Spartans Forever

Friday, March 15, 2013

Arrival in St, Francisville

We arrived in St.Francisville on day six after day five with white caps on the rice fields.  We spent our day riding into the cause of those white caps.  'nuf said about that day!
Day six was a fun day with beautiful riding conditions through really pretty country.  We started our day crossing the Atchafalaya River and finished the day crossing the Mississippi River.  We are staying at the Butler Greenwood Plantation which has been in the same family since the 1790s. The plantation is operated by the seventh and eighth generation while the ninth generation is arriving. The house has 100% original furnishings and eight separate cottages for guests. We started the day with a tour of this plantation house and then hopped on our bikes to visit Mr.Imahara's Botanical Garden.  This garden is a long time dream of Walter Imahara a retired nurseryman and landscaper, a planter who can not stop planting,  A dream that evidently is not shared by his wife,  Walter and his sister Lily operate the garden. The garden is very different from any garden anywhere with nine cascading ponds, azaleas, camellias, crape myrtles, palm trees, magnolias, and more.  Seeing one man's dream was wonderful, after learning about the family history.  The Imahara family was a family or nine children who had been in the Japanese Relocation Camps during WWII.  The family lost everything from this experience, but went on to prosper.  The nine ponds are to symbolize the nine brothers and sisters in Walter's family.
From here we went to the Magnolia Cafe for lunch where we had muffuletta sandwiches.  Then on to Grace Episcopal Church to seek out Commander Hart's grave.  The story of his death and burial is very interesting.  I need to do some genealogy studies to see if he could be a famous relative.
We then went to the Rosedown Plantation with all of it's gardens and stories.  On the way back from there we thought we were purchasing a whole crawfish dinner, turned out to be only crawfish.  So we sat on the deck sucking crawfish and drinking beer.  Perfect end to a great day.  Tomorrow, we turn around and head home.

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