Left the Runner’s Expo in downtown Baton Rouge & hit I-10 West to Lafayette. An hour half until our scheduled swamp tour on Lake Martin. Travelled to Louisiana, so wanna see gators, right?
50-State Marathon prep:
- Alaska – ice climbing
- Arizona – Saguaro Nat’l Park cactus hike
- Louisiana – bayou swamp tour 🙂
Quick turn in Breaux Bridge, six miles down a dirt road, a left, a right – then ‘you have arrived’ at the Meetin’ Place. Did a quick walk-about, met our guide, then loaded onto a small metal fishing boat.
Travelled slow through the swamps of Lake Martin — surrounded by bald cypress, trunk-swollen in murky water & covered in Spanish moss. Creepy, quiet bayou undergrowth filled with herons, egrets, cormorants & other fish-feeders.
Comfortable temps – sunshine & upper 50’s – but unfortunately too cool to coax any gators from their cozy mud burrows.
FAAANNNNTASTIC pre-race adventure! AND no bugs – awesome benefit to touring in January 🙂
What did I learn? Gators don’t eat from October to March. Their heartbeat slows & they remain fairly inactive during the cool Louisiana winter – feeding off fat stored in their tail. ALSO – unlike crocodiles, gators are skittish & fearsome of humans.
No gators, no pay (at least not yet). Could’ve been because our guide was a bit disorganized. He loaded his next group immediately after we disembarked & off he went.
Dinner? Noticed a small Cajun seafood shack earlier when entering Breaux Bridge. Check, done.
Didn’t see any gators so decided to eat gator instead 🙂 Couldn’t tempt M to try more than a bite – but gotta say, I stuffed myself on gator, seafood jambalaya, shrimp zydeco, fried potatoes & bread pudding. LOVIN’ me some spicy food. I-EEE!
Carb loading for tomorrow’s marathon run – Cajun style!
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- swamp tour on Louisiana’s Lake Martin
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- lotta photo opportunities
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- Bald Cypress
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- snowy egret (bottom right)
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- Spanish moss
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- anhingas & cormorants
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- our proud National Bird – BEAUTIFUL!
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- SPECTACULAR swamp day – highly recommended!
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- fried gator, jambalaya, shrimp zydeco & bread pudding — all carb’d up for tomorrow’s Louisiana Marathon!
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- eating GATOR in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
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- what are the chances? waiter with the same name
Left work an hour early, barreled down E-470 to DIA, caught a late flight on Southwest to New Orleans, then drove an hour north to Baton Rouge. Marathon weekend in the Bayou – woo-hoo!
Woke early & drove to Baton Rouge’s River Center – sandwiched between the city’s historic downtown & Mississippi river. Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, Planetarium (housed in an old train station), the USS Kidd & of course…the mighty Mississip’. Yep, super scenic – even in January. Sunshine & 50 degrees – cool, a little windy but BEEEE-UT-IFUL.
Spent at least 30 minutes on the banks of the Mississippi, watching barges slowly travelling through its muddy waters. This river has witnessed so much American history — WOW! No more than a mile wide, I can now swim this distance twice (thanks to consistent Ironman training) 🙂
Bib pick-up, quick stroll through the Runner’s Expo. While I enjoy the solitude of hiking our high mountains, gotta say LOVE the unity & camaraderie of the runner community. This run is gonna be a fun one – happy to be in Cajun Country!
CLICK HERE & enjoy CCR’s “Jambalaya (on the Bayou)”
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- Welcome to Louisiana!
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- USS Kidd & the mighty Mississippi
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- mighty MUDDY Mississip’
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- Louisiana Old State Capitol
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- downtown Baton Rouge
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- Louisiana Runner’s Expo
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- “ready, ready, ready, ready…ready to run” – Dixie Chicks
Ironman training 6 days/week – run, swim, sleep, repeat.
So…passing the torch this week to Ash – MyCOLORADOLife’s first guest blog 🙂
Head towards Loveland, Colorado, down 10th Street, over two railroad tracks and make an
immediate left. And I mean immediate left – yes, down the dirt road where questions like, “Did
I drive to West Virginia by accident?” and, “Colorado isn’t known for their banjos, right?” start
running through your head. When you’ve reached the half-open garage with the cardboard sign
reading 918 ½ you’ve arrived at your destination.
I quickly learned; looks can be deceiving. Daggett Glass Studio is where we met Dan Daggett –
aka “Dan the Man” – glass blower of 30+ years. Dan started off in the stained glass business but
quickly learned glass blowing was much more his style – after 10 years apprenticing he could
finally call it his career! He started off making light bulbs and ended up moving more into artisan
glass blowing – jealous much!
After the initial meet n’ greet we were down to the nitty gritty – ornament or paperweight?
We’ll make one of each please! Step one: pick your color – ocean blue swirled into
the paperweight, dark reddish violet for the ornament (that was the exact color name)! Step
two: Dan places the blob of molten glass onto the pole – it’s only 2100 degrees he yells out!
It’s time for Dan the Man to bark out orders: Roll the glass along the table into the colored
powder – don’t press too hard! Time to re-fire it – don’t forget to turn that pole so the glass
doesn’t lose its shape! The ornament requires some real glass blowing and phew! it’s tough
to force that air in – blow harder! Don’t blow too hard or the glass will collapse! Finally our
creations were born and were ready to cool in the freezer until we could pick them up later.
We waved good bye and headed out to Oskar Blues for some cold Colorado beer. Only in
Colorado do they have dog friendly bars! Lovin’ our new Colorado home!
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- Glass Blowing 101
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- glass magic — an ornament for Ash; paperweight for Tom
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- Voila! Perfect!
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- turn, turn, turn
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- 2100 degrees – crazy hot!
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- Ash & ‘Dan the Man’
