownership has fled, and the
joint clubhouse with pool and exercise room has long since gone into disrepair.
Anyways that’s our morning jaunt; hope I didn’t bore you too
much.
Thanks for reading, look forward to any comments. Next up a
re-cap of the nightlife.
It’s all good!