We are now in Shreveport, Louisiana, to meet up with friends from home.  On the way here we stopped by the historic town of Natchitoches.  Established by the French in 1714, it is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory.  We walked around the National Historic Landmark District.

Downtown Natchitoches

The town is in the midst of their Festival of Lights (lights, fireworks, parades & meatpies).  The streets and the park near it are loaded with light displays.  We can only imagine how awesome it must look when evening comes.  But we can’t stick around for that.

This old house was in the park, it was built around 1797.

Roque House, circa 1767

We at lunch at Lasyone’s Meat Pie Restaurant.  Meat pies (empanadas) are very popular here.  The town even has a Meat Pie Festival in September.

Lasyone’s Meat Pie Restaurant

We always like to try the local flavor of the places we visit so of course we had to have the meat pie.  Bernie had the beef meat pie and I had the crawfish meat pie.  Both were good.  In fact, everything we ordered was very good.

On to Shreveport.  We’ll be staying at Tall Pines RV Park tonight and tomorrow night.  It seems to be a very nice place, clean, free cable TV, free WiFi Internet that is actually useable, not like many other RV parks that claim to offer free WiFi that is actually useless.  We’re paying $66 for the two nights, which includes 13% sales tax.

Tall Pines RV Park, #24

Then we went to meet our friends for dinner and a little casino time.  We will see more of them tomorrow.