8hunters Tour the USA: April 17-19 New Orleans, LA – Yogi Bear’s Jellystone RV Park

The kid’s have been eagerly awaiting this stop. As the name would imply, the Jellystone RV Park is geared toward kids. They have several pools, a putt-putt golf course, paddle boats, an arcade, lots of playground toys and plenty of paths for scooter riding. Since we planned to stay here a few days, we decided that the extras were important.

So we pull in to our RV site the first night and quickly size things up before pulling out to go get dinner. While there a stray dog shows up and the kid’s quickly take a liking to him. Before I know it they’ve named him Buddy. I try to run him off before jumping back in the RV. We pull out and the dog follows us out onto the main road running alongside us before we speed away. We had dinner at Don’s Seafood in Hammond sampling boiled crawfish, fried catfish, crawfish etouffee, seafood gumbo and hush puppies. The food was fantastic and the owner paid us a visit during dinner and recommended a couple local sights. After dinner we return to our site and the dog is there waiting for us. He spent the night under our RV. We’re up early the next morning and as I’m returning from the showers I see the Animal Control Officer stopped next to our RV. Help has arrived!! As I approach our site animal control pulls away leaving Buddy behind. You guessed it - Nancy had claimed the dog. A trip to the vet the next day dashed my hopes that he would be microchipped and reunited with his owner. It turns out that Buddy is a Catahoula/hound dog mix - evidently this is the official Louisiana state dog. Not exactly the souvenir I had in mind but he’s friendly, has a good temperament and appears to be a good traveler.

The next couple of days were spent sightseeing and relaxing. I had some work to do and Jim did some maintenance on the RV. We did take time out one afternoon to visit Kliebert’s Turtle and Alligator Farm. These folks bill themselves as “The Original Swamp People” and having visited the place I wouldn’t question the claim. Harvey started his “farm” in the mid-50’s with 250 newly hatched American Alligators. Over the years only 8 have died leaving them with roughly 200 female and 42 male breeding stock all 55 years of age. Their largest is 19’ long and weighs around 2000 pounds. We were able to see the 3^rd largest. His name is Krush – he’s 16.5 feet and 1750 pounds. The thing is absolutely massive. He put on a pretty good performance for us once our tour guide got him riled up. They collect the eggs each year and raise the young until 7 years of age when they harvest them for meat and hides. The pictures you see below feature a 7 year old alligator about 7’ long. The farm is also home to 30,000 plus turtles. They collect the eggs layed during the spring and ship over 1 million hatchlings overseas throughout the year. We all loved the tour here. James and Zach both purchased alligator heads from the gift shop. These beauties are sure to warrant prominent placement in their bedroom back home. While in Hammond we met up with Randy and Kim Wagner. Kim is Sondra’s second oldest daughter (see entry for April 11) and the last time I saw her I was a toddler. We enjoyed our visit with them as we dined at Don’s Seafood for the second night in a row.

Have you ever heard of a daiquiri drive-thru? Neither had I until I got to Louisiana. As we’re making our way around Hammond I saw a number of these little shops. Upon closer inspection it turns out they do exactly what you might think they do. Add this to the list of cultural experiences that we indulged in while in town. The place we visited boasted of having daiquiri’s spiked with 190 proof everclear. Evidently this is all legal as long as you don’t remove the paper topper from the straw that they place in the drink until you’re parked. Wonders never cease. Jim and I installed a backup camera in the RV friday morning and the kids made the most of their last day in Jellystone Park. We were packed up by mid-afternoon and after saying goodbye to the office staff who had taken a liking to the kids we set out for New Orleans.