kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

kayaking on Loch Leven near Glencoe, Scotland, 2018

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

W is for the DeRidder Watermelon Festival -- #atozchallenge

After we moved to southwest Louisiana in the summer of 2007, I was determined to discover everything I could about this new country, er, I mean state. We called it our Summer of Immersion. One way to learn about a culture is to do what the locals do, see what they see, eat what they eat, listen to their music and their language. In other words, go to festivals.

Louisiana festivals have been the theme of my A to Z Blogging Challenge. W is for the the DeRidder Watermelon Festival. This was the very first festival we attended after moving to Lake Charles.

We drove north on Highway 171, taking in the terrain, until we came to the railroad town of DeRidder, about a 30-40 minute drive from our home in Moss Bluff. It wasn't hard to find the festival. We strolled around the fairgrounds, and because it was a watermelon festival, we were in search of some watermelon to eat. When we saw the price of a "slice" of the sweet juicy melons they grow in Sugartown, La. (population 54), we were a bit perplexed. The cost was more than we expected for a "slice" of melon. So we ordered just two. And then we understood why they were "expensive." The "slice" was more like a slab! We asked for four sporks and dug in!



Read about our Summer of Immersion here and learn more about the June 23-25 watermelon festival here.

1 comment:

betty said...

I agree with you, when moving to a new area it is always good to see what the locals do, LOL, like festivals, etc. I have done the same thing with places we have moved to.

I would have enjoyed that watermelon, especially on a warm day!

betty
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