Blue Bayou

"Blue Bayou" ~ New Roads, LA (c) 2011 Skip Hunt

Riding along the river up through Marksville, winding back and forth along old man river's soft curves and back up into Mississippi you can feel a sort of calm. A hard earned calm that comes from hard times and a realization that as long as you ain't in pain, got something spiced & fried to eat along with a tall cool drink... then not much anything else matters.

I met a young fella named Will Rogers and his girl Danielle. They're expecting their first child in about 6 months.

They shared some of their venison & wild boar sausage that Will had killed, ground and processed. Danielle cooked it over a campfire and as Will spoke of growing up in the Delta, I could almost taste his reverence in the spiced meat.

I've noticed that every person I met in Natchez, Mississippi spoke of the river almost like one would speak of a beloved deity. Similar to the way Hindus speak of the mighty Ganges river and it made me wonder about how just about every life-giving force eventually and inevitably gets its own sacred title.