Right at the end of the school year, about a month and a half ago, oldest grandson told me that, "Paw Paw, I want to do another ride". He was finishing up with finals so I couldn't get him until late on a Friday afternoon and he had to be back on Saturday, since he was staying with his Dad, and had some chores to do. Where to go? Where to go? Needed to be close enough to get there by dark - leaving out late in the afternoon, after school. Hmmmmm.
In the old days, there was a cool ferry that I use to take anytime I went towards Mississippi that crossed the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge. It added 30 minutes or so but kept you out of the traffic in Baton Rouge. The ferry closed down a couple of years ago because they built a bridge just south of the ferry - shame, I always dug the old ferry. Anyway, out of New Roads, you took this little levee road that a couple of minutes of Easy Rider was filmed on, crossed on the ferry and it took you to a town called St Francisville. I had been through there 20 times or more, but never stopped and never checked the town out - except for a brief ride through the old downtown area. It is a small town - but seemed cool. Might be a place to head towards. Started doing some searching and there were some antebellum homes we could check out, one hotel that didn't have comments about bedbugs and a couple of cool eating joints. The oldest motor hotel was was there, but called and they were booked (after seeing it - kind of glad). It would be about 1 1/2 - 2 hours there......yeah, that sounds like a place to check out for a short trip.
So, picked him up at school around 3:30, swung by his Dad's house so he could pick up his riding gear and drop his school gear off and then back to the house to load up on the bike. He is a tough hombre - like his paw-paw.
Yep, bad azz biker dudes about to hit the trail.
Actually, he is more like paw paw in the "Keep On Truckin On......" vein......
Got him geared up and said goodbye to the "grandma" unit. A quick prayer of THANKS giving and for safe winds........
And we were off.........Nothing like leaving out right at the start of rush hour traffic.
Rode I49 up to Oppelousas and then got on 190 across to Lavonia and up to New Roads, crossed the Mississippi River bridge and then 61 up to St Francisville. A little over an hour and a half of windage. Got to the hotel and got checked in.....
Time for some vittles and a haunted house tour........Vittles? Found this funky, cool joint called the Magnolia Café. Good food! Cool place.
Good food, "Little Man" got a burger and I did the hamburger steak and we had some spinach / artichoke and home made hummus. Good stuff.
Well, it was a good place. We both dug it. And it was home to the big pink pig..........
Time to go check out one of the most haunted antebellum houses in America - They Myrtles. You gotta do this at night we figured.
The Myrtles Plantation is a historic home and former antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States. Built in 1796 by General David Bradford, it is touted as "one of America's most haunted homes."
From Wiki - The plantation house is rumored to be on top of an ancient Tunica Indian burial ground. It is currently a bed and breakfast, and offers historical and mystery tours. Touted as "one of America's most haunted homes", the plantation is supposedly the home of at least 12 ghosts. It is often reported that 10 murders occurred in the house.
In 2002, Unsolved Mysteries filmed a segment about the alleged hauntings at the plantation. According to host Robert Stack, the production crew experienced technical difficulties during the production of the segment. The Myrtles was also featured on a 2005 episode of Ghost Hunters. The TV series Ghost Adventures also filmed an episode there. The television series Most Terrifying Places in America profiled the plantation.
WAIT! WAIT!!!! I see a floating head right there! ARGHHHHHHHH - oh, it's just Little Man.
We had a couple of minutes to kill, so checked out the grounds. Scream if you see anything!!
Then went for the house tour. Tour guide was great.
There are supposed to have ghosts seen in the mirror - but it is old, old silver backed and has streaks when it was resilvered.
One of the stories goes that there was a servant named Chloe who made a poisoned cake out of oleander hoping the 2 daughters would get sick and she would be brought into the house to care for them and she put too much in it and it killed the mother and both daughters. She was taken to river and hung. This is the dining room that it occurred in. Supposedly, the little girls play here.
The house was pretty cool - but not as good as the one the next day. It was getting kind of late, so rode through the downtown area and then back to the room.
Next morning, we went over and found that funky, cool joint for breakfast that I would ride back to a couple of weeks ago. The Birdman....good pancakes!
Before we went to Rosedown, we checked out the historic downtown area (just a few blocks - this town is not that large). But cool, antebellum houses and churches.
