Tuesday February 5

Woke up this morning to drizzle and fog.  Everything in the toaster was damp.  Walked around Biloxi a little and discovered that everything is closed on Fat Tuesday: schools, museums, banks, restaurants, etc.  And by 9:00 AM the town was festooned with confederate flags and empty Bud cans.  WIth the weather looking no better I headed out without waiting for the parade.

Got into Louisiana and found everything closed there too.  Even the visitor info center on the interstate.  So I continued west.  The high point of the afternoon was sampling boudin, a cajun sausage made with rice, wheat and some sort of meat or fish.  Kilbasa it wasn't but the woman behind the counter had the most wonderful accent.

I'm camped tonight at Sam Houston Jones State Park outside Port Arthur, LA just a few miles from the Texas border.  Chatting with a couple who live only a few miles from here I got the cooking tip of the year.  To make gumbo you have to make a roux, a mixture of oil and flour and you have to cook it, stirring constantly until it darkens.  This can take up to a half hour.  But wait.  All the grocery stores down here sell bottled roux.  According to this couple, nobody in Louisiana makes it from scratch anymore.  

Finished "The Thirty-nine Steps", one of the earliest 20th century whodunnits.  Apparently, Hitchcock's movie was loosely based on this book.  My brother sent me a list of the 50 greatest thrillers of all time so I ordered a few before I left home and am starting to work my way down the pile.  I can't remember where this one was rated.

There's a pleasant breeze and no bugs.  I've got the Toaster door open and can hear some peepers.