Sugar Cane Plantation

October 27

On our way to Baton Rouge we stop at Nottoway Plantation, nottoway.com, the largest (64 rooms) remaining antebellum plantation in the South.  The home was built in 1859 on the banks of the Mississippi on a portion of 7,000 acres acquired by a Virginian named John Randolph for a sugar cane plantation.

Before the tour, we lunch on gumbo (me) and oyster po'boy (Rick) on their glass-enclosed veranda overlooking stunning live oak trees...a beautiful setting for a Southern lunch.

We're guided through the house by a woman who has been doing it for 24 years...she is a treasure trove of information and there are only four of us in the group.  The home has recently been renovated and what we see of it is lovely.

However, we find the property is primarily a hotel and event venue, so the only bedroom we see is a part of the hotel and none of what would have been the outbuildings or how the house was really lived in. And part of the tour is the restaurant we just ate in! Because of this, I think the $20 per head charge is very high. We learn the property is owned by an Australian, Paul Ramsey, who apparently is the 17th wealthiest man in Australia/New Zeland according to Forbes.  I would suggest you stop here for lunch only and poke around....do the plantation tour thing at one of many of them around New Orleans.

We found ourselves in Baton Rouge in a down and out spot for the night...Cajun  Country RV Park. We believe everyone else lives there permanently.  While we are not comfortable there at all, it does spark a great deal of thought about the disparity of wealth and opportunity in this country.  I look across the way at a boy, just younger than Ian, and think about the startlingly differences in their lives.  We wonder if many of these people have been displaced by Katrina and we notice a number of people living there who are driving construction trucks.  We suspect they are  part of the rebuilding process.

We will leave here early in the morning, but I'm still thinking about that little boy.