Then it was off to Rosedown Plantation. Now, this was major cool. There are two other big plantations in the area, but one was closed because of a wedding and one was closed because they were removing lead paint. This was cool though.
From Wiki = Society in and around St. Francisville, at the time that Rosedown was constructed, was dominated by European, primarily British, settlers who became cotton planters on an enormous scale. Most of the 19th-century cotton barons in the area had requested and received their plantations lands through the Spanish government, the titles to which remained valid after the establishment of the United States government. The parents of Martha Barrow Turnbull, who owned the land that later became Rosedown, achieved high social status in West Feliciana through their immense cotton operations, and Daniel Turnbull himself was known before the Civil War as one of the richest men in the nation.
Rosedown, named for a play that the Turnbulls saw on their honeymoon, was not assembled via Spanish land grants, but in a group of seven purchases made by Daniel Turnbull from the 1820s through the 1840s. At its largest, Rosedown comprised approximately 3,455 acres, mostly planted in cotton. Daniel and Martha began construction on the main house at Rosedown in November 1834, completing it six months later in May 1835 for a total cost of $13,109.20. The contribution of slave labor to the construction and upkeep of the plantation, as well as to the agricultural prosperity and wealth accrued by Daniel Turnbull, was immense. During peak years of cotton production, Daniel owned 444 slaves with around 250 working just at Rosedown.
The couple had three children, William, Sarah, and James Daniel. James Daniel died of yellow fever in 1843, at the age of 7. William married Caroline Butler, and had two children, William and Daniel. In 1856, William drowned in a boating accident while crossing "Old River," at the age of 27. That left their daughter Sarah, who had married James Pirrie Bowman from nearby Oakley Plantation, to inherit the plantation. The Bowmans moved into Rosedown and had ten children, eight girls and two boys. Martha and Daniel Turnbull retired to a wing in the back of the house in 1859, to accommodate Bowman's growing family.
After Daniel's death in 1861, the family saw a steady decline in a way of life that could no longer be supported. Rosedown and two other Turnbull plantations were ravaged during the war both by the invasion of Union troops and by the loss of the slave workforce. The family stayed at Rosedown throughout the war, protecting and farming the property as best they could with 250 sharecroppers.
Martha Turnbull died in September, 1896, leaving Sarah in sole possession of Rosedown. After Sarah's death in 1914, Sarah's four unmarried daughters Corrie, Isabel, Sarah, and Nina took over the plantation. In the 1920s, they decided to open the house to tourists interested in the remnants of the prosperous cotton culture. The sisters sacrificed to hold Rosedown, and when Nina, the last surviving sister, died in 1955, there were no bills or mortgages outstanding on the property; and they still had 3,000 acres of land and the house with all its furnishings. The family was Episcopalian and are interred at the Grace Church Cemetery in St. Francisville.
After Nina's death, Rosedown passed to her nieces and nephews, who sold the plantation in 1956 to oil heiress Catherine Fondren Underwood, herself an enthusiastic amateur horticulturalist, and her husband Milton Underwood. The Underwoods began an eight-year, $10-million restoration to restore the house and formal gardens to their former grandeur, while the plantation functioned as a working cattle farm. The house was opened to the public in 1964.
Tour guide was GREAT! Very knowledgeable. Over 90% of the furniture and stuff inside was original to the owners.
The gardens were fantastic!
And after the son died of fever, the owners built a house and had a doctor live on the grounds.
Made me think of the Valkyrie......
Well, it was about time to hit the asphalt. But hey, we got time for vittles!!!!! Found a GREAT BBQ joint........
And that was GOOD VITTLES!
Blasted back down the road and when we got about 30 miles from the house, I had to stop for gas and told Little Man that it was a shame he had to get back for chores because there was a LOT more scenic way to get home. He told me the chores could wait. WHOOO-HOOOO! Took the sweeper ride home! Only added 50-60 miles.
Quick stop so I could let the spousal unit know we were heading in.
Then back to my house so he could drop off his riding gear and dropped him off at his dad's. Great 2 days! Saw some neat stuff, ate some great food, got some good windage and most important - JUST TO GET SOME PAW PAW and LITTLE MAN time!!!!!!
Whoooooo-hoooooooo!
