The Most Delightful King Cake

I finally made it out of Texas. I was lucky enough to get through Texas before all that horrible weather hit Texas. All that I saw was cold windy weather, but the temperatures were still in the fifties. I felt so bad for Texas. They just are not equipped to handle those cold extremes. 

I am a huge fan of state parks. I figure that there must be some really great reason why they built state parks where they do, whether it be historical, cultural or natural landmarks. The problem is that to get into a state park, you usually have to plan ahead many months in advance. That doesn't work very well with the way I travel. Commitment is difficult for me. But sometimes the State Park gods smile on me. I was able to secure a four day spot at Fontainebleu State Park located on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. If you cross Lake Pontchartrain on the Causeway ( I call it a bridge), it is a 23 mile drive to New Orleans. I did not go to New Orleans, although I meant to. I pretty much just hung around the park, did chores, hiked a little bit. It was nice to have some down time. I was at this park the week before Mardi Gras. 

Well, I found water and I found trees.  Now I just have to find green.

But look at this tree - is it not glorious?

There was a pier that you could walk out on

In one direction you could see the New Orleans skyline 
I don't know what that dark blue ridge is - it was a solid sheet of water to the naked eye.

In the other direction was the 23 mile long Causeway

 This year, because of Covid, there were no Mardi Gras parades or celebrations which really depressed many Louisianians. I was listening to the radio and they were interviewing a Louisiana baker. Evidently one of the staples of Mardi Gras is something called a King Cake. It is an oval ring cinnamon cake, almost like a coffee cake. They come in all different flavors: strawberry cream, chocolate, cheese, etc. The cake is iced and then heavy sprinkles are put on top of that in Mardi Gras colors. But wait, there is more. In the olden days, they would bake a plastic baby in the cake. It was considered very lucky if the piece of cake that you got had the baby in it. You would not only have luck for the next year but you would also have to host next year's celebration. Nowadays, they don't bake the baby in the cake, I guess for liability reasons, you don't want anybody choking on the baby. The cake sounded yummy, so I had to go find one and I found one, it was huge. I selected a Bavarian Creme filling. When I got back to the campsite, I immediately went to the camper next door(who I didn't know), knocked on their door and asked them to help me out. I gave them ¾ of the cake, kept a ¼. Once I tasted the King Cake, I was extremely sorry I had given any of the cake away. This cake was incredible. I think I am going to have a King Cake shipped to me every year now to celebrate Mardi Gras.

The King Cake in all it's glory.  See the baby?