One of my most favorite movies of all time is Steel Magnolias. Ask Mike, I can literally quote the entire movie from start to finish. (No wonder I can’t retain any new information, I have an entire movie on a loop in my head.) So, when we are in the town where it was filmed, oh yea. It was definitely a “just for mom morning” 😍

Natchitoches (pronounced Nack-a-tish) in central Louisiana and is the hometown of Robert Harling, an unknown playwright whose big break was a play centered around the loss of his diabetic sister, his mom and her eclectic group of friends. After the play’s success, the movie was cast and what better place to film it than Natchitoches!

We started off at the Rue Front (Rue is french for Street)… our photgrapher always manages to take a few selfies 🤣

YES – A Plaque! This brick wall stopped the town from being flooded during the Red River Flood of 1945, and the water reached this high!

And then we found Kaffie Frederick General Mercantile. Huge hardware store. The mercantile has been in business since 1863, and the 147 year old cash register is still in use! How many hardware stores can say they are listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior? The mercantile had everything: hardware stuff, kitchen items, toys, cookware – you name it, it was in there including little bottles of coca-cola ♥️

Re-Caffeinated and now back to Steel Magnolias…

The boys loved my quotations throughout the day…

Just the best day 💕💕 Very thankful my boys entertained their mama’s excitement!

Then it was time to fill the clothes cooler with supplies for Mom’s Cafe. And the boys made sure to show dad a little love in the middle of the aisle, which he loved!

We repaid the boys for being so wonderful during Mom’s morning… just make a right turn on the unpaved road by the Gater bus…

And welcome to Louisiana Gator Country!

This place a kitschy and corny and AWESOME!

Seriously, how many people can say they’ve feed hotdogs to an alligator??? Well, now we can!

Look how big they are??

And listen to them chomp and bellow!

Can you imagine seeing this monster smiling at you!?!?

We did think it was funny – how they chose a mate. The females lay on top of the males, and if she can’t push him under the water then he is an appropriate mate. If you can’t drown him, then things will work out.

They had other animals too – guinea pigs (who we think are going to end up as dinner), the fattest raccons we’ve ever seen, snakes, lizards, iguanas, and goats (we loved little Brownie who kept escaping from his pen)

But the gators stole the show. All of the alligators in the park have been removed from somewhere and since they clearly associate humans with food, they can no longer survive outside of captivity. However it doesn’t seem like they’ve got such bad of a life.

This is Big Lou. Currently, he is the oldest (70+ years old) and the Alpha Gator at the park. The managers did tell that a couple of the younger males are on pace to challenge him at some point. But for today, he’s the Alpha.

The tortoises we hilarious coming at a breakneck tortoise speed to get lettuce and eat.

Of course, getting to hold a baby alligator is pretty hard to beat!

We said goodbye to the gators, and headed out for our first stop at Mom’s Cafe – Cajun edition 😁

Bellies full, and still talking about the gators, we headed south to New Iberia, Louisiana. After checking into the hotel, we watched the first half of the Wolfpack v. Marquette, game, and then decided to treat ourselves to a true Louisiana dinner… Crawfish. R&M’s Boiling Point is a local favorite AND had TVs in every direction showing the NC State basketball game.

Great Dinner and Wolfpack Win – That’s about as good as it gets!

Tomorrow, we head out to Avery Island for a little spice and visit the home of the LSU Tigers.