Swamp tour

Despite my threat to sell Jamille off to some toothless local men at a roadhouse for a swamp trip with locals, we book an actual airboat tour at the Atchafalayan Swamp. Our guide is Ronnie, a local man in his late 50s, who grew up in the area. His grandfather and neighbours were French and the rest of this entry should be read in his charming Southern drawl with heavy lashings of French Cajun. He's a great talker and told many stories about his childhood.

Ronnie grew up in a house on the swamp. As a child, he built a little crawfish boat out of cypress and every day after school Ronnie would lie to his mama that his homework was finished so he could go fishing. Ronnie's childhood was spent hunting ducks and fishing on the bayou every chance he could get. At 15, the government built floodgates and forced his family into town, paying them $9000 to buy a new home. Apparently Ronnie asked his wife recently if they could move to the bayou from town and his wife replied she would visit him sometimes.

We were on a little airboat that only fit the 5 of us which Ronnie turned off when we approached a known area for alligators. Watching an alligator silently glide towards us from a distance, knowing it was going to come right up along the boat, got the heart pumping. Big Daddy, as Ronnie who has been feeding him for 15 years calls him, floated right up beside me. There may have been some squealing coming from me. Big Daddy was blind in one eye and weighed about 800 pounds. Ronnie patted him and said I could

do the same but I prefer my hand attached to my arm.

Next up, we saw Momma and her sister who was nicknamed Baby Girl. Ronnie slow clapped her over calling out 'Baby Girl' (remember to read in the southern accent with French Cajun overtones) and some French phrase I never quite got.

This was followed by visiting Big Daddy's and Momma's 3 babies. They were so sweet. Momma kept watch on us but seemed content to let us look. There were initially 15 babies in the litter but this had dwindled down to 3 with many of those missing being males who were eaten by Big Daddy. Naturally, this upset Momma who may have been ok with us looking at her babies but quickly ran off Big Daddy when he approached the nesting area.

The road trip continued after the tour, through Baton Rouge and a pretty little town called Natchez, finally stopping in Vicksburg for the night.