River Road Rambler

The River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge hosts a fascinating mix of people, traditions, and stories. Author Mary Ann Sternberg has spent over two decades exploring this richly historic corridor, uncovering intriguing and often underappreciated places. In River Road Rambler, she presents fifteen sketches about sites along this scenic route. From familiar stops, such as the National Hansen's Disease Center Museum at Carville, with its octogenarian guide, and the sui generis perique tobacco area of St. James Parish to the less well-noted yet highly distinctive Our Lady of Lourdes grotto in Convent and the gradually disappearing Colonial Sugars Historic District, Sternberg presents a new perspective on some of the region's most colorful places. While many of the places remain easily accessible to any River Road rambler, Sternberg also presents others closed to the public, giving armchair travelers an introduction to these otherwise unreachable attractions. Throughout, Sternberg captures the ambiance of her surroundings with a clear, engaging, and sometimes quirky examination of the relationships between past and present. In a poignant piece on the Valcour Aime garden, for example, she delves into the history of this lavish, nationally acclaimed planter's garden, created and abandoned in the mid-nineteenth century. Her visit to the now private and protected site, which has never been altered or replanted since its origins, reveals an extraordinary landscape—the relic of what Valcour Aime created, slowly overwhelmed by nature. The essay-like stories brim with insights and observations about everything from the fire that razed The Cottage plantation to the failed attempts to salvage the reproduction of the seventeenth–century French warship Le Pelican from the bottom of the Mississippi. River Road Rambler takes us along to River Road treasures, linking us to both past and present and bringing some delightful and unexpected surprises in the process.

In River Road Rambler Returns: More Curiosities along Louisiana’s Historic Byway, Mary Ann Sternberg follows up her successful River Road Rambler with new delightful histories from Louisiana’s most famous route. Her latest explorations include a trip on a towboat as it pushes a fleet of barges down the river; the true story behind the Sunshine Bridge, fondly called the Bridge to Nowhere; a tour of one of the last working sugar mills along the River Road; stories about how two iconic plantation houses were saved; and much more. Well researched and engagingly written, River Road Rambler Returns provides keen observations on unappreciated places and offers rich histories of unusual attractions along the winding road that lines the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge hosts a fascinating mix of people, traditions, and stories. Author Mary Ann Sternberg has spent over two decades exploring this richly historic corridor, uncovering intriguing and often underappreciated places. In River Road Rambler, she presents fifteen sketches about sites along this scenic route. From familiar stops, such as the National Hansen’s Disease Center Museum at Carville, with its octogenarian guide, and the sui generis perique tobacco area of St. James Parish to the less well-noted yet highly distinctive Our Lady of Lourdes grotto in Convent and the gradually disappearing Colonial Sugars Historic District, Sternberg presents a new perspective on some of the region’s most colorful places. While many of the places remain easily accessible to any River Road rambler, Sternberg also presents others closed to the public, giving armchair travelers an introduction to these otherwise unreachable attractions. Throughout, Sternberg captures the ambiance of her surroundings with a clear, engaging, and sometimes quirky examination of the relationships between past and present. In a poignant piece on the Valcour Aime garden, for example, she delves into the history of this lavish, nationally acclaimed planter’s garden, created and abandoned in the mid-nineteenth century. Her visit to the now private and protected site, which has never been altered or replanted since its origins, reveals an extraordinary landscape—the relic of what Valcour Aime created, slowly overwhelmed by nature. The essay-like stories brim with insights and observations about everything from the fire that razed The Cottage plantation to the failed attempts to salvage the reproduction of the seventeenth–century French warship Le Pelican from the bottom of the Mississippi. River Road Rambler takes us along to River Road treasures, linking us to both past and present and bringing some delightful and unexpected surprises in the process.

Few thoroughfares offer as rich a history as Louisiana's River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In this third edition of her extremely popular guide, Along the River Road, Mary Ann Sternberg provides a revised introduction, new images, and updated information on sites and attractions as well as tales and local lore about favorite and overlooked destinations. Featuring background information about the area and a detailed guided tour -- upriver on the east bank and downriver along the west -- the book gives an overview of the River Road, serving as an accessible and definitive companion to exploring the corridor. Sternberg's abiding appreciation of the area's allure, garnered over twenty years, produces a must-have travel companion to a place that far exceeds its common reputation as only a parade of elegant antebellum mansions. In this new edition, she again encourages travelers to experience the many treasures of this wondrous byway for themselves, so they too can see how much it has changed over the past decade.

Stories from the backwoods by a 4th generation St Croix River Valley resident. Farm, hunting, local history, nostalgia laced with subtle humor and wit.

Humorous stories from the backwoods of NW Wisconsin as told by the River Road Rambler.

It was a time before television sets, Big Macs, video games, and Harry Potter. The Japanese had bombed our naval base at Pearl Harbor. Older brothers, uncles and even fathers were drafted into the Armed Forces. Gene Autry was busy riding the range. Batman and Robin kept our cities safe, and Tarzan swung from vines in a jungle habitat. The magic of radio kept imaginative minds occupied with the adventures of Superman and the Lone Ranger. In spite of the hardships of World War II, it was a marvelous adventure to be a boy growing up in a multicultural Pennsylvania steel town. Join Ralphie and his First Street Rambler teammates "Heads" Pinasko, "Half-Pint" Hayes, Jonesy. and "Jay Boy" Husher in their adventures as they built their own ball fields, swam in sulfur creeks, raided cherry trees and cabbage patches, shined shoes on street corners, and made their own sling shots, go carts and rubber band guns! If you lived during that era, you will find joy in revisiting a past which has long disappeared. If you missed out on those cherished years of a bygone era, you are in for a delightful history lesson!

Few thoroughfares offer as rich a history as Louisiana's River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In this third edition of her extremely popular guide, Along the River Road, Mary Ann Sternberg provides a revised introduction, new images, and updated information on sites and attractions as well as tales and local lore about favorite and overlooked destinations. Featuring background information about the area and a detailed guided tour—upriver on the east bank and downriver along the west—the book gives an overview of the River Road, serving as an accessible and definitive companion to exploring the corridor. Sternberg's abiding appreciation of the area's allure—garnered over twenty years of visiting—produces a must-have travel companion to a place that far exceeds its common reputation as only a parade of elegant antebellum mansions. In this new edition, she again encourages travelers to experience the many treasures of this wondrous byway for themselves, seeing how much it has changed over the last decade.