Friday (5/8)  We left Lafayette, LA this morning to travel to Tyler, TX.  Along the way we stopped at Lecompte, LA for pie.   The legislature proclaimed Lecompte the pie capitol of Louisiana and it lived up to its billing.  Lea's Restaurant specializes in meringue pies and the meringue was the best we had ever had.

Continuing north, we went to Natchitoche, LA, a quaint little town where they filmed Steal Magnolias in the 1980s.  Along their water front park they were having a rally of vintage farm tractors - very fun and very cool.  One gentleman who owned a Farmall (which are red) had a button on that said "Friends don't let friends drive green tractors (John Deere.)"   In town was the recreated Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site, the oldest permanent settlement in the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.   We were the only people there and had the tour guide all to ourselves - we learned a great deal from him.

From there we went to Tyler, TX (our 9th state) to spend the night.