| Page 15 Personal Spotlight In Pecan Island we had a special treat. We got to meet Madam Black as she is commonly called. Some are privileged enough to call her Aunt or Grandma Black. The term Madam is seldom used but it carries with it Great respect. Madam Black is 108 years young. Madam Black was born on February 14th, 1894 on Chenier au Tigre. That is Cajun for Island of the tiger. She and her 3 sisters and two brothers moved to Pecan Island with their parents in 1907. She still lives in the house her father built from cedar wood collected from the beach. Her father and all the kids picked cotton for income. Madam Black grew up and had 12 children of her own. She had them all at home. She has only been in a hospital twice. The first time was from a spider bite and the other when she was hit by a car and broke her pelvis in 3 places at the age of 84. When she was younger she had her tonsils clipped in the barn without anesthesia. When asked about hurricane Audrey and how bad it was. She responded, " it didn’t drowned the chickens so, I spoz it wasn’t too bad". Madam Black raised her 12 children in a small home without electricity, growing their own food. The Island didn’t get electricity until the 1950's Her first electrical appliance was a refrigerator. She had a Cole fired ice box before that. She was tending to it one day when she was 64 years old and caught herself on fire. Her son Noland recalls seeing his mom rolling out the back door on fire. Madam black lived by herself until last year. Now she has family members like Juanita look after her. Madam Black is still keenly sharp mentally. She carries a conversation and can remember many things such as her 87 grandchildren and 250 great grandchildren names and birthdays. Speaking of birthdays President Bush called her on her last birthday. Myron and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with Madam Black. It was a true privilege. Special Thank You Myron and I would like to take a moment to THANK Tonya Hebert for all her kindness. Myron and I went to eat at Dupuy's Oyster Shop. Officer Sgt. Lester Laquette said that it is the best restaurant in town. We had a wonderful meal and excellent service. Tonya the owner had seen our bike so she came over to ask where we came from and where we are going. Tonya was kind enough to comp our meal. She paid for everything. World Famous Dupuy's was established by Joseph Dupuy in 1869, who harvested his own oysters and sold them for 5 cents a dozen. Joseph started a tradition which continued through the next three generations. Dupuy's has enjoyed over 130 years of success in its original location. World famous for its oysters on the half shell and outstanding seafood, Dupuy's is continuing the tradition by owners Jody and Tonya Hebert. Myron and I had the catfish platter it was excellent. If you are ever in Abbeville, Myron and I highly suggest you stop in. Tell them we said hi. They are located at: 108 South Main Street Abbeville, La. 70510 337-893-2336 Thank you Tonya we enjoyed meeting you. Day 70 - sun.3-24-02 - mileage today 34.9 - climbed 0 SL BOUDIN BALLS We have officially become Cajuns today. As we were ridding out of Abbeville when we met Ricky O'Bryan. Ricky saw us stopped at a gas station eating and he just had to find out who we are. Ricky is one of the most colorful people I have ever met. He had just got off from 21 days on an offshore drilling oilrig. Everybody seems to know Ricky people kept driving by and honking and waving. Ricky knew them all. And every body knows Ricky including the law. Enough said. He had told us about some of the things he has done, it is amazing he is alive. He is a gifted songwriter. He brought out several tablets full of songs he had written. I read several, and I'm impressed, he is truly gifted. Ricky is a Cajun thru and thru. When he found out that we hadn’t had any boudin balls he wouldn’t let us leave until we had. Boudin Balls are a dirty rice and a mixture of other things that we don’t know of spiced, rolled and deep-fried. They are tasty. I really liked them. Myron said that he wouldn’t eat many of them without riding a long way. They’re greasy. We are glad we met Ricky; it is people like him that we are out hear to meet. We had a beautiful riding day. It was perfect weather and perfect scenery. We stopped for the day in Jeanerette, La. We stopped in at the police department to find a safe place to camp. We met Officer Demetria Myers and Detective Lt. Marvin Grogan. They were very helpful in letting us sleep in the park. We had bathrooms and everything we needed. Thank you Jeanerette police department. Day 71 - Mon. 3-25-02 - mileage today 39.4 - climbed 0 SL We had another wonderful riding day. The winds are light and temp is min 70's. We met Dan and Bisket Ashley. Dan came up to us when we were resting and asked how far we’ve come. Bisket is Dan's rat terrier, a cute timid 5-month-old dog. Dan was kind enough to offer us something to eat. We had just eaten so Dan packed us up a wonderful meal for dinner. Thank you Dan. We are constantly amazed at the kindness of our people. We have a great country and our country is full of good people. If you read my bio, I started this trip very much overweight and out of condition. I have lost close to 30 pounds and 6 inches around my belly. And I'm getting stronger every day. I haven’t dieted. I eat about 4,000 calories a day and still loose weight. So, if anybody has doubt if they can do something like this trip, I say you can. If I can do it anybody can. Day 72 - Tue 3-26-02 - mileage today 52.8 - climbed today 0 SL I was almost 4 days behind on my writing so we spent most of yesterday in the Shoney's cafe. I spent hours catching up but still was not done as dusk fell. So Myron got us a Motel so I could comfortably finish writing. It turned out to be a good decision; we were awakened at 5:00AM by a thunderstorm that dropped about 3" of rain in about 2 hours. We have been very lucky so far in that we have only had one day of light rain. (Knock on wood). We got up did laundry, packed up and went back to Shoney's where our waitress, P.J., said, “back again?” Patricia had waited on us early yesterday. We stayed so long she went home before we left. Normally I would have said Myron likes places like Shoney's but that is no longer true. I like them too. Shoney's has an all you can eat buffet and Myron up until recently was eating much more than I was. But, that isn’t true anymore. My appetite has increased to the point were we eat about the same or I might eat a little more. We really enjoyed having P.J. as our waitress she is a lot of fun to kid around with. We had to finally break away from our buffet and start working it all off. I was finally caught up on my writing. We wanted to go as far as Des Allemands, La. We figured it to be about 50 miles. It turned out to be 50 relatively easy miles. We had a tail wind for most of the day. That rarely happens. We have only had two days of tail winds the whole trip, now three days. We had to ride the last 36 miles on highway 90. We didn’t like it. It is a 4 lane divided highway. We're used to quiet country roads and the highway is big, noisy and not very scenic. We got to Des Allemands about 5:00 and found a place to camp right away, thanks to Roddy. Roddy owns the RV Park and a roadside daiquiris business. The daiquiris are a must if you go thru. I don’t know off hand how many flavors he has but I would guess about a dozen or more. Roddy let us set up camp free of charge and gave us a good tip on where to eat. Continued on next Page.............> |
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