New Route to NOLA

For years our trips to NOLA have always been down that awful stretch of highway called Interstate 55.  With the construction around Byrum, its almost like taking your life in your hands with the narrow lands and no where to go for an emergency stop if you are in the inside lane.

The spousal unit and I have made several trips back and forth to Picayune related to her business.  Picayune is south of Hattiesburg on Interstate 59 and is less than an hour from NOLA.  We go through Puckett then Mendenhall to get to Highway 49, then to Hattiesburg, before heading south on Interstate 59.

I have a deep hatred for Highway 49 south of Hattiesburg, with a close encounter with death by highway still etched in the back of my mind.  The best part of this new route is the town of Picayune!  Picayune is the home to Paul's Bakery and two butcher shops that make their own sausages.

At part of this trip, I was gonna deliver two of  ice chest cooler boxes to a friend girl of mine that is married to a preacher down there.  With a little time to kill, I planned to stop at a local butcher shop to place an order that I would pick up later in the day.  Much to my surprise, the  shop was closed!  Damn!  Double damn!  They have the best chicken apple sausage and hot sausage I've ever eaten.  The owner was recovering from surgery and would be closed for a couple more weeks.

This sign on the door almost brought me to tears.  I had visions of his sausage in my red beans for the upcoming Alabama vs MSU game.  I was gonna get some treats for my dad's birthday gift.  What a way to let the air out of my balloon!  Well, at least the     owner was gonna live to stuff another sausage!       

I get up with my friend, the wife of the local Methodist preacher, at Dockside Cafe.  They catch theirown shrimp and crabs that are sold in the restaurant .  Soon the preacher joined us at the counter.  After we sampled a few of the dishes of the day, we put in our order.  Turns out the owner is one of their flock.  She said lunch was on the house!  Well,  I ain't  exactly the preacher looking type, and my friend said this was the first time this has happened!  My guess is the almighty had just laid a blessing in us that we were grateful to receive!  Even got a sample of bread pudding  out of the deal!

Lunch was now history, and now time to.deliver the two cooler boxes to the preacher's house.  During lunch I commented on how fast this woman could talk, compared to yours truly.  Turns out she drives even faster!  It seemed like only minutes had passed and before I knew it, the spousal unit was buzzing me to come get her.  Chauffeur duty calls!

After picking her up, we went looking for another butcher shop, just up the road a bit.  The GPS led us to a supermarket parking lot, WTH???  Surely a place called Nick's can't be that hard to find!  That's  what I get for using the Yeller Pages app to find the directions!  As we retraced our way back to the interstate, there was Nick's,  two blocks back!

Nick's  is an old fashioned butchershop  with any kinda meat you would want.  We were on a sausage mission.  Nick and his Dad run the place.  There was no chicken apple sausage today, but come back next week!  One conversation topic led to another and before we knew it, the old man was feeding us samples of everything in the meat case!    The spousal unit and I had our first ever taste of Hogshead cheese!

Soon, the place was full of other customers.  Believe it or not, they were all there for the Hogshead cheese!  Since the other butchershop was closed for an illness, this was the only place in town!  As we were waiting our order to be finished, a boy and his momma were in a debate over a biscuit vs a croissant.   Really???

The spousal unit and I joined in on the debate and explained the differences in the two to the momma.
The momma said "they're the same thang".  Son said "no they ain't! "  the spousal unit and I chimed in and explained the difference.   She didn't know nuthin about baking since she spent most of her helping the daddy in their body shop business next door!  The boy was wanting to make a Sammi with a croissant with Hogshead cheese and a piece of boudin!   You gotta love these people!

Next stop before heading home was Paul'Smith bakery.  We had canollis on the brain since.our last visit.  They have every imaginable dessert inside multiple display cases.  One fella picked up the.last king on the shelf.  He was on.his.way back to Laurel, having just left NOLA.

You can tell a lot about the local clientele by the signage on the.wall.  in this case it was posted at the register:

I just about fell out on the.floor when reading it!  While this wasn't the highlight of the day it was a good explanation point!  Few hours later we were pulling into our driveway.

Hoping next trip I eventually end up in NOLA, with a side stop in Picayune,  of course!