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Few places on the planet can ravel the food in Louisiana, so it is no surprise the Swamp Scooters Rally has great food and lots of it. I was a bit surprised that there are curvy roads to be found if you have a good guide. Bob and Wanda Daigle were kind enough to host our adventure into swamp country. Kay and Wanda carried camping gear and libations over the slab while Bob, AKA Gator, and I followed meandering bayous from Napoleonville to the eastern edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. After another thirty miles on straight as an arrow bridges and a few dots of dry land we arrived at the town of Laugh’-fee-ete,.
The Swamp Scooters rally model has many standard BMW motorcycle rally features with a couple of surprises and a few twists. The standards were camping, food, guided rides, music, awards (with a twist), door prizes and 50/50, which Wanda won $$$!. The surprises were they continue an old standard of bike games and the rally had a well emphasized purpose. The bike games had good participation, a large audience and a fair amount of good natured cheating by contestants and judges. The rally purpose, emphasized at the awards ceremony, was to support the Autism Foundation. There was wide support for this charity among the club members that resulted in a twist to the standard food feature of most rallies. Rather than just serving food, the club sponsored a Gumbo Cook-Off Contest. They attracted nine teams who brought their equipment, unique recipes and favorite ingredients to compete for a wooden plaque and bragging rights. The idea was for attendees to wander from team to team and sample as many recipes as they liked. This added a unique experience and distinctly Louisiana aspect to their rally. I manage to sample only two but Gator, an obvious contest veteran and gumbo connoisseur, sampled four bowls.
In addition to the standard awards there were the Gumbo Cook-off awards. If this was not enough of a twist in motorcycle rally awards, they gave out multiple 1st and 2nd place awards for different categories of gumbo. Who knew gumbo has categories? I was also surprised there was only one team that put okra in their gumbo! I though Louisiana had a state law that gumbo had to have okra!
For those of you who have attended Cajun Chaos, you know our Cajun cousins know how to party. While the Swamp Scooters had problems with facilities management at their previous rally location, this new location and rally model provide a super example of how to do it right. I look forward to returning next year. If they have another cook-off, I’ll be sure to pace myself!
Safe travels and fond memories of good friends,
Vernon
The Swamp Scooters rally model has many standard BMW motorcycle rally features with a couple of surprises and a few twists. The standards were camping, food, guided rides, music, awards (with a twist), door prizes and 50/50, which Wanda won $$$!. The surprises were they continue an old standard of bike games and the rally had a well emphasized purpose. The bike games had good participation, a large audience and a fair amount of good natured cheating by contestants and judges. The rally purpose, emphasized at the awards ceremony, was to support the Autism Foundation. There was wide support for this charity among the club members that resulted in a twist to the standard food feature of most rallies. Rather than just serving food, the club sponsored a Gumbo Cook-Off Contest. They attracted nine teams who brought their equipment, unique recipes and favorite ingredients to compete for a wooden plaque and bragging rights. The idea was for attendees to wander from team to team and sample as many recipes as they liked. This added a unique experience and distinctly Louisiana aspect to their rally. I manage to sample only two but Gator, an obvious contest veteran and gumbo connoisseur, sampled four bowls.
In addition to the standard awards there were the Gumbo Cook-off awards. If this was not enough of a twist in motorcycle rally awards, they gave out multiple 1st and 2nd place awards for different categories of gumbo. Who knew gumbo has categories? I was also surprised there was only one team that put okra in their gumbo! I though Louisiana had a state law that gumbo had to have okra!
For those of you who have attended Cajun Chaos, you know our Cajun cousins know how to party. While the Swamp Scooters had problems with facilities management at their previous rally location, this new location and rally model provide a super example of how to do it right. I look forward to returning next year. If they have another cook-off, I’ll be sure to pace myself!
Safe travels and fond memories of good friends,
Vernon
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